SHELTER 69 



a hand saw. The electric saw makes it possible for any 

 handy man to do an extremely workman-like job. 

 And of course when it comes to ripping boards, the 

 speed with which it does the work delights the heart. 



An equally useful tool has been our electric hand 

 drill. It has, for one thing, almost relegated the brace 

 and bit to limbo. We never use so slow a tool except 

 for holes too large for our electric drill. We use this 

 tool not only for drilling in wood and iron, but also 

 for reaming pipes, and sometimes for sharpening 

 tools. We have other machines which are not quite 

 so often used a sander, and a paint-machine, for 

 example. As all our houses are built of stone, we do 

 not have much painting of large surfaces with which 

 to bother, so we have not the need of a painting- 

 machine which those who build of wood would have. 

 Taking them as a whole, these machines have made 

 it possible for us to build up our place steadily, and to 

 add improvements during odd times which would 

 otherwise be wasted. It is largely because of these ma- 

 chines that we have built four stone houses on our 

 places three residences and a stone barn. 



Our determination to build in stone dates back to 

 discovery of Ernest Flagg's experiments in the build- 

 ing of attractive and economical small houses. Flagg 

 developed a system of building out of stone and con- 

 crete, using forms in which to lay the walls, which 

 greatly reduced the cost of stone construction. Rela- 

 tively unskilled labor could build Flagg walls which 

 were attractive, which were sound, and which were 



