How I Designed the Cabin and Positioned it in the Forest

Description

I designed the interior and exterior layout of the cabin based on the materials I had available to me, as well as how it was going to fit into the property. When I chose the building site for the tiny house, I considered sun orientation, access to building materials, proximity to water and availability of wood for heating and cooking fuel.

Wildlife habitat wind patterns also factored into the location.

I installed the windows on the cabin specifically to take advantage or wind and sun and how they interacted with the surrounding topography and vegetation.

Using a drone, I show the vastness of the Canadian wilderness, the cabin location and the sources of water on the land. The impact of beaver activity can be seen, and the travel patterns of moose, deer, bear and wolf are apparent.

Tags: bushcraft,self-reliance,survival,log,cabin,woodworking,wilderness,tiny house,tiny home,carpentry,home building,landscaping,hiking,forest,cottage

Video Transcription

hey everybody welcome back to the cabin I want to talk about how I situate this cabin on this property and why I did that if you look in behind me down in the valley here that's north which it wasn't the ideal property for that reason for me when we were looking for property because I like a property it has a gentle slope or even a steep slope in some places to the south so because in the winter we have much shorter daylight hours and the Sun is low on the horizon so you want to take advantage of that for light and heat so generally I would put all of the living areas kind of facing south and what that also does then in the summer when the Sun is more directly overhead we have long long days up here and quite warm and humid the sun's coming up and over east to west and sort of to the north so if the biggest windows are facing south sun's not shining in and heating up that space and of course it's nice to have that view as well so the view out till the nicest part of the property I would say besides the pond up in the South End we're going to build that next cabin where I can do that because the view is facing so this is probably the nicest part of the property with the nicest view because we have the stream running down through there and there's a lot of wildlife that uses that area and we thought that would be nice to take advantage of this as a viewing platform to be able to look down and sure enough I've seen ducks down there I've seen herons geese sandhill cranes and of course it's bear that's now hanging out there and I know deer and moose have walked through there since I've started building this cabin so I expect to see them especially in the winter as well or soon when the leaves are down okay so you can see behind me the cabin is on a bit of an angle because the camera is but the cabin is situated almost exactly north/south the door and this window are facing south and the porch area where we're going to sit out looking out at the woods and the fire is facing south also so in the winter the prevailing winds generally come from the northwest over here especially with this valley and then there's a big beaver metal and it's a beaver pond when they flood it so the wind can pick up across there and come off this hill and buff it this side of the cabin so by facing south with this porch

so were likely to sit in there during the winter so get the benefits of the warmth of the Sun and the light without getting hit with these winds that's why you see the window here and the door here so that we're facing south and also the snows as they come across or not going to accumulate that door because the overhang is going to protect it we'll see how the snow comes in might even put more of a wall right here - or you know firewood pile or something to block the snow from coming in now the window that I'm putting in right here is for cross ventilation and a view to the west the sunsets over there this time of year again as the leaves are falling Sun you can shine in there and light up the cabin in the African noon when we want the heat but in the summer there's enough canopy that that hot afternoon Sun is not shining in and actually heating the cabin up too much that window is also operating so so when we need a cross breeze to clear out smoke or just for comfort to get a nice breeze through the cabin open that window up and open that window up and we'll get a nice cross breeze coming right through the cabin so that East window that's going to be right here in the middle that window was operating as well so it's going to give ventilation it's also over the kitchen and try to elevate it high enough that it's over the kitchen counters so that you have natural light shining reading on the counter surface where you're working for prep area without having to use artificial light so so this is where the back deck is gonna be right here so of course you've seen this view a few times that's the water stream comes all the way along the property starts off in that pond up in the corner comes along the bottom of the property and then cuts across the north here so there's a beaver dam right there an old one and then there's another one down at the other end of the beaver metal when the beavers are here they backup those two dams and they create bigger ponds so I can control the water flow I can actually control the size and depth of this pond right here just by adjusting the branches in the top of that dam and I've done that a few times already so if you watch the very first video I made up here at the cabin where I would started clearing the lot it might have been the Wolves one or the one maybe prior to that or just after I'm not sure anyway from this spring down in the valley was where we really wanted to build the cabin first right at the base

this hill but it was just too wet hard to get building materials down there mostly the wetness but also that those huge hemlock trees the roots are the only thing holding that ground up and if I started digging into that I was going to upset the roots and possibly create an unstable root system for that tree it would possibly fall over that big hemlock also some big hemlocks here in that big maple the nice branched one a little bit concern that about that falling down onto the cabin eventually so it just wasn't viable to so now the camera is sitting on the deck where the canoe is right now in behind me is that Ridge that I was talking about that I keep seeing wildlife on so the bear this morning was right down on that Ridge right there and that clearing so that was one of the other reasons I put it here so if I'm gonna harvest game I can actually sit right here at the cabin and I can shoot down into that Valley or this valley and harvest an animal from a distance without walking down into there and disturbing the area too much so I've really liked this cabin being situated right on this point of high ground like that for that reason also to get it out of the wet it still has good sun exposure to the south we're down in that valley would not especially in the winter that snow took forever to melt there in the spring because the Sun doesn't hit it so here's the deck so we're sitting up here looking down into the valley to the north nice thing about this also in the summer that hot Sun might be beating down on the east and west sides but this north side is gonna be fairly well protected because I'm gonna put an overhang above this porch as well sort of a covered deck and in behind me here will be a picture window that you can sit inside actually look at that window and see the view of course one of the other major considerations is access to water for drinking cooking and cleaning so here we want to be as close to that water source as possible without encroaching on it so closely that there's a risk of flood the ground near water courts like that of course the saturated is back as far as the water table so you want to get up above that water table and above the highest water table so up here on this platform on this elevation here we're we're well above that water table another consideration if it was a shorter-term camp or you were building the cabin with materials from the property and the property had enough building materials on it you'd want to situate the cabin as close to the major source of trees as you possibly could if if that's an option but I'd rather move logs and be closer to the water then build a cabin where there's lots of logs say it's fruits or a cedar grove or something and then have to travel to get my water every day now one of the other considerations is fire woods so again that's something you need pretty well every day when you're living self-reliant lifestyle because you don't have electricity for heat and for cooking so even in the summer when you don't necessarily need the heat you do need the wood fuel for cooking so you don't want to have to travel too far but again water will be number one consideration for me son orientation and safety so prevailing winds you want to try to get shelter from prevailing winds and you want to avoid trees I can fall on the cabin now I do have trees close to this cabin but I did change the location based on which way the trees were leaning so got a great big maple right here

that's leaning quite heavily that's going to miss the cabin when it does go there's no way that's coming over even in a heavy wind it's too big and too heavy so it's gonna fall that way this hemlock that hemlock and that maple same thing you're gonna fall that way when they do fall so I'm safe here I'm not concerned about trees so that's it that's how I cited this cabin if you want to go back to see how I situated the cabin on my friend's property check out the videos from March and April of this year and don't forget to tune back in here to see me complete the cabin but also we'll see what it looks like in the winter I think that how its situated is going to be that much more important in the winter and I'm looking forward to seeing that myself so I hope you tune in to that not only to see the cabin finish but beyond that and see how I live in it and how we settle in here in the winter so thanks for watching this video guys hope you enjoyed that one and I look forward to seeing you on Fridays for the regular cabin series thank you [Music]