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Traditional Woodworking using Hand Tools: Finishing Interior of an Off Grid Log Cabin DIY Kitchen

Description

After skating on thin ice, I use traditional woodworking handtools to work on the interior of the log cabin. I add a second layer of wood to the kitchen countertop, install a cistern hand pump to supply water to the sink, fabricate and install copper to the backsplash and build my dog, Cali, a new raised bed with storage inside.

The video starts with drone footage of me skating on thin ice of a marsh and at the end of the video, I talk about doing exactly that as a kid and how I learned so much from that marsh, from how to skate and play hockey to how to identify birds, animals and insects of a marsh.

Thanks to David Oxley from Precision Sheet Metal for his generous donation of the sheet of copper.

Links to gear used in this video:

Solar LED light bulb 15W

http://amzn.to/2BQvSQ2

Agawa Canyon Boreal 21 Saw

http://amzn.to/2BPV6OF

Copper Fairy lights

http://amzn.to/2BCmF0X

Solar String Lights

http://amzn.to/2DvgU2n

Banneton 12" round

http://amzn.to/2ByxwsF

Lodge Dutch Oven

http://amzn.to/2kHuxDQ

Flamen heat resistant gloves up to 500 degrees

http://amzn.to/2l1mRMm

Rocksheat baking stone

http://amzn.to/2kF6eql

Mora Knife

http://amzn.to/2BOiv35

Lamp OiI

http://amzn.to/2qz0nZ1

Wall Lantern (candle lit)

http://amzn.to/2Dpa0MK

Moka Pot

http://amzn.to/2DEomvO Canada

http://amzn.to/2ndmtw6 USA

Canon 6D

http://amzn.to/2EdaZjs

DJI Mavic Pro

http://amzn.to/2DHuJib

Bragg's Sprinkle

Eagle Claw® Multi-Purpose Jet Sled

https://www.cabelas.ca/product/34435

Axe

http://www.torontoblacksmith.com/

To see what I’m up to during the rest of the week, please follow me on my other online channels;

Website: http://myselfreliance.com/

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/MySelfReliance/

Personal Facebook Page (Shawn James) – https://www.facebook.com/shawn.james.msr

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/myselfreliance/

Mailing Address:

P.O. Box 20042

Barrie, Ontario

L4M 6E9

Canada

Tags: Self Reliance,off grid,log cabin,homestead,diy,wilderness,inspirational,motivational,bushcraft,wood,cabin,solo,tiny home,woodworking,maker,My Self Reliance,traditional woodworking,woodworking rustic,woodworking tools,traditional,interior finishing,hand tools,log cabin living,tools,skating on thin ice,log,woodworking diy,diresta,building a log cabin,log cabin building by hand,my self reliance log cabin,kitchen,hand,self-reliance,skating,ice skating

Video Transcription

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go back inside you don't want way to work right let me go flavor a little bit more and I'll go for another walk [Music]

to draw anything like yours I'll make you a bad the size of this you can lie up here look at the window like that plan [Music]

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real good girl do you think that you like this bed look at the window you must have gone far through the forest at you [Music]

you can stick on the fire cow [Music]

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now that's playing get to the plains you can't keep the planes away you like to go hit the plane detectives from the Jets [Applause]

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let's just put the camera away and I checked my phone messages and I had an email from Bob Bob you were asking me about this space underneath the window here on the east side of the cabin so what happened with this is that when I was building the cabin I knew these two windows were going in so I stopped being concerned about doing a proper lap on the end logs or surround the ends of each logs normally if I wanted there was to be proper structural wall without any breaks in it I would have staggered those joints and done some kind of ship whap or something or some fancy timber framing lap but I knew these windows were going in now because with a cabin built on the ground like this even though there's a deep bed of gravel underneath it is going to settle plus the logs I think they are pretty close to a hundred hundred percent seasoned but they do shift and we and it will settle them over time maybe a three or four or five inches so here the top of the walls I left the window short and I ran these two by eights up to support the walls from moving in and out and then I spiked the walls together all these logs together and this board here is sort of loose in there and there's a gap at the top of it so that as the top layers they're tough law of course it starts settling it doesn't crush the window and it doesn't leave a big gap because if this was supporting or the window frame was supporting that upper log if all these settled that log would stay in that place transfers rate to the ground it load through these vertical supports that log would end up staying at that level we'd end up with a big gap here at the top so so because I was doing that leaving this this gap and making it a structural support for the width of the window I just cut it all the way down to the ground today well not quite to the ground to the bottom two courses of logs so what I essentially did is transferred to weight from up here all the way down to those logs down at the bottom two courses and this gives me a couple of options in the future one is that we were talking about maybe making an attached bathroom at some point a washroom so if we were to do that this would be a good door just to make it 24 or 30 inch door going out through here so it just didn't make sense to try to piece in logs across the bottom of this window just for you know two or three courses so I carried that all the way down to the ground now the other thing is that I was planning on putting this kitchen on this side of it always is pretty well the beginning and I thought instead of drilling a hole through the logs that I would leave that kind of as an option to put some kind of either a water cistern to pump water out and or a way to draining the water out from the sink through the wall now I've changed my mind on that doing something different but nonetheless that's why this was left the way it is it's still a possibility it's still an option to bust through this wall so in future point with an addition on this side but in the meantime I've built the storage bench here people can sit on it and the dog I'm hold back and courage her to sleep here instead of over there so I'll probably put some kind of foam or padded cushion on top of this thing and she likes to look at the window too so she can jump up and look for squirrels or see who went to the outhouse so I hope that answers your question I appreciate everybody asking me questions and I try to get back to people as much as possible unless it's a something that I haven't decided to disclose yet because there's an upcoming episode that's going to answer the question in more detail and there's quite a few questions like that as you know so there you go Bob help you I've got the answer you're looking for so this is how I grew up ode on a swamp like this or a marsh behind my parents house just north of Toronto and we would go as a family skating on this frozen river it would flood exactly like this and I would you know skate with the family and then when I was a little bit older me and my buddies would go down and play hockey code on this on this swamp and on the river

of course we pushed the limits as far as the seasons were concerned before and after good ice so there was always pucks going through the ice people going through the ice and I'm pulling ourselves out and get the fire going or some hot chocolate and warming up but a great way to learn how to play hockey and how to skate all these little cattails and sticks and everything wherever the heat could heat those things up the fish ice would be thin and it would break and yet just kind of skate around those deep those air as well as your the other players so learned a lot skating on places like this so it was a great time great childhood then of course when the marsh thought out in the spring it's full of bullfrogs and all kinds of other amphibians and turtles and bugs and everything that I could get to learn about and birds nesting in the marsh so I collect bird eggs and and learn a lot about the habits of the birds and everything so learn an awful lot about wildlife and the nature in a place exactly like this [Music]

About the Author

My Self Reliance

My Self Reliance

Shawn James Canadian outdoorsman, photographer, guide and self-reliance educator. Writer for Ontario Tourism. myselfreliance.com Outdoor adventures, including survival, bushcraft, canoeing, kayaking, hiking, snowshoeing, fishing and camping.

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