diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index cd34e43f2..36bb9b097 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -81,6 +81,12 @@
 				<groupId>com.datastax.cassandra</groupId>
 				<artifactId>cassandra-driver-core</artifactId>
 				<version>${cassandra-driver-core.version}</version>
+				<exclusions>
+					<exclusion>
+						<artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>
+						<groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
+					</exclusion>
+				</exclusions>
 			</dependency>
 
 			<!-- Spring -->
@@ -116,6 +122,12 @@
 				<version>${spring}</version>
 			</dependency>
 
+			<dependency>
+				<groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
+				<artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
+				<version>1.7.4</version>
+			</dependency>
+
 			<!-- CDI -->
 			<dependency>
 				<groupId>javax.enterprise</groupId>
diff --git a/readme.md b/readme.md
index e2cc10081..cf950a1f9 100644
--- a/readme.md
+++ b/readme.md
@@ -2,6 +2,19 @@ Spring Data Cassandra
 =====================
 
 This is a Spring Data subproject for Cassandra that uses the binary CQL3 protocol via
-the official DataStax 1.x Java driver (https://github.com/datastax/java-driver).
+the official DataStax 1.x Java driver (https://github.com/datastax/java-driver) against Cassandra 1.2.
 
 Supports native CQL3 queries in Spring Repositories.
+
+Cloning
+-------
+When cloning this repo, it's a good idea to also clone two others from Spring Data that this project depends on.  Assuming your current working directory is the root of this repository, issue the following commands:
+
+	cd ..
+	git clone https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-data-build.git
+	git clone https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-data-commons.git
+
+
+Building
+--------
+This is a standard Maven multimodule project.  Just issue the command `mvn clean install` from the repo root.
diff --git a/spring-cassandra/pom.xml b/spring-cassandra/pom.xml
index c408c397c..db65767f3 100644
--- a/spring-cassandra/pom.xml
+++ b/spring-cassandra/pom.xml
@@ -65,6 +65,12 @@
 			<groupId>org.cassandraunit</groupId>
 			<artifactId>cassandra-unit</artifactId>
 			<scope>test</scope>
+			<exclusions>
+				<exclusion>
+					<artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>
+					<groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
+				</exclusion>
+			</exclusions>
 		</dependency>
 		<dependency>
 			<groupId>javax.el</groupId>
diff --git a/spring-cassandra/src/main/java/org/springframework/cassandra/core/cql/generator/AlterTableCqlGenerator.java b/spring-cassandra/src/main/java/org/springframework/cassandra/core/cql/generator/AlterTableCqlGenerator.java
index 64ed9e5b7..42ec89f19 100644
--- a/spring-cassandra/src/main/java/org/springframework/cassandra/core/cql/generator/AlterTableCqlGenerator.java
+++ b/spring-cassandra/src/main/java/org/springframework/cassandra/core/cql/generator/AlterTableCqlGenerator.java
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ public class AlterTableCqlGenerator extends TableOptionsCqlGenerator<AlterTableS
 		if (change instanceof AlterColumnSpecification) {
 			return new AlterColumnCqlGenerator((AlterColumnSpecification) change);
 		}
-		throw new Error("unknown ColumnChangeSpecification type: " + change.getClass().getName());
+		throw new IllegalArgumentException("unknown ColumnChangeSpecification type: " + change.getClass().getName());
 	}
 
 	@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
diff --git a/spring-cassandra/src/test/resources/logback.xml b/spring-cassandra/src/test/resources/logback.xml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..72ad7057e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spring-cassandra/src/test/resources/logback.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<configuration>
+
+	<appender name="console" class="ch.qos.logback.core.ConsoleAppender">
+		<encoder>
+			<!-- pattern>%d %5p %40.40c:%4L - %m%n</pattern-->
+			<pattern>%d %5p | %t | %-55logger{55} | %m | %n</pattern>
+			
+		</encoder>
+	</appender>
+
+	<logger name="org.springframework.cassandra" level="debug" />
+
+	<root level="warn">
+		<appender-ref ref="console" />
+	</root>
+
+</configuration>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/spring-data-cassandra/pom.xml b/spring-data-cassandra/pom.xml
index 780f10cfa..f0f7c6d0f 100644
--- a/spring-data-cassandra/pom.xml
+++ b/spring-data-cassandra/pom.xml
@@ -65,6 +65,12 @@
 			<groupId>org.cassandraunit</groupId>
 			<artifactId>cassandra-unit</artifactId>
 			<scope>test</scope>
+			<exclusions>
+				<exclusion>
+					<artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>
+					<groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
+				</exclusion>
+			</exclusions>
 		</dependency>
 
 		<dependency>
diff --git a/spring-data-cassandra/src/test/resources/log4j-embedded-cassandra.properties b/spring-data-cassandra/src/test/resources/log4j-embedded-cassandra.properties
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6e2ec3286
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spring-data-cassandra/src/test/resources/log4j-embedded-cassandra.properties
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+log4j.rootLogger=WARN, stdout
+log4j.appender.stdout=org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender
+log4j.appender.stdout.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
+log4j.appender.stdout.layout.ConversionPattern=%d [%t] %-5p %c - %m%n
+log4j.logger.org.springframework.data.cassandra=INFO
+
diff --git a/spring-data-cassandra/src/test/resources/logback.xml b/spring-data-cassandra/src/test/resources/logback.xml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..72ad7057e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spring-data-cassandra/src/test/resources/logback.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<configuration>
+
+	<appender name="console" class="ch.qos.logback.core.ConsoleAppender">
+		<encoder>
+			<!-- pattern>%d %5p %40.40c:%4L - %m%n</pattern-->
+			<pattern>%d %5p | %t | %-55logger{55} | %m | %n</pattern>
+			
+		</encoder>
+	</appender>
+
+	<logger name="org.springframework.cassandra" level="debug" />
+
+	<root level="warn">
+		<appender-ref ref="console" />
+	</root>
+
+</configuration>
\ No newline at end of file