Building a Log Cabin Alone in the Snow | Off Grid Sauna Ep 4

Description

#logcabin #offgrid #sauna

In the first snowfall of the year, I continue building another log cabin alone in the Canadian wilderness, an off grid sauna, bathhouse building that I need to get done before the snow really starts accumulating. I explain how I'm using the log scribe and some other log building tools and I carve a new wooden mallet out of hard maple. I don't make any new meals but I do show how my deer (venison) heart stew turned out. Before bed, I make popcorn on the woodstove

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My Other Channel: Shawn James https://bit.ly/2xzZHpB

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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

Canada

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

Tags: Self Reliance,off grid,log cabin,diy,alone,wilderness,bushcraft,cabin,solo,woodworking,My Self Reliance,Shawn James,sauna,bathhouse,log building,build a log cabin,snow,alone in the wilderness,off grid cabin build,build a sauna outdoors,build a sauna cheap,build a cabin in the woods,alone in the snow,building with logs,log,grid

Video Transcription

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that stoves working perfectly after all that work I did do it placing the gaskets and putting that down inferring that's a log in there that's only a quarter burned I put in three o'clock this morning and still half there so that's perfect temperatures nice in here get some coffee on

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it's a small space when you get the logs in place ten feet interior dimensions exactly again like the cabin but with that Center wall which is going to be a minimum of six inches thick we're down to four and three quarters four feet three quarters of 48 56 inches to be generous for each section so I don't see one section being that much less important than the other so we're going to end up likely with a window here door thumbs in the center because it's a fairly low roof line so I can't put a door close to the to the edge so walk through this door and then walk through this door into the sauna section off to put the wood stove it's on a heater over on that side to feed the wood and from this side that's going to take up most of this corner with clearance I'll have a bench two benches across the far side there yeah this works and then a sink right here for you know stuff water can drain it that way for that I'll built do get trench running from there into garden them great water might build a make sort of a trench that is lined even with clay that comes over here and I'll put run it into a little salad garden or something yeah this works works perfect I think

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so backlit it's very grey out here this is the thing I want to show you I mention that in the trailer video this is the log scribe and there's a technique to using this thing I think I did a pretty good job with it on the last thing I did get tight saddle joints was able to cut pretty good tight saddle notches but if there's anything if I'm not using this right and you know a better way to use it let me know but I'm going to show you what I've been doing and it's been working for me okay so basically what I'm doing so if I want to drop the top log down four inches to get it to sit down on the log underneath it you know so I've measured four inches from the bottom of the new log to the top of the log that that's going on top of if that's say four inches

what I'm doing is then spreading these apart four inches so from there to there four inches I'm putting it on this board spreading it apart and touching the four inches just to make it easier I put that increment I don't know if that's what most people do to mark the increments on here when I'd leveled this board up this way and then drew a level line this way this is now a level on both planes this little level right here bubble level I can't tell if that's focusing or not bubble level has to both planes as well so what I'm doing is putting that on there then I'm putting these LUP leveling these out so both bubbles are centered so that's level now both ways so now when I take this and put it on the logs to on the log describe that the curve I have to make sure that I keep these things level so I'm staring at these bubbles of them going and just doing that making sure they're perfectly level

so if I wanted to drop this log four inches to get to sit down on the gravel in this case what I would do is mark that four inches put it on that project board I'm going to call it and level these out and then come back to the log here and scribe it keeping these bubbles as level as possible so in the center as possible and then because what happens if you were just to mark it and measure it all out the log could be twisted or could sit tight on one side and not on the other so it's important to keep that level just does a more accurate job than just doing it freehand or with you know measuring like a ruler and then marking it I've done that too and it can be done it just might take a little bit more finesse with

you're notching we need to notch it take it down put it in place and then see where it needs a little bit more taking off and just keep playing with it so I think it's a little bit cooker doing it this way so this actually I want to drop it it will exactly 5 inches now this log is only 6 and 3/4 so I'm only gonna have an inch and a quarter of wood left over there and this is kind of a important law because I'm cutting me I'm cutting the door out of it which means those freestanding walls the walls because they don't carry all the way through from side to side there's weight in the center of those where the door is so that could end up kind of adding some weight on here so I think what I'll do is only take this down say four inches and then fill that in with gravel and let the gravel support the weight just remember I'm doing this and as I'm telling you about it this is just me doing this I'm not an expert log cabin builder by any means this is my third cabin in 30 years and it's not my profession so if you want to know how to do a proper if you were to build a home follow with somebody who actually is a home builder log home builder not guy like me working in the woods this is just a saw that's not all that important in building so I'm going to do my best job I can on it but whatever I don't do a good job at is not critical yes maybe one other important point about this a couple of things one is that you have knots and stuff or I have knots and stuff to work around because it's not a log cabin log properly shaped and everything sometimes have to get around stuff like that right that's the other reason you do it level if you're just going straight like this and it would be pretty easy you could actually just not worry about it being level because I'm coming out from different angles all the time it has to be level point to want to make those this pen is called our pencils called an indelible pencil and it actually works better when the log is wet and for that reason it kind of melts it and you can go really a really fine touch you don't have to press hard like you would with the lead pencil and the other thing is you have to mark both sides at the same time because this is the you want it level like this and exactly the right spot because if it's twisted or if you were to cut this notch drop this down and then do that when that notch would end up being up like that on an angle so it wouldn't fit flush when the whole log comes down level welcome to that side now a measure or mark that then I'll flip over the log pencil in a little bit darker line so I can follow it better and then I'll do the knotch another thing I wanted to mention is I'm not going to talk like this and all my videos about this project are on this log cabin series I'll be back to my normal style but I want to start off on this series just explaining what I'm doing so then when you have questions throughout you can refer back or I mean feel free to ask me questions in any video but at least if you're actually interested in how to do this not just watching following me do it then at least the information is there and then I'll go back to you just working away and not talking to a camera or talking to you guys all the time just gonna get back to work so let's go do that corner [Music]

maybe they shouldn't show you the first one that I've done in a year [Music]

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good enough for right now I'll make it more comfortable sitting here on the fire I don't want to keep wasting daylight with something like this so I'll bring it in after dinner and curve it into something more comfortable with the smooth handle temperatures so it doesn't split as quickly see a problem with his work area what this gravel to drain and if I keep this up doing all the notching on this bed of gravel I'm gonna end up filling it all full of organic material which is going to end up decomposing as the water falls through this section here is just the change room so not as critical but that section there for sure I don't want to fill it up with with wood chips and sawdust or sure so I'm either gonna have to take the logs off and notch them maybe there in the work area I wouldn't mind some whole pile of wood chips there anyway to get rid of the mud or I'll have to lay a tarp down kind of a sacrificial turf unfortunately one of my good heavy canvas ones probably get destroyed but it'll keep the organic material out there so for a combination of the two well I'm gonna have to do that but in the meantime as I was using the hammer and the mallet I remembered the tennis elbow that I got last year I got it when I was doing all the notching then it was aggravated when I was nailing the roof on so rethinking the way I'm watching these things I'm I'm gonna take this in after dinner and sharpen this as well actually it's more important than finishing that mallet or open this up and I still don't have a fine enough edge on that log gouge not thinking though spend the time getting these things both razor-sharp and do all the notching or the majority of the notching with this and the log gouge because that motion doesn't seem to bother any of my joints or muscles so because I'm used to using an axe right or so I'll see what I can do with this I still think it's too chunky it's not fine enough I think I'm going to talk to my buddy at Toronto blacksmith Paul and see if he would be able to custom make me a sharper and thinner adds that I can use to get through these notches quicker yeah

getting close to dinnertime so I'm gonna try to get this one log on and then go in and eat and do that work on my tools for the rest of the evening so that's a rough fit what I'm going to do though is take another inch off and lower that especially this side down up a little bit more to the gravel and I'll talk the gravel up so the gravels taking all the weight I haven't used the log gouge yet to do a fine finish on that notch anyway so I'll do that and then that one will be basically done and then I can move on to the next one now that took over an hour because I was trying out different tools and trying to get the sharpening in the angle and everything right so I think what I'll do is sharpen up that adds after dinner and use that a little bit more on tomorrow's notches it took me over an hour to get it to this point it's going to take me probably another hour to get it finished nice perfect fit now last year took me after I got going took me about an hour to do both notches so to do a full log essentially so using that formula it should take me about 75 hours to get all the logs notched so I need to pick up the pace and the only way I'm going to do that so if I make sure my tools are razor sharp and I've got a good system down so that mallet I need that to use the the log gouge to hit down the Falcon law gouge with and I need that ads to be razor sharp and then the axe and the saw will probably be used for

half of the notches just I'd like to switch back and forth and I'm going to have to switch back and forth I think just not to aggravate my joints make sure that that repetitive activity headed of motion of doing these notches can cause me a little bit of damage since it's not something I do every day but then suddenly jumping in and doing it's two weeks straight and of nothing but notches it's not a good idea so Nick will do is scribed the last two logs here the other two logs for this course this bottom course and then tomorrow I'll notch those out and then be ready to go then I'll be fired up to get going on the rest of it once I get that system down Kelly's tired and bored would like me to take you for a walk right yeah you want to go for a walk we're back to the pond

like to walk to the pond okay we can do that

okay all right so I'm gonna wrap this video up I think and I'll see you oh I'll put the cabin again tomorrow take care

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