I recently stumbled upon a series of 12 books published in the 1970's called the Foxfire series while looking through my grandpa's bookshelf. It has pages upon pages of interviews done with old homesteaders. It is a literal treasure trove of information regarding this topic. Unfortunately my grandfather, being the stubborn old man he is, wouldn't let me borrow the 3 books he had.
Amazon has a preview up which includes some of the cabin material if your interested.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Foxfire-Book-Dressing-Moonshining/dp/0385073534/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363678285&sr=8-1&keywords=foxfire 