UNION TOWNSHIP- It sits perched on the side of a hill in Union Township, looking as if it had been there forever.

The weather old rail fence out back adds a graceful finish, as does the… ahem… little brown shack out back just to the rear of the back door.

But Bill Thacker's log cabin, though old, is not a Lawrence County original. He spotted the cabin in Wayne, W.Va., took it down piece by piece and then reassembled it on his McKinney Creek area property several years ago. he took a moment from cutting firewood to conduct an impromptu tour.

"My wife had been looking for one for a while. It took me a couple of weeks to tear it down and then more than four years to put it back together," Thacker said. "The chinking was the hardest part, and finishing out the inside."

Thacker estimated that the log cabin was probably built the first time back in the 1860s.

"We use it for socializing, mainly," Thacker said.

As for the, well, outhouse, Thacker said he made it himself. It serves not as a toilet but as a tool shed.

"I saw one for sale once and they wanted $500 for it, and I told my wife I could make one for a lot less," Thacker said. "This one's even taller than the one they had for sale. Outhouses are said to be growing in popularity as a landscape feature. True to tradition, Thacker's features the crescent moon over the door.

For Thacker and his wife Betty, it may soon be time to leave the old cabin, and the house they share just up the hill. He's thinking of moving closer to town.

"I like it here, but I'm ready to move on," Thacker said "I had it for sale and took it off the market for winter."