Thirty years ago The Pat Wolfe Log Building School welcomed its first students. What started as an extension class in the spring of 1975, under the auspices of Fanshaw College in London, Ontario, soon became a private log building school offering ten week courses, spring and fall. The school now boasts two thousand graduate log builders, many of whom came to Canada for Pat’s courses from all parts of the world.

Interest in log building has always been an extension of Pat’s love of the outdoors, his awareness of the environment and his belief in self-sufficiency. Upon receiving a chain saw for a wedding gift in the summer of 1970, Pat and his new wife jumped in the car and drove from Kitchener, Ontario to Williams Lake, BC. By that first Christmas they were in their own trial and error “built by Pat” log home. That was the first of 88 hand-crafted homes he and his students have constructed to date.

In 1974 Pat returned to Ontario, turned his back on his trade as a plumber, and jumped feet first into log home building. The following year he taught his course at Fanshaw College, added the log building school to his log home business, and the fun started.

As well as welcoming students from practically every country on the globe, Pat has seen all walks of life at his school. He’s taught medical professionals, professional cowboys, stockbrokers, representatives of every construction trade, computer types, radio personalities, policemen, cooks, and even a commissioner from the RCMP. He’s instructed men and women from ages 18 through 80.

Some students from Europe, especially those from Germany and Switzerland, come to his school with university diplomas in wood technology. In the same class are those handling tools for the first time. By the end of ten weeks, they are all log builders. In recent years women have shown an interest in log building. Pat is always entertained watching a woman treated with kid gloves by male students until it becomes clear she’s surpassing their work.

As each course progresses and the weeks pass, Pat sees his students become a close-knit unit. Foreign members of the class are often invited home by families of Ontario students. Often students will get together on weekends and go camping in a nearby national park, or drive to Niagara Falls. These close contacts don’t end with the course. Especially by email, many groups keep contact long after graduation. Over the years Pat has watched five marriages result from contacts made at the school.

Pat says that there’s something special about every course. One pupil was a recovering alcoholic. With his permission, Pat told the others. They kept him out of harm’s way, dropping him off at the movies when a party was planned. Another man was totally deaf. Pat put a mark on his chainsaw to indicate how wide to open his saw. Those in nearby workstations checked to see things were going well. A motorcycle accident survivor with only one leg took the course several years ago. Seeing him up on the wall was an amazing sight. All those remarkable men graduated and the school has never had a serious accident.

Another story began twelve years ago with a letter from the Czech Republic. A young man asked Pat to sponsor his log building course. Pat agreed and contacted a Czech-Canadian family who invited the stranger into their home for the duration of the course. This exceptional student finished head of his class. He later married a Canadian, began a family and went on to obtain his PhD and teach Wood Technology for an Alberta college. He has since become Vice-President of the International Log Builders Association.

Pat has had some hair-raising experiences over the years, especially with groups where a sizeable percentage of his class was non-English speaking. Notable has been the class outing.

One spring class decided on a canoe excursion. A half-hour into the trip and a quarter mile from land, Pat realized at least four of the twelve had never been on water and probably couldn’t swim. Then they began to take off their life jackets. Panic-stricken he attempted to turn their little fleet towards shore with no success. While the students were sun-tanning, Pat was imagining phone calls to families all over the world with news of the demise of loved ones. That outing was never repeated, at least not with the teacher on board.

Being in the log building school business has given Pat a chance to travel the world. In 1987 he spent many months abroad, studying heritage log structures in central and eastern Europe. Then, in 1992 he taught a log building course for a former student, Kuramatsu, at his Franconia Log Building School in Murakami, Japan. There he was interviewed on national TV. Later he discovered his answers had been embellished in the translation. Asked what he found different about Japan, Pat replied he was surprised to encounter so few pets. The interviewer added, “In Canada, of course, everyone owns a dog to keep the bears away”. Since then, Japanese students come to the school with the expectation of bears on the building site.

Several years later, Pat taught a log building course at Great Bear Log Homes in Manchester, Victoria in the Snowy Mountains of Australia. This course was sponsored by former students, Australian brothers Cornel and Louis VanderHeyden. Being a Norwegian Fjord Horse breeder and having just seen the Australian film, “Man from Snowy River,” Pat had a wonderful experience after the course was finished, riding the infamous Snowy River Trail made legendary by the movie.

Pat will tell you that some of today’s best known log builders got their start at his school. Tim Bullock, Scottie Hay, Dalibor Houdek, Ivo Buhlmann, Rodney Herwig, Mario Heinzmann, Kuramatsu, Peter Doucette, Robbin and Jules Obomsawin, and the VanderHeyden brothers are numbered among many others from Pat’s school who have done well in the industry. He has also seen log structures change over thirty years from rough log cabins to fine log homes. This was due in part to the use of Pat’s invention, the double-bubble scriber, which has had a strong influence on the quality of the joinery. The acceptance of today’s log house in mainstream building is good news. New codes are being developed to regulate the industry and building inspectors for the most part readily accept log homes.

True to his early interest in the outdoors and the environment, today The Pat Wolfe Log Building School is located on a hundred wild acres and is powered by a wind generator on a 64 foot high tower, and by solar panels. Students can see deer out the classroom windows and, if they are lucky, catch a glimpse of the bear that crosses the property several times a year, coming especially for the wild blackberries and the apples.

When Pat stops to think back over the past thirty years of teaching log building, he swears he can’t remember any dull moments. Even between log building classes, he can open his e-mail any day of the week and correspond with friends from around the globe. He can also look forward to his next class of neophyte builders.

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