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I GOT HURT Building a PRIMITIVE KITCHEN in the Forest

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#primitive #kitchen #logcabin

I cut myself building the primitive kitchen in the forest while I was hand-carving a wood door for the traditional clay wood-fired pizza oven. Despite the setback, I was able to accomplish a lot this week, including building wooden countertops, making a DIY sink handcrafted out of metal, splitting firewood, working on the earthen oven and training my dog Cali the golden retriever for the upcoming season.

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L4M 6E9

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Links to gear used at the cabin:

Fjallraven Vidda Pro Pants - https://amzn.to/2rhEiMn

Tilley Endurables Airflo Hat - https://amzn.to/2Ia4xy1

Mora Knife - http://amzn.to/2BOiv35

Agawa Canyon Boreal 21 Saw - http://amzn.to/2BPV6OF

Axe - http://www.torontoblacksmith.com/

Moka Pot - http://amzn.to/2DEomvO Canada http://amzn.to/2ndmtw6 USA

Virtus Knife- http://www.virtusknives.com/

Canon 6D - http://amzn.to/2EdaZjs

DJI Mavic Pro - http://amzn.to/2DHuJib

Solar LED light bulb 15W - http://amzn.to/2BQvSQ2

Copper Fairy lights - http://amzn.to/2BCmF0X

Solar String Lights - http://amzn.to/2DvgU2n

Lodge Dutch Oven - http://amzn.to/2kHuxDQ

Bragg’s Sprinkle - http://amzn.to/2EdouzK

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Video Transcription

(upbeat music)

(water gurgling)

(ax thudding)

- What's up? What's up?

You trying to fetch? (dog panting)

So, it's been over a week since I took all the sand out of the stove or out of the oven, but it's still not feeling dry enough to start a fire in there. So, I'm probably going to have to wait a full 'nother week, I think, before I even light a small fire, nevermind actually cook something in there. So, I put a candle in there and we'll see if it helps dry it out a little bit quicker but, again, slowly enough that it doesn't crack. The problem is because it's all clay, sand and straw that does shrink as it dries and the faster it dries, the more it shrinks and cracks. So, if I do it slowly, just let it dry slowly then it's going to, hopefully, have less cracks in it. Now, it already had some just from sagging as soon as I took the sand out. So, what I had to do was mix up a slightly thinner cog mixture and smear that in there and fill the cracks back up. So, I'm anticipating probably having to do that again and then, as the stove or the oven gets so used periodically over time, might crack a little bit more and I'll just continue to parge it from the inside. Somebody pointed out that how am I going to patch the back of it, now that I've closed in the gable in and that's a good question. I didn't actually even think about that. I'm assuming that all the cracking that's important to take care of is going to be on the inside of the stove. I keep calling it a stove, in the inside of the oven and that I can reach inside and parge it like I did which was awkward but doable. So, tune in another week or two and see the oven in action hopefully. (dog panting)

(galvanize screeching)

(pounding)

(electric saw rumbling) (electric saw whirring) (saw grating)

(pounding)

(saw grating)

(pounding)

(pistol firing)

Fetch, fetch!

Go ahead, right here. Right here, here! Good.

Good.

(pistol firing)

Come!

Fetch!

Good, that's one. Right here.

No, no, just hold it. Here, here, here. Here, heel.

Heel, Cali.

Ready.

Back.

Good girl.

Bring her up. (mumbles)

(pistol firing)

(wind whistling)

We've finally got some cooler temperatures as you can see and it's really damp. We had something like 30 millimeters of rain yesterday. So, over an inch of rain, at least, and the water's starting to recharge. The pond is filling back up. I'm seeing puddles over here that I haven't had since Spring. So, nice to get some more rain. See what the bugs are like when it warms up again, but it's nice and cool for working. The first thing I'm gonna do is get this sink soldered up. So, I need to get the charcoal barbecue going here to heat up the soldering iron. And then, if I can get that sink in place, kinda settled in, and then I can start finishing off all the surfaces like the counter. I want to sand that smooth, put a bunch of coats of, probably, marine varnish or something like that. So, I can get a good coating because some of the rain is coming in, barely, on this side, I guess. Rain was coming in this way. But I want to get all these surfaces protected. But just to finish up this space, these countertops, make them a little bit nicer-looking and build a cupboard or a couple of cupboards to store utensils and pots and pans and stuff like that. Full outdoor kitchen 'cause I'm gonna cook out here even in the winter, for the most part, or a lot of times anyway, when it's not unbearably cold. When I have the wood stove going, it's gonna make sense a lot of times to just cook on that, but, if I don't have that fired up for some reason, I'd like to cook outside. What are you doing? See something out there? (rain pounding)

(electric saw rumbling) (electric saw whirring) (pounding)

You may recognize this tree from that video back in, sometime in the winter, probably, February or March, where I cut down that big tree that's overhanging the trail, that maple.

Forget how many ax strokes. It took only a dozen or so because that little strip of live wood was the only thing holding that tree up from the upward side of the tree. So, it was leaning this way. There was one section in the back of the tree that was live all the way up And all this was rotten so all I had to do was cut three-quarters of the way through this little strip of live wood and the tree toppled over. And it's a good thing I did that because it was overhanging the trail, like I said, so eventually it was going to come down anyway on its own and, probably, at an inopportune moment. So, I'm going to try to shape this to the door of the earthen oven. Try to get it to fit snugly and hope that it doesn't check too much or completely warp out of shape. (pounding)

(mumbles)

(pounding)

(grating)

Don't touch the bear. Well.

That was really stupid. I think that's the first injury in two yea, well, I don't know how long it's been since I had an outdoor injury. But first injury since I started working on the cabin here and it's a pretty good one. Splittling the edge of that earthen oven door and slipped with the knife and almost took the end of my finger off. So, I'm a little queasy right now. Goes to show you, it doesn't matter how tough you think you are or how prepared you are, when an injury happens in the outdoors, especially, when you're alone, I'm not, or my wife's not here today, I'm alone, just me and Cali, and slipped with that knife and, man, it went deep. So, I lost a lot of blood here and got it stopped just with the compression and cleaning before I put the bandage on. So, I had to put a non, I don't even know what the hell that's called, non-stick bandage,

like gauze pad, and then wrapped it tight with tape. So.

Whew.

Anyway, it's my left hand, at least. It's gonna make some things more difficult including typing, trying to upload this video, finish editing this video, but I'll find a way. So, I'm gonna clean up the blood, and I guess put some gloves on like I should have had. The thing is, injuries happen, accidents happen, of course, when you least expect them, you have to be as prepared as you can for them. But, when you're working alone, you have to be extra careful, extra vigilant, and I wasn't. I almost always wear gloves for that reason because, if I had of been, probably, would have caught the glove and either not penetrated or not penetrated as deeply, at least. So, another lesson learnt. I do have a couple of first aid kits here. I may as well talk about that quickly. I have this one that I bought years ago for my boat, when we had a boat, 'cause it stored nicely on the boat. Never used it. So, it's still fully stocked. I have added some bandages and stuff that I've taken out of it over the years for the kids. But first time I've had to use it. Now, I do have training. I have my wilderness first aid training. I actually took it last spring, like April 2017, including CPR.

So, I do know what to do but, of course, when you get injured yourself, it's harder to take care of it and when you get lightheaded and in a little bit of shock like I was, then it makes it more difficult. So, the first thing I did was get some compression on that and that stopped the blood as much as possible. Washed it, got it wrapped up, sat down, and had a good drink of water and went and sat inside the cabin. Kinda lied down and cooled off a little bit. Now, I'm feeling much better and I have to get back to work. So.

Pay attention to what you're doing always and always be prepared and always have a first aid kit with you and a way to get a hold of people if you do get injured. When I'm out in the back country, I have that spot beacon, but here at the cabin I have a cellphone, at least, and text messaging and all that stuff. So, if I had to get a hold of somebody I could. Woops.

Nice.

This is a little scary. I don't know whether to trim the wood or force it in here and trim the oven 'cause I'm afraid it's gonna crack a little bit more. It's still not still. Like that should be rock hard and it's actually crumbly still and still wet, I can see. Yeah, it's making a mess. You see that spot down behind me, down in the valley, that's where I've been seeing all the wildlife for the last year and a half now, I guess. So, the bear hangs here on that little point. The raccoons, the, what else has been there? Deer, otter and three different bears. But Cali likes to go down there. At least once a day, she runs down there and checks it out and then she comes barreling back as if something's chasing her, but you can tell by her face how happy she is. She's just having fun. But checked the trail camera yesterday or a couple of days ago and to see that that red wolf or that, I guess it's not really a red wolf, eastern wolf, it's now been relabeled as Algonquin wolf, came through there during the day, which I think its happened twice now. It's usually at night, but it's twice now I've caught it on camera going through during the day. There's the one wolf that has been showing up for like two months, two or three months, that I've caught on camera. And then there's another wolf that, couldn't get a really good identification on it, except that it has a big, bushy tail, where this one that's here all the time, has a mangy tail. It looks very much like a coyote and it's still possible that it is coyote. Algonquin wolves are like red wolves, in that, they're very, very closely related to coyotes and there's a lot of crossbreeding. So, most of the wolves in this area have, at least, some coyote genetics in them, but what's different is that you can hear a deeper howl and I've heard them howl a few times here and it's very distinct, very different from a coyote's howl, a coyote's yipping and howls. So, I'm 90% sure that it's an Algonquin wolf or Algonquin wolf pack that hangs out here. I know there's a wolf pack that hangs out in this area. So, I'm assuming that's part of the pack. I wonder if that's a female and she's got a den nearby. Should hear the young ones yipping soon. I haven't heard them at night, I'm surprised. But maybe it's too far away? Anyway, I'm curious whether Cali has actually met them or not or met that one wolf. So, I'm gonna have to keep an eye on them. I'm going to set a target down there, actually, going to start setting in my guns in the next week or two and do a lot more target practice, practicing and archery as well. I'll put a bale of hay or straw or something down here and another one over there and practice. Anyway, I thought you'd be interested in seeing more of the trail camera photos of the wolf and the bears. That's the spot I'm talking about right there. Actually, cleared out a couple small trees so I could see straight down in there and, right behind, right over that peak or right over that little hump there, which is a ridge that runs all the way along and then joins the beaver dam to the right, that is the beginning of the meadow. So, a stream runs through there and then a great big meadow which is full of wildlife. Thanks for watching that video, I really appreciate it. If you actually like my videos then if you wouldn't mind, I'd really appreciate it if you could hit the like button. Only about 10% of the regular viewers seem to hit the thumbs up and then that declines as new followers start watching or new viewers start watching the videos. So, just hoping that you could do that for me, if you could hit that like button. And, if you haven't subscribed, ironically or amazingly, only about 30% of the viewers on my typical video are subscribers which really surprises me. I cannot understand how that statistic is accurate but these are the things I do pay attention to. So, if you haven't subscribed, I'd really appreciate it if you could. Course, it costs nothing and, if you really want to see the videos and make sure you're notified, then also hit that bell icon beside the subscribe button. Anyway, it's not a big deal, but if you could do that for me, I'd really appreciate it. Don't forget to tune in next week to watch the next episode of the forest kitchen. I will be doing, what? I think I'll, oh, the floor. I want to put a wood floor down inside the kitchen area and make some cabinets and stuff for the lower section, add a little bit more countertop and then fire up that oven which is the part I'm really excited about. Can't believe it's going to be September soon before I really get to start using it. But, anyway, that's just in time for Fall harvest season, hunting, fishing and vegetables and plants and all that kind of stuff. So, I will be doing a lot of cooking in there. So, anyway, hope you tune in for that series as well. Thanks for watching and look forward to seeing you at the cabin next week. Take care.

(bird screeching)

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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