And on them lay loose planks or boards

And on them lay loose planks or boards

Now lay down, inside the building, some sticks - not much matter what, so that they be level - and on them lay loose planks or boards, for a floor. Cover this floor with a coating of straw, a foot thick, and it is ready to receive the ice.

For the roof, take common 3×4 joists, as rafters; or, in place of them, poles from the woods, long enough, in a pitch of full 35° from a horizontal line, to carry the roof at least four feet over the outside of the plates, and secure the rafters well, by pins or spikes, to them. Then board over and shingle it, leaving a small aperture at the top, through which run a small pipe, say eight inches in diameter - a stove-crock will do - for a ventilator. Then set in, 4 little posts, say two feet high - as in the design - throw a little four-sided, pointed cap on to the top of these posts, and the roof is done. If you want to ornament the under side of the roof, in a rude way - and we would advise it - take some pieces of 3×4 scantling, such as were used for the roof, if the posts are of sawed stuff - if not, rough limbs of trees from the woods, to match the rough posts of the same kind, and fasten them to the posts and the under side of the roof, by way of brackets, as shown in the design.

Fonte: Rural Architecture. Farm Houses.