Jim’s Sauna
at Gentle Hearth Farm
Early Sauna Memories
My first memories of sauna was when I was four years old. My father would take some of us boys across town, to Hugo’s, who to me was an ancient Finlander. I knew he was Finnish, because he spoke Finnish with my father. And I was correct about him being real old, as this was in 1964, and I know Hugo retired in about 1973 and moved back to Michigan, so I’m guessing he retired at about 65 years old, so he was maybe 56 when I was four. Hmmm, I’m older than that now. Anyway, Hugo lived in town, and his sauna was attached to his garage, across the driveway from the house. We would go in the changing room, and wait for my father to get the water buckets ready, then we would go in the steam room. I still remember sitting on the bottom bench, singing this song: There was a little Ford, the cutest little Ford, the sweetest little Ford that you ever did see. The Ford was on the wheels, the wheels were on the ground, and the engine in the Ford made the wheels go round, ump buddy yah dah,, buump buump. We had to sing about 10 or 20 verses of that song before we could rinse off. Only now do I understand that we had to sing that song to keep us distracted from the heat for one, and sing all those verses to keep us in there long enough to actually take a little steam before rinsing off. I guess that’s the way I, as a third generation Finn, was introduced to sauna.
When I was about twelve, my father hired some carpenters to build a sauna in our basement, it was a three room sauna, steam room, shower room, and changing room. Heated with a natural gas burner, two benches of smooth pine, no fresh air, I had to watch out so I wouldn’t get lightheaded, on account of no oxygen in that steam room, shower room and changing room. I had no sauna for a couple decades
Our First Sauna
About the turn of the century, my sons were encouraging me to build a sauna in our basement (at the time we lived in greater suburbia). My youngest son was in high school learning carpentry work at the time, so I tried to pass on a bit of what I had learned while working as a carpenter, and kind of oversaw him as he built a sauna for us.
That was a great sauna, although I always wanted to have a proper outdoor, wood fired sauna, and that opportunity kind of presented itself when we finally escaped from greater suburbia.
An Outdoor Sauna
We now reside in southwest Wisconsin, lots of room for a sauna. Shortly after moving here, my daughter gifted me with the book, The Opposite Of Cold, by Michael Nordskog. That book was the inspiration and encouragement to build our outdoor sauna at last. For the design help, I turned to the book The Art Of Sauna Building, by Pertti Jalasjaa. Between these two books, and my prior experience in the building trades and experience taking sauna in many saunas of various designs, I was off on a grand adventure, building an outdoor sauna.
I did not set out to redesign or build a better sauna, nor did I set out to copy completely a sauna of someone else’s. I did have a short list of what I wanted from my sauna, and designed around that. Some of what I wanted were:
Log Construction
Wood-burning stove fed from changing room
No running water
Water heated by wood stove
Windows in changing room must open fully, and slightly, and must have no hardware
An outdoor bench to cool off (not be visible from the house)
Steam room to be used as wash room also. The one thing I dislike in some saunas, is when you wash and rinse in the steam room, it can be uncomfortably hot. I decided to have room to rinse off in the steam room, and not be too smothered. The only way I thought of to accomplish this was to make a relatively high ceiling, so that when I stood to rinse, my head would be below the hot steam at the top of the room. This design necessitated three benches in order to get proper steam. It’s quite a climb, but I am quite happy with it.
We were selling syrup at the local farmers market, and became acquainted with an Amish man there — Kenneth. He said his son-in-law Paul builds log homes, so I went to visit with the young Paul Graber. He had built a couple log homes, and was quite confidant that he could do a fine job on the sauna. I brought along a drawing I had made, and we kind of discussed the project for a bit. Paul was to work up a price for installing the logs, ‘butt and pass’ construction, I was to be responsible for the rest. On our second meeting, I brought along a picture of ‘Swedish dovetail’ log construction, asking Paul if he was able to do that type of work. Paul said he would like to try, and gave me a price for adding that detail. Lastly, I mentioned that I kind of like hand hewn logs, is that at all possible? “No, only rough sawn, but we can take our axes and put some marks in the logs to give it a hand hewn look”, Paul replied. So we were all set, over the winter, Kenneth would harvest the White Pine trees and saw the logs, the leftover wood is what I would use for the roof and doors. Paul would build the sauna in his barn, and in the spring he would disassemble the sauna, I would pour the concrete foundation, and then Paul would reassemble the sauna at our farm. I was a bit nervous about letting those Amish guys loose with their axes, trying to get the hand hewn look on my sauna. We agreed that when Paul was ready to start, he would contact me, and I would go to his place to offer advice and consent on the ax work.
Hmmmmm, for whatever reason, this did not go as planned. I got a call in January, the sauna is complete, in Paul’s barn, and maybe I can come look, also bring a bit more cash. When we walked in the barn, I about died. The dovetails fit nice enough, but the ‘hand hewn’ look was just the other side of horrendous. I mean, the bottom one or two courses were actually very nice, no doubt someone took their time, and did a fine job of it. But every subsequent course had steadily deeper cuts with the axe, ending in half inch deep, crescent shaped gouges. Not at all the straight, shallow marks left by a broad axe. And the rough sawn pine contrasted terribly with the smooth, deep axe marks. There wasn’t much to do, other than mumble pleasantries to a young Amish man, then go home and lay awake at night for a couple weeks, wondering if I should even proceed with my dream.
Well, the spring of 2012 came along, and I did pour the concrete, and Paul did come over and build the sauna. Before I would start on the roof, I was determined to work the logs over, not until I was happy, but until the logs approach not terrible. That’s about how high I set the bar. I purchased a timber framers slick, and went to work on those logs. Imagine planing 1/8 to 1/2 inch off the whole project — 9 by 18 by 7 feet high, inside and out. Trying to give it a hand hewn look, using what amounted to a chisel, slightly curved, two and a half inches wide, half inch thick, eight inch blade plus a fourteen inch handle. I guess I worked on that every day after work for a couple months. I don’t remember if I was happy with the final look, or just too worn out to care, but at some point me and that timber framers slick went our separate ways.
Finishing Touches
I designed the stove, with help from my books. A welding shop I used to work at was kind enough to build the stove. I still remember, when I went to pick up the stove, I stopped by a shore on the Great Lakes, where, in previous years I had spent an awful lot of time fishing. Here is where I gathered the stones. It was a peaceful, beautiful day, on a deserted beach, and I chose stones for my sauna. My Saami ancestors used to believe that all things, including stones, had a soul, or spirit residing inside. Who knows what secrets lie about us. All I know is, I carefully chose my stones from a special place, and now when I take steam, those same stones help to soothe my body and spirit. I built the roof, the interior wall, built and hung the doors, framed the windows, and set an oak threshold under the exterior door. The threshold is planed to fit, took a couple months to get it just so, as it had to reach a stable moisture level. I wanted the door to fit quite snug on the bottom.
The windows are barn sash, my design on the opening and closing. I fashioned triangles of wood to hold the windows closed. Lift out the triangles, and the windows tilt in enough to let winter air in. In warm weather, the sash lifts right out to allow for full opening. The logs are not chinked, in fact there are places you can see daylight between some logs. I think one problem I have in air tight saunas is lack of oxygen. We don’t have that problem here. Once in a while, if we get a strong winter wind during sauna, the breeze sneaks through and blows on my back. Meanwhile the rocks are busy turning the water to steam. Its a contest, between heat and cold, and I have the best seat in the house to referee. The stove always has more than enough heat to make up for the fresh air supply from Old Man Winter. We use well water, carried in buckets in the summer. In the winter, I scoop snow and bring it in, for washing and rinsing. We do have an electric light in the sauna. First we used a kerosene lamp, but I was quite worried about knocking it over and burning the place down. A few years ago, I took down an old barn foundation, and one of the uses I got from the stones is a full length porch on the sauna. I built a stout maple bench, and there is a fine place to cool off during sauna, listening to the forest animals, or birds, or often coyotes in the evening.
Sauna Rugs
My wife, Judy, is quite skilled at hand work. She has an old wooden loom, for weaving. In order to celebrate our Saami heritage, Judy weaved a couple of sauna rugs, with the bold Saami colors of blue, red, yellow and green. Those rugs keep our feet warm in the changing room, and add color to our sauna, all the while pointing back to our ancient Saami ancestors.
Sauna Time, Any Time
One nice thing about a wood fired sauna, the whole sauna experience will never be the same from week to week. The stove is never fired exactly the same, the firewood varies. The weather varies, and this affects much more than the steam room. Sometimes it’s nice to cool off outside in a light misty rain, or some evenings I can sit outside and cool down while watching the night or evening sky give a spectacular show. Sometimes the weather encourages me to cool off in the changing room. Whatever the weather, whichever the day, any time can be sauna time here at Gentle Hearth Farm.
Photos credit: Judy’s Daily Yarns ‘n More blog.
