The first 1,000 people to use my link will get a full year of Premium membership to Woodworkers Guild of America for only $1.49: https://go.wwgoa.com/offgridisland/
This video was sponsored by Woodworkers Guild of America
Welcome to our Island! It is finally time to start working on our log sauna cabin! This trip I harvested three trees for the cabin and managed to drop the camera into the lake.
Felling the trees went well, I got a couple new tools to help with debarking and moving the logs around, they worked really well. I was able to get three trees, debarked and moved to the drying spot which was my goal for the trip so I’m happy with the progress.
I bought some concrete slabs and blocks to be the foundation to the mini cabin I want to build out of the tips of the trees I’m felling. This will allow me to use as much of the tree as possible as well as giving me something fun to build and more experience before I tackle the larger sauna cabin.
Unfortunately when rowing the materials to the other side of the island the camera fell into the lake… Because of this the last day was recorded on my phone so the quality is much worse. I’ve been letting the camera completely dry out before turning it on, hopefully it still works.
Cant wait for next trip! I am going to be setting up the foundation to the mini cabin, most likely setting up the first few layers of walls and continuing to fell trees for the sauna!
More about us, the island and the process:
The island is completely secluded, has no electricity or plumbing and currently has nothing on it but trees. We want to turn this island into a fully functioning summer cottage with a log cabin, sauna and other amenities. Most of the work is gonna be done in the summer months as the lake freezes in the winter and the weather conditions are tough.
There’s a lot of work to be done as the island is over 2.5 acres (1 hectare) and we have no experience in off-grid living, carpentry or building. So any tips or advice are greatly appreciated, as we are planning on doing everything ourselves and transforming the island into our own little paradise. We’ll document every step of the way, starting from smaller builds to finally – an off-grid log cabin.
Our plan for this year is to put up a platform for a glamping tent, build a floating dock and start cutting down trees to begin the process of building our log cabin.
The island is located in Finland and we bought it in 2024. We are currently both students and we plan to transform the island alongside our studies.
So, subscribe and join us on this adventure. It won’t be fast, it won’t be easy, but it will be fun and challenging. We don’t know what to expect, so be a part of the journey.
📸 Follow us on Instagram and TikTok @off.grid.island
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The first 1,000 people to use my link will get a full year of Premium membership to Woodworkers Guild of America for only $1.49: https://go.wwgoa.com/offgridisland/
You should look up tree felling with the safe corner,
The new debarking tool seems like a game changer.
PLEASE loose the short bar electric saw. You are going to kill yourself. You need at least a 20" bar, 24" would be better. A gas saw will give you more power and consequently, safer.
You need to let your pan get wayyyyyy hotter than that before you throw your meat on there in order to get a crust on the steak bro
You should learn how to fell trees properly before you attempt to do it alone again
My question is why so many are cutting wedges high up on the stump ??
@Off-Grid-Island Have you seen @ErikGrankvist in Youtube building his log cabin by himself? It's a great watch even if you're not building a cabin of your own, but might give great points to someone who does!
Plumbers Guild turned down the offer
You should wear safety gear (Goggles a face mask) when debarking.
Number all the trees, when the house is done and you tracked them the whole time u could look at how u fell the tree where the log came from
I bet that the number of branches/log is one of the biggest contributors to one taking longer than another. Your motions seem cut short by them.
Rather than felling trees distantly -> moving them -> debarking them -> then drying them, you should Fell->Debark->Dry->Move. This means you move them when they weigh the least, you just need regional debarking and drying locations around the island.
If you want your steak to brown properly, lose the non stick pan and the oil. Either a good stainless steel pan, or cast iron skillet would be a huge improvement. Get the pan hot, place the pre-seasoned steak in the skillet, and don't flip it until it is ready to flip. It will stick to the pan when you put it in. When it comes loose with a nudge, flip it. When the 2nd side comes loose, put it on a plate for about 4-5 minutes before you cut it. A juicy steak should be your end result. My wife says the best steak she ever had was from a cast iron skillet over a campfire that I made her. She was probably just glad that she didn't have to cook over the open fire and smoke.
In your tour of the island video, you asked for suggestions I have one main suggestion that will save you a lot of effort as long as you are felling and moving trees. Get or make a log skid. If you buy a purpose-made one, it will look like the nose cone of a rocket with a hole in it, but you can make a decent one out of the hood (bonnet lid) of ascrapped auto. The cable from your winch goes through the hole that's in the curvy part to attach to the log. The curved metal makes the log glide much more smoothly over obstacle that it would normally snag on. You trim the limbs where it falls but drag the whole logs to a processing site by your cabin. You should be able to drag 2 or 3 logs at once, if they're not huge.
You should be able to get some good pointers from the playlists of "The Outsider" and "My Self-Reliance" on YouTube. Wranglerstar used the hood of an old car in removing deadfall and felled trees to maintain his forest.
One of the issues with my electric chain saw is that when it quits working intermittently its a sign of the battery overheating so it shuts down to protect itself..i used to just start it again and run it on and off until it was totally dead but i realized that was killing the batteries so now when it first shuts down I just wait for it to cool down and charge it…because it also wouldn't charge until the batteries were cool…
actually waiting a few days can help make the debarking easier…
This is a stupid and random thing to say, but those salt grinders are basically a scam. The reason you use a pepper grinder is because the whole peppercorns hold in their oils and delicate flavors, much like grinding your own coffee. But salt is just a chemical, its the same no matter what. Also Himalyan pink salt and sea salt are a scam.
Id guess the reason your fire went out is because you bought a $30 hob lol. That is crazy cheap
31:00 Unless its an emergency, never leave your saw in a tree while its falling. Guaranteed it will get destroyed that way
As others have said, there reason your tree is going to wrong way isn't your wedges, its your notch cut depth. Halfway is the rule of thumb, unless its leaning hard in the opposite direction you want it to go. If the ground is level and the tree is straight you shouldn't need any wedges at all
14:10 you are holding the saw on the wrong side for this kind of cut. If you get a kickback (ok, bigger saws…), you might hit your upper arm or even face/chest…bad. Very bad…Step to the left of the tree and hold your saw on the side-grip. If it kicks back, you´ll hit nothing. Also, you can cut way more on ground level, getting more wood (ok, for firewood…) and you aren´t leaving these big stumps.
I you haven't seen this channel I think it can give you some tips on one way a cabin can be built. https://www.youtube.com/@ErikGrankvist/videos
I highly recommend watching @TheOutsiderCabin videos to learn. He has a playlist of all the videos he took to build his log cabin, from the beginning (selecting the very first trees) to now (most recently building a porch).
They go into great detail about stripping the logs. You have to choose the right months to cut the trees so they are easy to strip. If the trees are cut at the right time, stripping takes minutes – literally.
Ideally, the bark should be easy to peel off by hand after just a small cut.
https://www.youtube.com/@TheOutsiderCabin
Steak tip…HIGH heat will give you the "crust" or "sear" youre looking for. Make sure that oil is cookin' before you drop the meat…other than that, youre good to go.
You got quite a few cute little trees on your Island. I have no idea what you're talking about, when you say you have huge trees.
Also you might want to consider designating a tree that you're not going to cut down, that is near the building site for the cabin and near the drying rack, mount a snatch block up a way's on that tree, and make a primitive crane to move the logs
If you want crispiness on your steak you need higher temps
Why did you choose for a battery instead of a generator or combo?
Please make sure the contacts of the battery in the bin do not touch any of the metal handles of the straps or the straps for that matter, seeing some straps contain metal strips.
I hope you'll survive till the end of build…
You want that pan ripping hot for a nice crust on your steak – I am sure it was still good though!