Hello Jim. Thanks for kind words. Yes I live in Latvia (Baltic States). This is my fatherland. The trees I was harvesting from my own forest. I took down only 40. 20 spruce and 20 pine. So it is enough for my walls. My family house frame will be made in timber framing technique and the walls will be filled with hand hewn logs and then insulated with pine wood shawings mixed with lime. The outdoor siding will be made from burnt pine boards in Japanese techinque (Shou-Sugi-Ban). So when I will finish my project - I will made a retrospective movie from forest to finished house. After my house will be made I wish to go to USA for some time to work and get some more experience in traditional timber frame. This autumn I am going to Sweden to work with some great craftsmen in wooden building restoration. Here you can see one of the lead masters (in the 2nd part of video)
. We do not have a special name for the celebration for placing a wreath at the peak of a rafter pair. So it is called a "Celebration of rafters". Our tradition is: when the frame and the rafters has been made we make a crown from the branches of an oak tree and put them up at the rafter peak. I now that in USA traditional is a branch of a pine tree or small pine tree. Jacob
