Felling Trees at our Remote Cabin in the Alaskan Wilderness

All right, we are heading out to the cabin as you can tell and we're a little bit late It's already light, but that's okay. There was some snow that we didn't account for today We're gonna get the dog's jackets on and we're gonna take off Think that just about does it Head to the cabin get a quick break. Things are going pretty good. We're actually making great time today It was a little overcast this morning, so it was not too cold. It's getting a little clearer out though So it's getting a it's getting a little more chilly. The dogs are doing way better in that sled They're just like Bo is just pretty much laying down the whole Hey, don't eat that. Bo is laying down the whole time in there. Bennett was doing good. We just gave them some Some food so they're doing good Last time we were out here. I couldn't get them to drink any water Usually when we go on road trips and stuff, they just I don't like to drink water while we're on the road So what I did this time is I mixed a little tiny bit of moose bone broth with some water Hopefully get these guys to drink some liquid out here and we're having a little snack ourselves We've got our granola balls little power balls. We call them. We're gonna eat some of those and then arrow made us some more Burritos for the road. I think they got moose roast in there beans rice and some peppers So we're gonna eat a little snack and we'll head on down the trail piece of moose, dude Blankets in there old man There we go boys Alrighty guys, we made it to the cabin. Let's get the dogs unloaded first tour get up there and get a fire started We're gonna get in the wood stove going We're not using new one yet. That's gonna be installed this summer since we're not to put it through the roof We're gonna get the old one set up the main problem with the old stove Besides the stove being rusted through in a few spots is where the wood stove pipe actually goes through the wall There's supposed to be a double wall insulated pipe there. There's not there's just a thimble There's a single wall pipe which gets really hot. So I have an old piece of double wall pipe From home and this is 8 inch and I'm just gonna run the single wall 6 It's just already in the wall through this and hopefully I'll keep things a little cooler in there There we got our fire going for us it was 13 degrees Inside the cabin when we got here. I think it's like maybe 15 in here now Fahrenheit Still pretty cold, but we got the fire started. So we're working our way towards a warm cabin and we actually get a stay Two nights this trip So I'm gonna go back in a couple days and the plan this trip is just get a couple little things done Brought the chainsaw. We want to do some work with that and do some relaxing We got a beautiful couple days of weather coming up out here I could just like touch it jump on it. You're flaming. You're on fire. I'm pretty sure For some reason that fresh snow is kicking up like a bunch of powder on me All right. Our fire is ripping. We've got the dogs all cozy all bundled up in some blankets They're nice and toasty and we're gonna head outside Which tree are you talking about cutting down? We went back down to the lake to grab some stuff and I just wanted to mention that the sled did so good this time with the dogs, I couldn't be more grateful for Such an awesome ride and not only was it warmer than we anticipated that makes it easier for everyone But this worked out so well Bo was actually laying down most of the time and he doesn't even seem like he's tired It is still a little hard on them, but really made all the world of a difference for the dogs I think it took us about four hours this trip, which is pretty typical for us and We're just gonna do a whole bunch of other stuff today I don't even know what we're gonna get to but we have we have lots of work to do too So we'll try and do some relaxing like Eric mentioned It's snowing I think Is that snow? That does not want to move at all Nice So these are So these are some of the trees that we're looking to Take down tomorrow. This is actually the one we're most concerned with it is Kind of an area where it's right behind the house and the way the tree is Just with the gravity and kind of like looking at the trunk My guess is if it fell it would want to go towards the house or downhill that way So we want to fall it first and make sure that it goes away from the cabin So we still have a cabin. There is a lot of the white spruce that has died from beetles We call it beetle kill here and there's a lot of it. It's very prevalent. Unfortunately, these are very mature trees These ones were the ones that were hit the hardest I believe so Like 90% plus are gone or are standing but they need to come down They're a huge fire hazard. If we let nature takes its course, they're gonna fall down and decompose But because it is so close to our cabin We really want to take take some of them down and we also need firewood if we are running short on that So tomorrow we're gonna begin this area cleared and we'll see how many that Eric can take down. It is time For coffee. I do not have as much energy as we had last time we were out here We heated the house up to 71 degrees so it was nice and toasty in here It only took a couple hours to pretty impressed. Actually, we're making some Tim Hortons. We bought a French press out here So now we can have some delicious coffee at the cabin That's good Have you ever told you how much I love sketchy letters Welcome to our sleeping loft. I am pretty excited for this little mattress in a box. Let's get her cut open It's extremely hard Okay, we're checking out a nice sunset out here on the front deck it's a little chilly outside So I think we're gonna head in we didn't get much done outside today But I think tomorrow is kind of gonna be our outside day We're gonna head in and we're gonna do some organizing because there's a mess in the cabin Like have a puzzle going never share that puzzle table in London for a while No, you know, there's a book right here We got the potatoes cooking over on the wood stove and I can't think of a better meal at the cabin than steak and potatoes So we're doing moose steaks. We got some nice back straps, and then I'm just cooking the potatoes I'm like boiling them in some water So I'm gonna put some seasonings on these and we brought a little bit of olive oil with us Not bad for at the cabin right that there's just something about a good potato, you know, I mean Well dinner was great we had another cup of coffee but a couple games apart cheesy We're gonna hit the sack because we're exhausted. We'll see you guys in the morning Morning guys. We made it through the night at the cabin Just sitting here by the fire relax it with a nice cup of hot coffee. Errol's making some rolls for breakfast So she's got those rising over here on the wood stove Okay, we made it outside Beautiful day out here Should be awesome for all the things we want to get accomplished We're gonna start with trying to fall a tree or two and just see where we end up For sure. Yeah They're gonna fall the way you want it or it's gonna pull the opposite so I want the opposite Right there and I want the way to go to be like right pretty much towards that tree This is pretty much the biggest problem tree right here It's only 15 feet from the cabin and it's actually leaning towards the cabin and this is a dead tree It's beetle kill still standing but eventually it will come down I think we're gonna do is we're gonna take down that one over there also because I want to fall this one Towards that direction. So that one's also dead. I'm gonna get out of the way And then we're gonna try to work on this one and there's a couple more back there. So We'll see how it goes One tree down successful went exactly where I wanted it. I'm gonna show you kind of the danger of these trees Such as that tree could have come down at any time. That's why we're kind of taking these trees down This one was completely rotten in the middle I mean, I barely cut into that backside and it just went so I think we're gonna head back to a little bit of a Smaller one. We're probably gonna tackle the trickiest one last See what happens This tree went perfectly as planned this one's actually not rotten on the middle still dead But that's gonna make some really good firewood. We're gonna work on that Nice big one right there. I'm gonna try to fall it pretty much on top of the one. I just fell away from the cabin Well, if we've got four trees down we are on to the last tree this is the one I have not been looking forward to so one that's closest to the cabin and The way it's leaning I want to cut it that way but it's it's gonna it's gonna miss the cabin by about five feet so Ariel's gonna go inside get the dogs out of there and We're gonna cut the tree down. Hopefully we still have a cabin by the time I'm done Birds are cheering for you. They are chirping me on huh? Yes I'm a good. It's probably most nerve-wracking tree. I've had to Cut down, but it went good. We're gonna get some of these trees cut up and a firewood just a little bit Just since we don't really have a good place to store it here And we'll probably chop some wood up. But yeah, this is success That's sort of like butter All right a nice pile of firewood and one of the best things about the Type of trees that we're cutting down the dead ones is they're already dry so we don't need to season it So stuff's all ready to burn get some kindling chopped up the next time we come up here And we'll fill the little wood pile inside the cabin Got a nice pile of wood stacked over here That's probably a few days worth. We'll burn through a little more of this We've pretty much had this wood so go on the whole entire time and she's running good. Just keeping the cabin warm It's like 75 degrees in here right now We got the sunshine coming in and then that little double wall piece. I put up there Seems to be doing the trick, but we're still gonna replace it. It's working for now though. It's time for lunch We've already worked up an appetite and we have some This is our potato leek soup, but it was shaken up on the drive I think we also have carrots and parsnips in there and then I brought some extra Bone broth to add in there and we're just gonna eat it with the leftover bread we have from this morning We're getting our snowshoes back on and we are going to go on a little walk last time we were here We had a lot to do and we didn't spend two days So we didn't have time to walk around the property and check it out pretty excited to do that Down here at the lake the plan is to walk the shoreline and then up the ridge basically, we're gonna try to see if we can walk the Property line out here since we haven't done that yet This is a great example of beetle kale if you didn't notice all the brown trees around This is what happens to the trees is when they're dying their bark Starts coming off like that. And what happened was Beetles come in there and they lay their little babies and I think they eat Part of the tree that or they put their little babies in there that eat part of the tree that's living So obviously the tree gets overwhelmed and dies, which is why there are So many brown trees around here sadly. On another note, we found a very large cottonwood. So we're gonna head over there This is her She's big. These trees get really big They do also where we live but just not on our property that we have Back in town. So this is a beautiful tree. They have that thick bark. Oh It's scary even staying that close to it. We're gonna need a bigger chainsaw. There's the cabin right there If this fell it would almost hit the cabin So you may have heard us in the last video say that this lot I think it is a little under five acres maybe four and a half and it's a pretty big amount of space Clearly more than we need and even once we take down, you know, the spruce beetle kill I think that it's still gonna be a really really nice area especially Working our way up the ridge. We're actually running to a lot of healthy white spruce trees. So the Beatles didn't get them all Another ten years or so. We should have some nice trees out here Some moose tracks going up the ridge Made it back to the lake. We're gonna head down the hill Hey a couple more rounds cut up So I think we are inside for the night We have our salmon thawed out that we're gonna be making for dinner. And this is kind of our dishes section We take snow water melt it on the wood stove Got a little tub right here and we do dishes and it's not very pleasant So snow water is always kind of dirty. So we have this funnel. It's got a little screen on the bottom This is how we clean it up to do dishes with it While we've been here We've kind of had some more time to kind of go through the cabin and figure out what we don't want here bring out more Garbage, whatever just go through stuff and I actually found something pretty cool Tucked away in the back found these really awesome Cast iron skillets that we're gonna be bringing home with us. This one is a Griswold from Erie, Pennsylvania made in the USA It's a kind of a nice little small one. I don't have one that size and this looks like this is about a 10-inch I don't know what kind this one is but it says Ten and a quarter and then it says made in USA. So nice little find They're actually in pretty good condition for being out here for so long Just minimal rest. So we're gonna clean these up and re-season them There's a big piece right there Well, it's just about complete We're gonna be at the cafes Okay, maybe not. Almost Eric and I have been on a craze Trying to get this puzzle done. We're almost there It's very very exciting stuff here It's time for dinner and on top of our salmon I'm gonna put this awesome sauce that we're gonna make I have some milk, mushrooms, honey Dill and olive oil and garlic and then I'm gonna add some cornstarch to it to thicken it up While that's cooking, Eric's gonna get our salmon going. Oh, I got three. All right, we're calling it quits for the night We're going to sleep You heat these old cabins up and I swear these flies appear out of nowhere Kind of sucks. But as soon as you leave it freezes and they die So that's what we're doing tonight. Gotta bring a flyswatter next time Well, we are getting ready to head out It's such a fun trip this time we totally relaxed probably most most of our time here really really fun We're just tidying things up and bringing everything down And getting ready to head out Hopefully we'll come back one more time this season But I'm really not sure what our plans are We had so much time to relax. In fact that we actually completed this whole puzzle, which was pretty cool I didn't think we were gonna get it done We also had a chance to you know, clean up the cabin a little more make it a little more our style We've hauled out some stuff. We don't need here anymore. We've left some stuff that we're gonna keep up here I'm just bringing everything down to the sled that's hooked up to the snow machine I'm covered with a tarp and we got to get out of here. It's about 930 in the morning We got a four-hour ride ahead of us Okay, what's mean is Beating their head against the wall for like 20 minutes before they decide to die It was like