Charred Wood Foundation | Shou Sugi Ban | Log Cabin Sauna Ep 5

Description

In episode 5 of the log cabin sauna series, I install the charred wood foundation for the cabin, burning the cedar logs over the fire to protect them against insects and water damage. I sharpen my log building tools and the hand cut saddle notches in the logs. I ask you, the viewers, what you think about ATVs and snowmobiles, and whether or not you think I should get them here.

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Watch the ENTIRE cabin and Forest Kitchen SERIES here:

HOW TO BUILD A LOG CABIN: https://bit.ly/2nbof06

SEASON 2 - The Interior: https://bit.ly/2CIjPqr

SEASON 3 - The Sauna/Bathhouse: https://bit.ly/2AskJWP

THE FOREST KITCHEN, Building It: https://bit.ly/2M3syZE

SEASON 2 - Outdoor Cooking: https://bit.ly/2CFgQPQ

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P.O. Box 20042

Barrie, Ontario

L4M 6E9

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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/

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Tags: Self Reliance,off grid,log cabin,diy,alone,wilderness,bushcraft,cabin,tiny home,woodworking,woods,My Self Reliance,Shawn James,shou sugi ban,sauna,bathhouse,wood foundation,charred wood finish,wood,foundation,log cabin sauna,golden retriever,cali

Video Transcription

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I'm gonna clock right now 7 a.m. and it's 15 15 degrees or 58 Fahrenheit inside and it's minus 2 or like mine are about 28 or something like that Jeremy outside and I hadn't put a log on since it's 9 8 o'clock last night so this has been burned out for quite a while so I'm really happy with two things first of all this is the first heating season that I've had the walls chinked all the joints filled in and first time with the stove off properly maintained all the gaskets changed and that stone wall so that stone wall does a little bit of heat in it right now still so I'm really happy with this this is going to save me a ton of firewood this year

this thing really took a beating in the last cabin I'm having a hard time getting it perfectly sure way I can tell why the chirper not with a nice bright light like that shining directly down on the edge if there's any reflection at all back to me from that edge that I know it's not sharp it's not down to a fine edge because if there's a fine edge the light just bounces past it and nothing reflects back to you so it's just a really really fine edge on the steel but no it's definitely got some flat spots and it's still saying I have to work at the stone for further wall and then work down to increments to finer stones but surprise home what you need to go on the rough stone of this very very hard steel way you know also that it's sharp with a woodworking tool especially like this every little scratch in the metal surface is something that catches on the wood so if you ever look at that edge even though it looks really sure if you were to look at that on a under a microscope you'd see all kinds of little abrasions and breaks in the metal which means it's not quite as sharp so the more abrasion is you can get rid of the better and I'm getting that point where it's starting to get really polished steel is getting really polished here that's what you want is smooth a surface as possible so half an hour and here is gonna say be probably hours of frustration today and beyond if I didn't have this thing razor sharp problem is I just missed an opportunity because a small flock of geese literally just flew over the cabin by the time I got to the door grab the shotgun they were past so could have had tonight's dinner if I was able to work in out which is why I do have a shotgun outside with me when I'm working at this time of year during hunting season it's a last day moose season today which I don't expect to do anything about because it's too hard to get tags here but to small game season still and deer season for Bo's is open so I've got my bowl here above me and I practice that every day and if I see an opportunity or know that the some deer coming around regularly then I'll oil but otherwise I'll wait till first week in November to go out and then spend their hunting up until the first week of December I'll keep hunting for deer with a bow so that mean time just trying to beat the snow here and get this sauna done or at least get the sauna up to a point where I'm high enough above the snow that I can continue to work on it with her being buried in snow or losing material that's all this is getting pretty close a couple more strops strokes on the straw mother's drop to polish it up and I need to get inside get working

vlogs actually frozen not used to the cold yet that's minus 2 out here Celsius so hopefully you get a little bit warmer temperatures this week I still need to collect all the moss for the roof from down in the creek valley so hopefully it does warm it up up enough during the day to thaw that outside inflected fired such a long another long boring process charring the bottom logs here so I'm doing two half logs and the south and the north sides then the three logs that run south with the north so east wall west wall and in the center wall so that's five logs like this that I have to char I'm doing that because first of all it's a sauna so it's going to be damp and also because I have it sitting right on essentially ground but on quite a bit of gravel tea to keep the water flowing away from it so I don't think they're gonna rot on that cabin i pine turd I made the pine tar first of all right in the ground here and then I put a six by six a six by six hemlocks on on the ground that I got a pine tar and then I put a little bit of roofing membrane underneath those then I built the cabin on top of that now eventually those hemlocks will rot and I'm not worried about it because I can just put rocks under there or may even build a little Rock Foundation kind of thing I mentioned in an earlier video here in this series about why I didn't put pillars in her columns or a full foundation mainly because of the frost level here I was reading a question somebody had not thought it was pretty good question asking what would add basically whether I would add four-wheelers and and snowmobiles and stuff like that it may be even a powerboat and other conveniences I guess and I do put a lot of thought into that in fact my wife was saying you know why don't I get an ATV again so that I can bring the logs up and fetch firewood go back into the four three roads back behind here and and just explore more and I am considering it I have to decide what to do about that whether I want to add those kind of things so the problem is here's what happened years ago I had a four-wheeler had boat had couple boats power boats I had had one snowmobile in the past but what I found is that they kind of diminished my self-reliance instead of adding to it meaning that I had to maintain those things I had to pay for them initially which means I needed to finance them with my time in order to work enough hours to be able to afford to buy those things and then I found that just the maintenance and the worry and the inputs and everything to run those things were not necessary at that stage in my life as I was trying to diminish or simplify my lifestyle and cut expenses that was the main thing so now that I'm back in a position where I can afford those things the question is do I add them so an ATV for example would cost about $8,000 to get the one that I think would be good enough for me and you know probably new or fairly new so they don't have a lot of maintenance costs and time and I would probably insure it well I have to insure it if I was to go out on any of the roads and put gas in it and oil and and maintenance and all that kind of stuff so the costs would end up adding up over time of course and I'd have to decide I have to decide whether I think that's worthwhile or not I think maybe it is I think having first of all another form of even recreation but more importantly something to speed up the acquisition of firewood to get back in those forestry roads to hunt I think would be a major consideration I've mentioned several times it's hard to live in one place off the land because just the resources aren't typically in one spot now that at this cabins here the moose don't come through here very often I get the odd bear but I haven't seen one in over a month here deer hit-and-miss probably be able to get a deer off the property this year still

small-game there's a few grosser on but I'm hesitant to shoot them here on the property because I like having them here first of all and second of all it's kind of a backup food source so I can leave those to later there's hardly any rabbits rabbits I think are down probably this year in their cycle in this area but it's not you know it's not like it that the kind of land escape or topography that they like anyway so I don't think I'll ever have many here see the odd track in the winter but so that's that's the decision snowmobile would be the same thing allowed me to get firewood maybe even better than four-wheeler because then I can access way much more more of the land around here especially because there's like a hundred models a crown land behind me that I could access what the snowmobile all winter long if I could get proper one and go off trail I can get into the back legs for fishing a lot better fishing and and just recreation I guess exploring so something I'm considering I'm not basing my decision decision on what you guys think but it's wondering what you do think about that whether it's something you would do if you were living this lifestyle or not and what do you think that's a good use of my time and and and money yeah at least she's a pretty good idea of what I'm doing but she still looked at me sometimes like I'm crazy just talking away not sure if he thinks I'm talking to her right now or or to you guys but anyway better roll these logs over [Applause]

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