A homestead house from 1889 is being rebuilt with trees and materials from the land. Today we go out into the forest to harvest pine trees from the forest, just as they would have done when this house was first built.

These trees will become lumber to build a house; or more precisely, to rebuild and repair an 1889 homestead house out here in the American West. Episode 2 of the 1889 Project. This is a major project on the family ranch.

Low-impact logging practices and generational forestry management are topics in this episode. History is explored and stories from the past are told. Watch us build a house one step at a time.

This series follows us as we re-build a house from the land by harvesting materials from the forest in a responsible and low impact manner. Our family ranch has stayed in the family since the early days of the first settlement waves out West.

We made this series in order to preserve history for future generations and to do our part in protecting the memories and monuments left by early pioneers.

Robbie takes you on an adventure out into a Montana pine and fir forest. He grabs his chainsaw, John Deere tractor, and the logging winch. Tools in hand, we fell and harvest pine trees that will go on the sawmill next episode. We talk about which trees to cut, which ones to leave, and what to do when tree felling goes wrong.

We do our best to treat the soil carefully so as not to introduce weeds into the forest. The logging winch helps to lift the logs off the ground and to protect the delicate ecosystem of the forest and its soil. Good chainsaw practice and proper safety gear are employed. We aren't experts or teachers, but we do try to bring you the viewer along as we go logging and do our best to manage a forest that is important to our family and our local community.

Bow hunters, rifle hunters, hikers, and many animal species alike utilize this forest. Keeping its habitat healthy is one of the goals of forestry management here. Selective thinning of the trees prevents forest fires and keeps the ecosystem healthy. Felling trees and talking history are the main goals of this episode.

Have you ever driven through the American landscape of the West and seen abandoned log cabins, barns, and homesteads? Did grandpa's farm have one or two of those dilapidated structures on it that always seemed so romantic? Like a bygone era... with stories to tell. We tell the story of one such building from history in this series. We dive deep into why it is so important now more than ever to SAVE HISTORY.

Our way of saving history is to repair and rebuild this one humble and forgotten homestead house. It is not much, but it a piece of a dying legend that is the American West and the American prairie. Join us on this adventure to build a house and to save the humble history of the common man.