#logcabin #handtools #shelter
Using mostly hand tools, I am building a Finnish sauna or Russian bathhouse with cedar logs in the Dick Proenneke style log cabin, and this week, I install the front porch overhang, the rear overhang and the gable end logs. I use ripping and crosscut handsaws, a log scribe, timber framing slick, chisels, mallets, hammers, log tongs and a drawknife to fit the logs in place, a chainsaw to cut them to length and a bubble level to make sure everything is level and plumb. So far, so good. At the end of the video, I cut down three balsam fir trees, 17 feet long, to use as full length ridge and purlin logs. The top course of wall logs are cedar and were spliced in the center of the long walls to extend 3 feet over the porch and 2 feet over the back wall.
For dinner in the cabin, I make a simple stew with the venison that I bottled in January, fried with onions, garlic, bok choy, hot sauce and sauerkraut. I have the same leftovers for breakfast the following morning along with coffee with grass fed butter mixed in. After breakfast, I break up some chaga mushroom and add it to the kettle to simmer all day, frequently sipping the hot tea as I work outside in the cold.
It’s a full moon, and the forest is lit up like daylight in the dead of the cold night. The cabin is lit only by firelight tonight – candles, wood stove and lantern, and Cali, our golden retriever, sleeps soundly on her chair after a long, hard day of retrieving in the deep snow, snow that is now well over three feet deep. It’s been a hard winter, lots of snow and many very cold days.
Last year around this time, Makers Mark Branding sent me two branding irons of My Self Reliance logo. I lost one immediately, I think buried under the floor before I framed and installed the floor boards. I found the other in my tool storage in the outhouse, so I heated it up in the wood stove and branded the cherry cutting board that I made last week from the cherry tree that I cut down with an axe.
At the end of the video, I talk about a childhood friend that just passed away suddenly at 48 years old and how that is impacting me and making me reflect on my own life and mortality.
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My Other Channel: Shawn James https://bit.ly/2xzZHpB
T-SHIRTS: https://teespring.com/stores/my-self-reliance
Watch the ENTIRE cabin and Forest Kitchen SERIES here:
HOW TO BUILD A LOG CABIN: https://bit.ly/2nbof06
SEASON 2 – The Interior: https://bit.ly/2CIjPqr
SEASON 3 – The Sauna/Bathhouse: https://bit.ly/2AskJWP
THE FOREST KITCHEN, Building It: https://bit.ly/2M3syZE
SEASON 2 – Outdoor Cooking: https://bit.ly/2CFgQPQ
To see what Iām up to during the rest of the week, please follow me on my other online channels;
Website: http://myselfreliance.com/
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My Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 20042
Barrie, Ontario
L4M 6E9
Canada
My tools, Clothing & Other Gear:
https://www.amazon.com/shop/myselfreliance
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Canon 6D – http://amzn.to/2EdaZjs
DJI Mavic Pro – http://amzn.to/2DHuJib
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