Off Grid Outdoor Kitchen at the Log Cabin, Why Build It?

Description

#logcabin #kitchen #build

I'm building the outdoor kitchen at the off grid homestead because it gets too hot inside the log cabin when i cook with the wood stove in the summer. The cabin stays nice and cool under the shade of the forest trees, but it does not stay that way if I cook inside over the fire. Why did I put it so close to the cabin and out in front? The same reason your kitchen at home is in the most convenient location for living - it's the hub, the heart of the home. I do not want to walk too far from the cabin to cook my meals on the grill or in the pizza bread oven, especially if it's raining or snowing out.

Why is the roof line uneven and sweeping up? The west side is higher than the right to let the smoke from the barbecue escape easier and also to get it up higher out of the way of sparks from the grill and the rocket stove. Besides the practical reason, I wanted to create more an of an organic shape rather than the typical sloped roof.

Where did I get the building material from? The logs I cut down last year on my own property, on my friend's property and on my sister's property. The 1" boards I purchased from a small local mill for a very cheap price. I am handcutting the cedar shakes from the offcuts from the log cabin as well as from other trees.

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Playlist Links

Building the Forest Kitchen: https://bit.ly/2GSjkJa

Log Cabin Build Step by Step Playlist: https://bit.ly/2LttALh

Building the Forest Kitchen: https://bit.ly/2GSjkJa

Food, Wild Edibles, Recipes: https://bit.ly/2sc1riW

Bushcraft: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-UbUksm4nPk2dpiJb-wfPrpJkodkS7g7

Outdoor Gear: https://bit.ly/2KSSbYI

Log Cabins: https://bit.ly/2sdl0HF

Links to gear used at the cabin:

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

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

Apeman Trail Camera - https://amzn.to/2HRZSNT

Cabelas Trail Camera - https://www.cabelas.ca/product/86944/cabelas-outfitter-14mp-ir-hd-trail-camera

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

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/

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My Mailing Address:

P.O. Box 20042

Barrie, Ontario

L4M 6E9

Canada

Tags: Self Reliance,off grid,log cabin,homestead,diy,wilderness,bushcraft,forest,wood,cabin,tiny home,woodworking,woods,My Self Reliance,Shawn James wilderness living,outdoor kitchen,kitchen,pavilion,log pavilion,building a shed,diy kitchen,outdoors,outdoor,forest kitchen,log,build it,build,off grid cabin

Video Transcription

(birds chirping)

- Hi everybody, Shawn James here from My Self Reliance. Over the last year, I built this cabin that I'm sitting in front of right here for my wife and I and our dog. So, you might be wondering why I'm building this outdoor kitchen and why it's so big? So, the main reason is I don't have air conditioning in the cabin, obviously, so the trees are basically my air conditioning. The issue is that this is a small cabin and if I was to fire up that wood stove like I did all winter and spring, it would be unbearably hot inside. So, this is the temperature inside right now and this is the temperature outside. So, as you can imagine, I don't want to cook inside the cabin. So, this outdoor cooking pavilion, this "forest kitchen" is my answer to that. It's 10-by-10, square roughly, I have an irregular roof line, and over the next few weeks I'll be building a grill, a stone barbecue, a rocket stove to act sort of like a side burner for cooking vegetables and boiling water, boiling kettles for tea and coffee and so on. And then, along the backside, I'll be making a pizza oven or a bread oven out of clay, so an earthen oven. So, I'm really looking forward to getting these things done so that I can get outside and do all my cooking. Right now, I am boiling water and cooking my meals on the open campfire, as you've probably seen on the grill and on the tripod, where I'll suspend a crock pot or something. So, that's great, but it's a little bit too rustic. First of all, it uses up a lot of firewood and it's uncomfortable bending over and not having a proper table to sit at, so this outdoor kitchen is the answer to that. So, I mentioned one of the things I will be doing is making a bunch of charcoal here. Probably wait until the kitchen is just about done and I'll make a whole load of charcoal that I can store inside the outdoor kitchen somewhere or in a separate coal bin. But the reason for that is this is an all-wood structure. It's going to have likely, I haven't decided, 'cause I really build organically, depending on what materials I have, so I plan on making a bunch of cedar shakes and roofing it. So, what I'm going to end up with is a complete wood structure that, when dry, it can be very susceptible to fire. So that's why the roof line is so high, but also why I'll mainly use charcoal for cooking because I don't want sparks going up and catching that structure on fire. And I do have fire extinguishers, I do have the stream behind me here that I can continue to bring water up and I'll always have water there in the kitchen in case of a fire, but also for cooking and cleaning. If you've been following my channel, and I hope you have been, if not, then make sure you check out the playlists on building this cabin, you'll find out that I build very organically, depending on what materials I have on hand. I'm trying to do as much as I can from the land. I have to bring some wood in, I have to bring some other outside building materials in, and what I end up with is sort of organic structures that are not very compliant to code or they just don't follow what a lot of people would consider proper building practices. So, the structure of this outdoor kitchen, you wouldn't call it timber frame, you wouldn't call it log home building. I'm not sure what it is. I'm just using some techniques that I'm figuring out as I go. And it's going to evolve over the next several weeks as I finish the pavilion, the structure itself, and then I move down into the bottom where I'm going to make that grill out of stone. I might do some cordwood base for the countertops. And, of course, why I'm building it is to get outside more, spend more time cooking outdoors, which I really love to do, to get out of the cabin. The cabin is a fantastic winter structure and it's a great place to sleep and relax and get out of the rain and so on, but it's too warm for the most part to be inside during the summer, and I just love it outdoors. I just want to spend as much time outside as possible, sitting on the porch, sitting under the outdoor kitchen, exploring the surrounding forest and waterways, getting out fishing and hunting and foraging and just enjoying nature. And Cali loves it here too. My wife loves it. (birds chirping)

So, another thing I should of mentioned is that the logs, all the logs that you see here I cut down either on a friend's property or my sister's property, in addition to the stuff that I cut down here. I don't have that many pine, cedar, or fir on the property, so I wasn't able to take everything I needed for the cabin, the outdoor kitchen, and the workshop, and then any accessory building. So, I really have to thank my sister and my two friends, they know who they are, for letting me harvest trees on their property and put them to good use. So, their forest actually needed thinning. In fact, they still need thinning. The trees are growing way too closely. They were planted years ago, a lot of them, and then the natural groves of cedar are so dense that you can't even walk through them and there's no undergrowth at all, so it was beneficial to start thinning them out. So, since I cut them down last spring and the previous winter, they've aged, probably not quite enough fully to use for this kinda construction, but better than anything I cut down here or cut down in the future. So, that's why you see me using whatever I have on hand and whatever I can lift for the higher beams for the work that I'm doing instead of just saying, "Well, I just need a different type of wood; "I'll go pick that up." I can't do that. So, that's why the construction methods and the choice of materials are so odd. So, I filmed that first part a couple weeks ago before I released episode two, and I just didn't get a chance to edit it and upload it until now. So, one of the questions I'm getting, of course, and I expected, and rightfully so, is why is it so wonky and sort of organic shape rather than linear? The cabin, I always envisioned it being more of a, like a trapper's cabin, more natural, more moss-covered, and just more organic. So, because that cabin kinda of just came together based on the materials that I had and the site and everything else and time, it was taking me longer than I thought it would for one man using mostly hand tools, I thought I could knock it off quicker, but anyway, I'm still happy with it, but I do wish that it was a little bit more organic. So, I thought, in the next cabin, I'll do that. I'll get a little bit more creative with the lines. This forest kitchen, since it's evolved beyond what I originally planned, which was just sort of a barbecue in the open, and then the pizza oven, because I'm making it out of clay, it won't harden, so it has to be covered, protected from the rain. So I thought, "Well, I'll put a little roof "over top of that," and that led to this big roof. So, I like this idea better anyway, so it's a full cooking pavilion that is protected from the weather and also I can store wood and stuff like that under here, but it's also somewhere I can eat because I'm getting tired of just sitting on benches and rocks and stuff and eating off my lap. So, I'm excited about this. So, the organic nature of the structure is for that reason. And now, as I'm sitting here building and putting this thing together with all just random logs and stuff that I have lying around, I'm kinda liking that it's starting to look like a tree, so now I'm just running with that idea. I've got all kinds of cross braces. Instead of just doing the typical regular cross braces in the corners, I'm making it like branches and I'm having them all over the place. In fact, once I finish doing the interior work, like the stone work and everything, I think I'll get back up there and add sorta like spiderweb sticks and stuff like that, kinda making it really, really organic. And then the roof, being cedar shakes, I'll probably spread some moss spores on there. And since the structure's mostly in shade because of these big maple trees, I think the moss will start to grow, especially here on the north side. Now, the wood, you're wondering, I'm sure, you just keep seeing me disappear down the driveway or down the path and coming back with wood, the 12-inch boards, I had to go back to that same mill that I bought the roof boards and the floor boards at. Really, really cheap, and I'm looking at my dwindling pile of logs and I know that if I cut all of that into planks, I'm going to run out of wood before I get my workshop in the next cabin done. So, I thought, "I hate to do it again, "I hate to buy in wood, "especially now that I'm using a chainsaw, first of all, "and I have an Alaskan chainsaw mill, "hate to also buy wood, but I have to buy logs anyway "or I have to go through the forest "and start selectively cutting wood, "but it won't be ready to use for at least a year or two." So, if I have to do it anyway, I'd rather go to this country mill that I get my wood at. So cheap, it's all rough lumber, it's unseasoned, but it's better than what I would cut, and they have lots of it. It's coming from managed forests as well, so basically all of the material used for this cabin is coming from very well-managed forests. None of it's been from clear cuts. It's either plantations from years and years ago or thick, thick cedar woods that you saw me cutting stuff down. So, if you want to watch this or you wanna watch some of the other projects that I'm working on, then please subscribe. And if you wanna make sure that you don't miss anything, click on that notification bell so that when I upload a video you'll be notified. Every single Friday, I will be uploading these videos, and I have been doing that for the last six months and I'll continue to do that, but I do post random videos like this one in the middle of the week, and often it's about something related, but a little bit more of an update or more information about me or my philosophy or whatever else is going on in my life at the time. So, like I said, please subscribe. Let me know what you think and what you'd like to see here. If there's any parts of my life that are missing that you'd like to know more about, just ask me below and try to get back to you. Anyway, I gotta go, I gotta get back to work here. Really appreciate you watching and I look forward to seeing you at the cabin next time. Take care.

(birds chirping)