come on girls here we go
some days at the cabin start with the locals coming over for breakfast
I guess in the big cities people go to parks and feed pigeons
these are New Brunswick pigeons also known as wild turkeys just a little bit bigger and a little bossy
they only get a little treat because they have to survive on their own
now here's an update on something I did in the past when I did that driveway deck at the front
entrance I left this big hole in the middle and a lot of people thought that was not a good idea
and right now I agree because what has been happening is when the snow falls it
accumulates in this area and it's very hard to remove so I made a mistake I'm going to
cover it up but there's another note here and it's about frost heave and it's behaving in a
mysterious way now that it's been below freezing both during the day and the night the frost is
heaving and it's right here it's not heaving underneath those cement blocks it's heaving
to each side and it's leaving the the cement blocks as is so it's risen up here about I'd
say about five or six inches but at this point in time at least and it's just an observation
the wall the retaining wall is staying exactly where it should be it's just sort of splitting
up leaving the wall as is and it's coming up on both sides and I'm okay with that
so I did finish this deck after all didn't cost me that much I was still using culled lumber so
I spent another like thirty dollars no big deal it does look better I admit
with work on the deck now over it was time for a new project
although that log had been seasoning for over a year I did bring that piece indoors
for a month to dry it out a little more now it was ready for shaping
the bark looks nice but I knew it would fall off anyway
so now I had the beginnings of a wood stool
now a stool is not much good without the legs so I next rooted through the
wood pile for suitable material last summer I'd cut down some saplings
that had overcrowded the waterfront and they were now dry enough to work with
once I found what I was looking for I grabbed the pile and headed into the cabin
well the stove's crackling away should be warm in here soon now after you've made the seat and
it's at least rough you can start on the stool legs now I've taken these four pieces and I've
cut them down to about 32 inches long which is longer than they need to be I'm just going
to trim them off level when I get to that point and they're about maybe one and a half inches
diameter I think that should be enough strength for a stool next step is to peel the bark now
some people might want to leave the bark on which is fine but I've got a feeling it's going to sort
of come off anyway over time so I'd rather you know take it off now and then finish it now as
far as ways of peeling the bark off I have tried a couple of methods and a machete works well
to sort of brace it like that and draw it towards you
and that seems to work reasonably well if the bark was looser it would probably be easier
but the other way of doing it is one of these which is for taking the bark off logs I haven't
been very successful with this with the big logs I did try it but maybe on a small one
and it just doesn't work like this on a such a small branch but uh it kind of works okay
kind of awkward actually I prefer the machete
now some may not be comfortable with drawing the knife towards them
so you can also use the traditional method of drawing it away from the body whatever works
so probably the most labor intensive is the sanding and I had to do some
sanding because there's little knots and you don't want to catch yourself
there I've got these four legs sanded and the bonus of all this sanding and peeling off
the bark is that I have this great pile of fire starter for my wood stove so nothing goes to waste
now the next part is putting the legs on the stool and I should talk about this wood just
a little bit this is fir this was the fir that was going to fall on my cabin so I had to cut it down
and it's been seasoning for a little less than a year and a half it's probably right now I'd say
about 40 percent moisture content so it's probably still going to shrink a little I got to be careful
with it because if I let it dry out too quickly it's going to crack and it actually has cracked
right there and uh these were the little saplings of white pine that I took down over there and they
definitely are dry you can sort of hear it in the wood now to do this what I'm going to have to use
is a forstner bit I wouldn't use a regular drill because it'll plunge down too fast I want to be
able to control it so I'm going to use a forstner bit and the size of the forstner bit is dependent
on the smallest diameter which looks like about that one I want the the drill hole a little bit
smaller so I get a nice tight force fit and I can sort of whittle it down and uh oh and it's
also a good idea to make sure you have more if you needed the four legs you better make
sure you got enough wood for five because I did one and it's much too thin so I'm not going to
use it I had a another one that'll probably be used on the braces but we'll get to that later
okay I better get this right or I'm gonna look like a fool
okay this one's the tester
pretty tight needs to be on a slight angle which seems right okay so far so good carry on
let's switch to one of those high voltage batteries to make this part go a little quicker
I think this one's good by itself but the other ones I got a little whittlin' to do
there's nothing more outdoorsy than whittlin!
I switched to a small camping knife for this as I needed my thumb to push the shaving forward I finish up over the hole for fine tuning the fit
okay try to get those as tight as I can for now
and see what happens when I turn it upside down
well they didn't all fall out which is good but it's a little wobbly and the the legs aren't even
but I think once those spread out a little bit more and I put some braces in
I may even sit on it
you know there's something relaxing about working with wood I understand why so many people enjoy it
it's not like drywall which I didn't enjoy at all
I measure I cut it never seems to fit and then when I get it up there right you know
there'll be a little bump somewhere and I'll put in the screw and it'll be a big little
hole and it just drives me insane it's the devil's material
got most of it up
a few little bugs but I was kind of figuring out it's all going to be covered up anyway
so the next step is to put braces in and I've got these all trimmed and tapered there's two that go
this way and another two they go on the sides and they're a little longer I'm going to trim
them down the first one to go in will be this one and it will be the one that I use as a foot rest
whoa whoa that's not gunfire that's that's the wood stove anyway uh I want to put one about there
and I found that the best height for me of having a foot of a foot rest is about 16 inches
from the seat and that's why I've got this green tape and I've tapered this down to about a 5/8
forstner bit that seems about right um I'm still gonna have to trim a little bit more
but I don't see any reason why that shouldn't work so I'm going to start drilling holes again
well look at that I have a stool a very wobbly stool but a stool nonetheless
I think once I get things glued together and that's coming apart right there already
it should be fine and I I think I have to take a leap of faith and glue it first and then
you know work on leveling it later I know the legs are way too long so gotta trim them down
I'm going to use wood glue I'm using Gorilla in this particular case any wood glue will do
but before I glue that there's one thing I got to make sure of and that is because you cannot freeze
this type of glue gotta make sure the cabin's warm enough time for some more wood in the fire
perhaps not the most efficient wood stove but this old Monarch does keep
the cabin reasonably warm until I improve the insulation there's always something else to do
I wasn't going to be stingy with wood glue and made sure I plastered it on each joint
I could have used clamps but the tie-down straps also work
well for holding all tight until the glue dries
the next morning I trimmed the legs and did a final sanding
as a finish I put to use an old can of Danish oil I had been saving for years
Danish oil and pine really do well together as it penetrates the surface
preserves the wood enhances the wood grain and protects the surface from wear and spills
one last wipe with an old rag and it's ready to dry by the fire
well I think it's done finish is dry it feels so smooth it still feels like wood that's what I
like about Danish oil it doesn't feel like plastic and uh yeah it's certainly brightened it up it's a
great little stool I know it's not perfect but you know what I made it from materials I already had
that would have been going to waste or burned or something like that and uh yeah all I had to buy
was glue now as far as a use for it well I don't have a countertop right now I'm working on it so
I can't use it indoors but outdoors I think I've got the perfect spot for it right out here
Seems pretty secure
nice height foot rest is right
perfect for the deck well what do we have here?
"Maybe Brew Work Horse "
I guess those New Brunswick pigeons left it for me
nice of them to do that I haven't had a beer in a long time I've been cutting back lately you know got to take care of yourself
but I think it was a job well done got a great stool I got a great view now I'm gonna have a great beer because although
it looks pretty nice here right now there is another storm coming up always is so
I guess I better enjoy it well I can well I hope you enjoyed this video check out my others as well cheers
not bad
whoa! better watch out for the ice here don't want to lose my beer oh oh I think I'm gonna hold on to it