OFF GRID LOG CABIN with My WIFE and DOG, Catch and Cook TROUT

Description

My beautiful wife and my cute dog, a golden retriever named Cali, join me on an ice fishing trip from the off-grid log cabin in central Ontario Canada. We start off the day with coffee – actually lattes made on the wood stove - before setting out with the sled and ice fishing gear to catch and cook rainbow trout for dinner. Our DJI Mavic Pro drone captures video and photos of the surrounding wilderness, and I film the trip with my Canon 80D and Canon 6D. Cabelas Canada was kind enough to provide us with a 6-man ice fishing hut, Jet Sled and ice chisel to make our fishing trip more comfortable.

We set out across the frozen lake with the dog running ahead of us, she climbs the granite cliffs to investigate the wildlife in the forest of the Canadian Shield. Once we find a nice spot to set up camp, we try out the G Stove for the first time. In the attached oven, we bake chocolate chip cookies and on the stovetop, I heat up a pot of green curry soup.

I auger (drill) several holes in the ice while my wife captures the scene using the drone. Once the fishing lines are set, we settle in and enjoy the amazing scenery of wilderness Canada on a remote lake in the backcountry. I have camped on this lake many times in the past and I know the fishing is quite good. Within no time, I catch 5 rainbow trout and I keep 3 of them the to cook for dinner later that night.

The weather is perfect; with relatively warm temperatures, partial cloud and intermittent snow flurries. In the late afternoon, we pack up the tent, camping gear, wood stove, axe and other bushcraft tools and head back to the log cabin for dinner. Before we leave, the clouds break up on the horizon and we are treated to a spectacular sunset over the lake, with granite islands and windswept pines in the background.

Back at the off grid cabin in the wilderness homestead, I light a fire in the stove and prepare the trout for dinner. Catch and cook fresh fish is one of our favorite meals, and this is no exception. We accompany the fish dinner with chili and red wine. Living off the land using primitive technology is my preferred method of procuring dinner, but this is a close second. My survival in the coming years as I prepare to move more off grid will depend on my bushcraft and survival skills.

Catching the trout was a little trickier than I anticipated. I had artificial lures as well as minnows and worms, and to my surprise, on the worms actually worked. All five trout were caught on worms actually, which I never would have predicted. In the days following this trip, Joe Robinet and I headed out to catch and cook warm water species of fish including pike, perch and walleye (pickerel). These fish much preferred minnows and were easier to catch. Plus, since we winter camped nearby in a hot tent, we were able to fish right until dark when the fish were more active.

Links to Products Used:

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

http://amzn.to/2EdouzK

Cabelas Ice Hut

https://www.cabelas.ca/product/80349/cabelas-ice-team-five-sided-360-full-thermal-ice-shelter

Eagle Claw® Multi-Purpose Jet Sled

https://www.cabelas.ca/product/3443

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,no talking,primitive technology,diy,axe,alone,wilderness,inspirational,survival,primitive,bushcraft,camping,forest,woods,cabin,solo,tiny home,maker,My Self Reliance,fishing,fish,catch and cook,trout

Video Transcription

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this is no food we're gonna go ice fishing don't get your nose on the table one of the challenges of cabin life is that when you go out for any length of time the fire goes out and the cabin gets cold again talked about in a previous episode ho need to make sure that everything you have in the cabin including your food is ok to freeze and freezing it's all which can be bad for some foods right I'm in here sharpening buddy sorry to go back you know he's fishing and still cold in here so you always want to have your warning gear at close at hand so you can throw it on while you're eating the cabin up again and it's nothing wrong with that don't mind that at all the same with the oh it was just a better way you're used to what you get used to going into the cold Odo's just throw your jacket on your warm coat a hat do your business and come back in it's not a big deal [Music]

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back up

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nice

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okay so here's the fresh rainbow Pro rebuilt roots not actually native to Ontario candidates of west coast fish here in Canada and we have them stocked in a lot of our lakes so including our Great Lakes where they are called steelhead because they migrate up streams to spawn in the ocean there's the steelhead live in the saltwater and then they move up into freshwater streams to spawn so they're still called steelhead we've stocked them from the west coast in a lot of Ontario especially the Great Lakes but these little rainbow turn are stopped in a lot of these smaller lengths so they're available for us as sportsmen to catch under the material fishing regulations so we've got three small ones here going to cut those up right now Flay them and cook them on the fire and have some dinner way along with some chili so this knife is dull for some reason people ask about sharpening knives you saw me sharpening the the auger the ice auger for drilling the whole days fishing hole

earlier and that's actually a Maura believe it or not had that for a lot of years those blades come off they're replaceable and they're sharpen of all but one of the things points I wanted to make about sharpening is that you don't typically need to actually sharpen on the stone that ice auger hadn't been done in a while so I needed to get some nicks out of it but typically all you need to do is strop a knife I can see this knife from some of that woodworking I was doing earlier when I hold it like that especially with the light from the camera on it I could actually see metal like reflection on the edge of that blade

means that spots dull because if I'm looking straight down on the sharp part down to this part of the knife you don't see anything there's no reflection this part of the knife has a reflection so I know that part needs to be sharpened by what leather strop of course this is what I'm talking about you can make these easy enough I got this one I believe Ali years ago open on one side I leave raw leather and we really what I need to do is replace this leather because I've put some Nixon in it by being careless as I'm struggling on this side I have some jeweler's compound for polishing jewelry that's the fight under finishing that's really really fine sort of like a clay I guess but uh probably is clay actually or ceramic so you want to do is maintain that blade edge or that blade angle consistently so when you're dragging that across essentially the sharpening of any kind is simple it's really matter just maintaining the blade angle all the way through whether you're on a stone or straw and you'll get a feel for that the more you do it as you're pulling that across it'll have a different sound if you're off either too too steep of a have a an angle or two shell of an angle if it's just right you won't see any sunlight behind this blade and if it's too steep it disappears so you're going to kind of turn the knife until that space disappears and no further if you go further you're gonna roll that edge over and then you might need to put it on the stone to get it back into shape so by doing that especially with a good light again is maintain that same angle all the way through you know people us how do you sharpen a knife and I can never get my knife sharp there's nothing more to it than just that what you're trying to do is do enough passes on one side maintaining that angle perfectly that you create a slight Brewer rolling in the other way then you come to this side especially if you're using stones with very

of course nice you started off with the course and he worked out defined so each time you're going to create that burr so it rolls either over the other side then you go to a finer stone go back to the other side get rolled out further back over this way and keep going until you're down to the straw or a steel or a ceramic and at that point that that's so soft and so fine that it might create a tiny little burr on that last pass that's why it's going to be so fine that it's not going to impact the sharpness of the knife so I can see by already doing this that I might need a stone on this knife because I probably when I was carving I've heard wood where I guess I hit it not when I was curving the edge of that bench it's only red pine so it's soft but the knots are quite hard let's see if I can get this sure [Music]

sometimes I'll just use my other hand to apply even pressure to apply even pressure and then I can keep an eye on that angle to make sure maintaining zero gap underneath that blade I'd like my fish really simply put it so a little bit of salt a little bit of a full wheat flour gross powder rags which goes on everything you can see where I get that in the link below a little bit of spice or onion and salt and pepper [Music]

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might be enough your hand came in same with a coffee [Applause]

everybody Shawn James here from my self-reliance well it's another beautiful day in central Ontario it with a couple of buddies ice fishing on a small lake near Algonquin Park take back in here earlier today with our gear with our sleds and a and a hot tent to set up and spend the night out here hot tent being a canvas tent with a wood stove in it

Suns been beating down on us on this North Shore it's still cold of course but it's it's nicer than if it was just quality and windy and snowing so we're camping on this North Shore so that when the Sun comes across the horizon it's shining in on us all day which is something we do pay attention to when we're out here you know things like sudden orientation and prevailing winds and snow conditions and things like that determine where a comfortable place is to set up camp it's just a reminder to me how in - and you have to be when you live a little bit closer to the land its spend a little bit more time outdoors you know whenever I visit a city especially Toronto which is a few hours away and I go into a mall with my family or I visit family or friends who live in apartment buildings or condominiums that are linked especially to an underground mall and have retail stores within the condominium or the apartment complex the people that I friends are are related to - often don't even own warm clothing they don't have winter boots they don't have winter hats or proper winter coats that they can wear outside and often they wouldn't put them on even if they had them in fact they never even see the light of day they never go outside that might occur for weeks at a time they just go straight from their apartment or their condominium down into the underground or onto the subway they go to work and they never step outdoors then they shop on the way home for groceries or clothing or whatever and they never actually step outs and feel the weather feel that the cold or the warmth of the Sun or the rain or the snow and I just can't believe that that's healthy they just can't believe that humanity's meant to live that way of course here I am sitting in the Canadian wilderness and I can hear a jet flying overhead so it's kind of appropriate I had a little bit of no I'm trying to talk to you you know and as the world population becomes more urbanized we lose that more and more of that connection yet the majority of the population often dictates policy often dictates how our governments react and manage resources and manage nature manage wild spaces and if the majority of the population no longer has any understanding of nature because they never stepped foot in it never stepped foot in true wilderness and then how can that possibly be good for the earth how can they possibly meet making the right decisions or have a real truly deep understanding of how things should be or how they were in the past and we're losing of course that connection to the past especially when the majority of people who actually do get outside often still live in the city and and they're in frequent visitors to the outdoors and I've been that way myself in the past I'm not a judgment it's just the way that our societies become and how we function as a society we tend to gravitate towards the easier things and of course living in a city is very easy

think about that you don't have to hone a coat you don't have to own winter boots in Canada because you never step outside and actually have to deal with the elements so we have that disconnect for you know maybe five or six out of seven days in a week and then we rush out into the wilderness to to participate in outdoor activities whether that's fishing or canoeing or cross-country skiing or snowshoeing right now or ice fishing like we're doing right now then you know we kind of get some of that connection but it takes some time out here to actually start you know getting immersed in it and actually start settling down and slowing down and sending to the rhythms of nature we're used to the rhythms of modern society where you know the watch dictates everything and you know our work and our other obligations are what we schedule everything around we don't care about the cycles of nature in fact we don't even care about daylight we don't care when the Sun goes down because we flip the switch on we don't care when the Sun comes up because again we have under artificial light we have running water we don't care if the lakes frozen we turn on the tap and water comes out so it's such a complete disconnect that we can't possibly expect to make a full deep connection one or two days a week or one day a month or or whatever frequency we do get outside it really takes a long period of time to make that connection again and to understand what's going on around you you know things like what's going to happen in the weather right now I we have a crystal clear sky right now complete blue sky not a cloud in the sky the Sun starting to set over the western hills over here I know a systems come in the winds starting to pick up starting to turn a little bit and could feel some moisture in the air and that's snow that's coming I wouldn't be able to feel that connection up generally now Here I am a couple of hours later this super moon or blue moon or whatever they call this amazing full moon on January 30th 2018 it's rising over the old-growth white pines behind me I'm looking out at the Sun just set down through a valley with a hardwood bridge on the left and Hemlock Grove on the right across this lake I just had a fantastic fishing on today and it's getting really cold it's going to be an uncomfortable night but look what I get to witness you know this discomfort that I'm experiencing out here today from the cold you know taking my gloves off to handle the fish in the freezing cold water and sleeping in this tent tonight the fire is going to die down in the middle of the night it's going to reach maybe minus 22 minus 25 and that tent by morning but what's a little bit of discomfort when you get to witness this we never put ourselves in uncomfortable situations we never experience discomfort how can we appreciate the comfort in it and truly believe that I truly believe that we need to put ourselves in situations that are uncomfortable that test our limits test our resolve our abilities get outside and push your limits shows you what you're capable of it shows you what your limitations are and I think more than anything at what it does it shows you that you what you fear those things that you fear in life if you just go out and confront them head on that they're not nearly as bad as you thought they were there's so many people including the majority of people who live in this country and experience these winters they don't actually experience them they never get out and face them and they're actually fearful of of camping and winter in particular even the busiest provincial parks and national parks in Ontario or probably throughout Canada are dead there's nobody there in the winter there's nobody out there experiencing them but they're just as beautiful as they are in the summer and we just have this idea that we have to hibernate in the winter that we can't face these tough conditions but once you do it you get out there you experience the tough conditions you push your limits you get to witness beauty like this look at it listen to the ice booming around me it's so cold that that pressure cracks are building up and disick sploded the trees are actually exploding in the woods as well as the SAP expand so surrounded by only those noises and nothing else there is a wolf pack in the area so we might hear the Wolves tonight which was a full morning and clear sky and beautiful endless forests in front of me here that would be quite an experience but like I said you have to be here to experience it you have to be out you have to push your limits you have to get outside your comfort zone in order to experience this beauty and not just watch it on TV like you're doing right now or that you've done by watching other shows of course as you know I'm not professing to be the expert I don't profess to be you know the extreme adventure is the not a person who goes much more beyond what you're capable

or what you currently do he's just said I I don't let fear I don't let the discomfort stop me from getting out and enjoying it I'm just I think I'm just gonna sit out here and just let the sky go completely dark watch the full moon come across the lake here from a warm tent on the shoreline I can just duck in when I get cold come back down to the shoreline and just continue to watch and watch the stars take you up here I don't know how much of this isn't focused so I'm going to show it to you anyway because it's it's a surreal moment and I would really want you to share this with me [Music]