Double Take -- by Mark Sproxton

The construction industry employs thousands in the Calgary area, and looks to do so for several more years. As the city hums with residential and commercial construction everywhere, outside of town another kind of builder has a similar busy schedule. While achieving similar results at the end of a project, his work, however, can't truly be compared.

Lloyd Beckedorf, owner and operator of Cochrane's Moose Mountain Log Homes Inc. with wife Linda Bourdage, said there are few similarities between constructing handcrafted cedar/pine log homes, and the more typical wood-framed home. ''They're totally different,'' he said. ''It's like brain surgery and psychiatry. They're kind of related, but not really.''

Unlike the ''regular'' construction industry, in Beckedorf's world, the construction materials aren't loaded onto a flatbed truck at the local lumber yard. Typically, he will buy the logs while they're still standing in the forest, then have them transported to his company yard where they're crafted to meet the requirements of the current project.

Judging by the list of tools used in log home construction, such as chain saws, log scribers, gouges, and Scandinavian-styled hatchets, it's easy to see why Beckedorf said the best training for this type of building comes through experience. ''It's almost irrelevant to have framing experience,'' he said. ''And if you took a four-year carpentry apprenticeship, about two-days worth would be applicable to log home building.''

And he should know. Twenty years ago after doing some framing and carpentry work, Beckedorf sought out a log home builder and worked in a pseudo-apprenticeship position for a month. ''After that I thought I knew everything. But when I went on my own, I found I didn't know anything.'' Through reading books, practical experience and examining other log homes, Beckedorf now is busy year-round building homes which cost anywhere from $400,000 to $2 million.

While current construction-related education may not be entirely relevant to the log-building industry, the Moose Mountain owner knows the importance of proper training. He's eagerly awaiting a log-building apprenticeship curriculum currently being developed in British Columbia, although he admits it's still a few years away. To fill in the gap, Moose Mountain offers a three-week long home building course each spring. Beckedorf said similar courses are also offered throughout Alberta and British Columbia. Schools in Ontario, British Columbia, Michigan and Minnesota focus on log building as well, he added.

The boom the typical wood framed, stick built construction industry currently is in, hasn't yet reached the log home side of building. ''This is a specialized market and follows different cycles than regular economy,'' Beckedorf said. ''If there's a real strong boom, it may be one or two years after where we get the boom.''