Log Cabin Construction: Log Gable Ends, Center Column and Ridge Pole

Description

Arriving at the log cabin one morning, I was surprised by a bear hanging around the cabin. I followed him for a bit before returning to the cabin to build the upper floor and the roof ridge pole.

After some fantastic suggestions from viewers, I have named my rants, "My Self Reflections". I continue telling the story about the massive debt I racked up and how I dealt with the stress of it.

I have been told that what I'm doing, including building a log cabin, is essentially real life Minecraft, or another game called the Forest. I hope building the cabin inspires other people to try the real Minecraft or Forest, not just play it.

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Tags: bushcraft,self-reliance,survival,log,Cabin,log cabin,off-grid,self reliance,tiny home,small home,shelter,living off the land,homestead,woodcraft,woodworking,gransfors bruk,pathfinder school,dick proenneke,cabin living,alone in the wilderness,joe Robinet

Video Transcription

heading down to the little water spot behind the cabin there and a black bear came running out ran up on the knoll and over into the beaver metal I tried to get him I'm not sure if I got him on this camera or not hi everybody welcome back to the cabin because we're in central Ontario and the property is located on one of the higher elevations in Ontario we get quite a swing in season so fall here is it's here it's September 26 today a lot of the leaves are starting to change on the trees they started changing a couple of weeks ago and then we got this extreme hot spell it's 31 degrees Celsius again today almost 40 with the humidex that's 87 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit it's just insane for this time of year [Applause]

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I know if you've noticed in my videos when I'm working up here whenever I'm hammering something whether it's driving a spike or or swinging in that gets the frogs going this time going back I'm sure what it is about this cell that makes them think it's another frog or if it's a

territorial thing or what [Music]

you don't run a little guideline here to find the peak but since the post is right in the center I can't really put it on the peak I need to put it on food side and I'll measure over Nelson kind of custom fit the ridge pulls on the ground and he'll come back then I'll bring it all back up because I need to saddle it somehow over top of these walls that's gonna be tricky tricky tricky because I have two equal distances from the center here and I run two lines down either side of that post then I'll just have to measure over from the line and find the center sounds easy rivers tightrope will hurt we're jumping with a line in your hand got to make sure it's free because if it catches on something and mid-jump it's probably going to point you back that's not you here's center as far as I can tell [Music]

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there goes a bear running down the through that Valley there see if we can catch up to him that bear just ran through here I thought I got him on camera but I don't think the camera was on there's the cabin right there and the bear was right down in the valley here came running along we saw me came up on this Ridge and hiked along the beaver pond just down and down in the valley where the bear was behind the cabin came along the trail to the Privy the Thunder box so glad there's nobody up here afraid of bears right now it would not be using the outhouse

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yes feels so light it's the fur that I cut down in the winter the end of winter 2016 apparently March 2017 [Music]

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since the first ridgepole one I just did this in two parts two 14 footers I'm using two inch by six inch by ten inch red pine boards that I had milled at a local mill that's what I'm doing the roof deck with so like I said if you're new to this video or new to the channel and you haven't watched the videos check out a couple of videos one explains the spirals it's the building a tiny home in my backyard video and then and then if you want to know about the boards that I'm using I just posted a video before this one which is a log cabin build cheap and free materials I think it's called

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well I have to admit a little disappointed with my progress this week I thought I was gonna have the whole roof done both layers of two by sixes and of course both ridge beams on and then even start trimming but not even close so it looks like I probably got two more days I'm gonna guess just a little bit disappointed with the height I wish I had come down to maybe six feet at the eave move the door to the center it's a couple things I I wasn't happy that I had to change on this cabin one thing is that all the trees I cut down this past winter and spring aren't seasoned well enough to use this year on this cabin so I'm gonna build next spring to other cabins with that so because of that I had to go to these cedar logs still not quite what I had set out to do which was make a cabin from the land with all natural materials so that's why I ended up just using spikes as well so I would call this a fill as far as what my original goal was to make this cabin but still success I'm still happy with the cabin in fact it's gonna be much better than I originally planned and more suitable for actually living in which is gonna be awesome so now I can live in this cabin while I'm building the other cabins which because I've already collected all the raw materials I can make that second cabin completely from natural materials from the property and I'm really looking forward to that but of course they've got a lot of work to do on this one still and I'm like I said I'm really happy with this it's just not what I had originally set out to do which is fine I don't mind that at all it's going to be a lot more comfortable than I originally planned to and a lot more useful I get a lot of questions about the joint in the wall there I'm gonna address that in the next video hopefully I'll actually do the work for it but essentially this side on that joint actually has a great big window going in which is why I left the butt end of the logs joined up like that instead of laughing them you can see i lapped on the bottom and I lapped on the top differently doesn't putting the window in here and need some strong vertical posts anyway so that's what I'll be doing next week I said I'm always thinking as I'm working up here I get a lot of time in the quiet and solitude to to really think and contemplate life and and respond and always influenced by the comments that get on those videos I think there was a thousand comments on my last video and I seriously read every single one of them and it's actually very emotional and Mace what people are saying how they're pouring their hearts out and and their appreciation for what I'm doing they're feeling inspired which I'm so happy to hear that sometimes forget how fortunate I am to be in the position I am also to live where I am and and have access to this and and in my case be able to own this property in its cabin so so thank you for reminding me that and keeping keeping me humble and keeping that in perspective and making me realizes that my challenges are nothing compared to other people's challenges or at least different than other people's challenges one thing it reminded me of is how similar we all are and that often the difference between one life and another it's one small change one small habit one small decision and sometimes it's many of those things compounded or added up changes an entire life so this is an interesting point in my life I mentioned last time if you were an adult in 2008 when the financial crisis hit you'll remember the impact that had on the economy and and jobs and housing in particular if you were homeowner especially in the u.s. that really didn't roll over into my area of Canada until around 2010 what happened is because I was in a construction industry we're doing work for a lot of big commercial commercial developments and what happens the banks up here start freezing credit and a lot of my customers went out of business but when they did that there's a snowball effect and ended up wiping me out so by the end of 2010 when I realized what was happening and there's a whole bunch of stuff going on in the background I had some very corrupt and dishonest employees at in high-level positions in the company that ended up really destroying the company I could hold on otherwise so at the end of 2010 when I realized it just couldn't go on anymore it was just it was beyond hope the company was a million dollars in debt and what I found out very very quickly is that in Ontario the construction lien Act means the owner the directors of that company that was the sole director is on the hook for the credit or the debt of that company so I was able to get some money together sell off the last of my personal assets and pay that down to about seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars so when I was seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars in debt and the creditors realized there was no money in the in the business and no personal assets left they came after me personally till I spent a good two years in court now maybe longer in a couple of cases fighting off those creditors who wanted blood they wanted basically had me till death so during that time when I was kidding creditor phone calls and if you've ever been in that position I'm sure you know what you know what that's like if you hadn't it's it's horrible so that was a really really stressful period you can imagine going to court and having these people accuse you of taking money and hiding it and hiding assets and so our two daughters were c11 and nine and a half at the time the only thing I was concerned about at that time I didn't care about the money I didn't care about being responsible for that debt even if it was for the rest of my life my biggest concern was maintaining stability for my family especially my daughters so when we went to a banker bankruptcy trustee the very beginning of 2011 to see what he suggested because we were considering we assumed that that we would have to declare bankruptcy and that would wipe out the debts and we can make a fresh start and he said the construction League lien Act in Ontario doesn't matter if you declare bankruptcy or if you die you're responsible for those debts so what he did say he said this is going to be so stressful on you dealing with these creditors for maybe forever that every client to his had their marriage break up so not only was my wife afraid of losing the house she was afraid of losing me as well and I could see how that could happen those constant phone calls it's this constant harassment

every time that door didn't want to answer because it was somebody serving me papers to attend court so you can imagine how stressful that was and but the one thing I learned during that period and I learned it pretty quickly while dealing with these courts is that first of all if you're honest and don't panic and you deal with it and you accept responsibility people will be a lot more understanding almost every court session I went to when I walked out of that room the judges and and the other lawyers sympathize with me and in my position and we're willing to to at least try to work with me now the most important thing though I learned during that period is that most banks most anguish most stressed was mental it was all created in my mind tonight to tell myself when I got up in the morning I'm still waking out beside my wife still putting my kids to bed in the same house I'm not cold I'm not hungry I could stress about going to that courtroom each day or I could just show up and I could deal with it and I would still walk out of there still was comfortable what we perceive is comfort what we think of as as discomfort is so irrelevant when you come out here into the into the wilderness or into a primitive setting or a simpler setting like this log cabin with no running water no indoor plumbing no electricity and still thrive or still actually enjoy it you realize that what's the worst that can happen to me in that situation that creditor comes down on me if they have a judgment against me for life and I have to keep paying them money and maybe never paying off that debt yet I can still get up in the morning and can still have a family that loves me I can still have good food good water I can still have a place to let live that's comfortable warm and the in the winter and cool on the summer what else is there why do I need more than that everything else all the anguish is created in my head I just can't imagine not having been that way and not appreciating what I had my life and I think maybe that's a big part of it to his appreciation and grit and gratefulness

what you have what is good in your life I wake up feeling different every day of whether I'm driving or working whatever it is and I'm thinking different things are on my mind and this is what's been on my mind today so maybe next week I'm talking about how it got into that debt or what were the high points were of that period but appreciate you guys listening I love that you're sharing your stories and that that I'm helping you through your tough times in a small way I know it's a very small way but I am grateful that I can be in a position to do that for you so and if like I said I read every single one of your comments whether it got back to you or was able to respond or not a lot of times I'm just have five minutes here or there and I'll read some comments but I just don't have the opportunity to write back and then I just can't get back to that so just rest assured I have seen your comments and and it's affecting me and I appreciate that and I appreciate the inspiration you're giving me to keep going that's it for this week guys I appreciate you sticking around appreciate you watching these ramblings right to the end and I look forward to seeing you back up here at the cabin next week take care guys I'll see you then