Phillip Benjamin

I have seen a lot of post and beam/cordwood buildings that are on a concrete slab but few pole barns with cordwood walls.  My plan would be to have the poles sunk into the ground about 3 feet into the ground and then do a rubble trench of 12" between the posts.  On top of the rubble trench do eartbag stem wall and then finish with cordwood.  This way the roof could go on before the walls are started and keep everything dry.  In my head sounds great...

But I can't find that anybody does this.  Is there a reason nobody does this for a house?  The only concern I have is that the ground is mostly clay so it will probably shrink and swell during the year and I didn't know if the poles set deeper into the ground would move at a different rate than the walls and create a dangerous situation.  

Does anybody know if this is a reasonable concern or do pole barns with cordwood infill exist and I just haven't found them.

Thank yall for the advice and I watched that video which helped. We begin construction next week!

I and my partner just bought five acres with the intention of creating a small csa/mushroom farm in central Arkansas. The property is entirely wooded with oak and hickory mostly. We want to build a log cabin about 14'x14' to avoid any permitting issues. There are plenty of trees but they are all quite tapered. Probably 15" every ten feet or more. Is there a method to compensate for the taper or should we look at other building methods. I can't find anything on tapered logs on google. I've considered just using my draw knife to flatten the high ends once the logs are in place to keep it straight but that will be a lot of work.

We are grateful for any suggestions.

How do you attach a wooden sill plate to a stone wall?