FIRST BIG SNOWFALL at FORT IN THE WOODS Tarp and Pallet Door, Permanent Pothook, Huge Tree Removal.

Talk about gorgeous. Hey guys, how are you doing? Joe here, we're out at the fort. We're just walking through the snow. I can see the fort now. It's finally starting to feel and look like the middle of December. We got a brisk morning, sun's poking out. Fort's looking spectacular. So it's bright and early. Wanna get a bunch of stuff done today at the fort. I wanna check on it to make sure that it's all holding up from the snow weight fine. I got some peameal bacon. You guys know what peameal bacon is? show you that oh man a couple other things this is awesome there's some snow in the fort just because of the openings but we'll get it rid of it okay well we have to fix our door because there's snow in the fort oh look at the tarp look at the sag on the tarp oh oh my gosh okay we have to work oh look this fort did its job over there you know where it's enclosed but we've got a little bit of snow to deal with it's not a big deal and look we have a visitor or a resident, depending. Probably more of a resident, I would assume. Little mouse tracks heading under the bed. That's got to be dealt with. I certainly don't want to dump all of that snow into the fort. I want to get it out. So it might be me crawling up onto the roof and trying to scoop it out. I should have brought my shovel. Next time I'll bring my snow shovel. Okay. Yeah, this really tells me the whole thing would be fine, except for just this open part. We've got to deal with that. It certainly works. You know what I mean? like look at the depth of the snow out here we got maybe what four or five inches and just the drifts that came in and maybe came in from the top we're looking at like an inch tops in here so not a big deal we can get rid of it pretty easily from here get from here snow get from here pristine pristine up here would you look at that one little piece of lichen pretty clean though up there maybe four or five four inches of snow that's probably what's on the ground really still not much snow for this area for this time of year okay so i'm going to loosen this rope yeah different system for the tarp that's not so bad that works pretty good actually at least the snow slides off of this tarp extremely easy no resistance whatsoever big help actually i wouldn't even use my shovel up here for fear of puncturing the tarp most of it off just so the weight doesn't build up too much again that's the beauty of the top line hitch right when the snow comes and lands on it instead of it pulling and tightening this and snapping the paracord not the paracord the tarp it just stretches or unstretches all the way there and gets loose then once i was able to move the snow off and fix it i can just simply tighten it again and leave it like that for next time where the snow will weigh it down and pull it back it is do okay I snow on them no big deal and I also have some birch bark I left last time I just have to split down some actual fuel and we'll be ready to go my camera is acting a little funny because it's cold I think okay so today I brought my scout knife from Adventure Store I haven't used that in a long time there we go the old scout knife let's use that tracks here there you go there you go still not indicative of the emotion that we normally would have but this would have been you guys have seen in the past so it's a weird year for sure i am happy with the progress of the fort and how much snow it kept out i i was disappointed when i came and i saw the snow in here i thought maybe if it wasn't blowing sideways at all that's just not the case and it probably fell in from the top too once that got weighed down i'm gonna have to think of another solution for that after but that's not the biggest deal what i really need to do today is um to try to figure out how to close this up even temporarily i'll probably end up making that door out of that pallet and putting the plastic up on this wall i'm just gonna get warmed up here for a second and we'll start thanks for all the views on the videos lately super awesome to see it's a bit discouraging when you have a million followers and you only get like a hundred thousand views on a video i know it sounds like it could sound like a lot still but the ratio is way off anyways i guess you guys like to see the fort and i like to be here too i just um i don't want to bore you guys with just coming to the fort that's why the last video was somewhere else and i don't want to get burnt out at the fort either, you know what I mean? Four videos in a row went away, now we're back. Next video will probably be somewhere else, break up a little bit more, but yeah, getting this place winter ready was the big job for this year, and it's still not done. Okay, I'm gonna stop talking and let's do it. 16 by 20, love that fire going all day long today too. Okay, scratch that idea of working inside the fort, there's not nearly enough room. So this is quartered up, this is four times smaller than it normally is, and we're gonna plop the door on, Give her the old rapsy-poo the old quadrupled up will help with the insulation at all I'm not gonna say it will but it's gotta be better than one wall tarp, right? Look at that. It's a perfect fit Super slippery toboggan. I think what I might do is just tie some two three four Canadian jams All the way up. We'll see but That's what it's looking like right now. And that way the tarp doesn't get ruined at all any holes in it Oh slick check this out. I think I can just just tuck it in the top. I don't know about the bottom It's pretty short on the bottom, but still so it's not like all loosey-goosey And I don't really have to figure out a way to Secure the top that way. There's a middle post here, so I can't go all the way, but that's pretty good guys It's better than I had expected Hands are cold. I'm gonna go warm my hands up and come back to this in a second This is the perfect length of a fire fireplace. I'm really happy with this. You can see the steam coming right off my knees steamy knees Whole whole bunch of twigs to keep that going all day long You know what Kind of blocking the chopping station short swing nice Grandma's axe never letting me down back to the tarp. I have this Kevlar twine in my backpack So that's what we're using because that's all I could find. So basically I'll go that's once around That's twice around with some slack that goes tie knot so it's a good thing. We have the fire going I'll just keep running back to it. It'll help a lot. Yes, sir. Yeah, like nobody's business Okay, I'm gonna do a series of these down down the door the door for my fort It's a fort fort. It was negative 14 Celsius on the way in this morning So I'm sure it's warmed up a couple degrees by now though, but that is in fern It's good that the line is thin it's easier to fish underneath the Door. Oh I was too long on the other one. I try to be conservative on this one Okay, we're tying a knot at the end and right behind that knot I'm going to tie a loose knot and not close it up I'm going to run this line through both Sorry through the loose side Restricting it because this is kind of slippery. I will do a little overhand easy tie off knot I'm gonna do two more in the middle I'm pretty happy with this Worked out easily I'm gonna prop something else up on that to keep it there, but that's pretty good That blocks a lot Definitely still this to fill it And I imagine I'll get a couple of big logs up here for now but oh man the sparks bouncing off the roof Got a log to put here in the crack something pull this back just for some sunlight and some air it's a little smoky in here see how this will work Gabby okay look it's an extra light in here just smoke escape some more airplane noise coming through perfect the fire needs some fanning I want to make a pot hanger to hang from the top of the fort right above the fire so I'll just use probably a piece of paracord put a taut line hitch on it so it's adjustable but we want to go get the right piece of wood to attach to that and it'll be probably a piece of maple out here. So maybe we'll go hike around the woods and find that. Nice is it out here. We're just looking for a fork in a tree. Small enough where I can deal with it. Where it won't be too big in the fort. Hiked around all over there and I didn't find what I needed but I did find what might be a suitable piece to at least just block some light coming in but it's already broken in a couple spots. Anyways, I do see a maple here. Might actually even be an aspen. We'll go look at it but right next to the fort that has done one of these I'll show you. I think I can use something off the top of it so you see this tree where it's broken and then the other piece falls down right there there's a ton of twigs right there all a mass of twigs and i bet you out of all of that there's at least a couple usable pot hanger pieces so let's i'm gonna i'm gonna cut that part down at where it forks off on the tree could have been bad okay i'm okay with it being pretty thick um as it'll hold up to a lot of heat so this piece here always cut it shorter so long that can be the hook, what the hook's gonna be, oh oh you know and this one can go for now I'll be careful how I cut it because then this is even thicker on this side do this and see what we want to do after, now I have two options, I'm more into options making the hook on either side and I don't need it too long, it long because you can always cut more off this can go you for that, I can go even shorter after, so there it is, I might even be able to use that to wrap around to keep it tied up, I don't want to make a notch, it's quite heavy and you know what, just looking at the bottom I know that I need to cut the bottom pretty short to where that is to where the hook the fork is because if not it won't the billy can won't hang off the side, it won't fit evenly underneath it so I I guess that's the decision. I'm going to make now, if I cut it here, put it there That's probably thick enough we'll leave that, we'll get rid of this okay, you know, I mean just right close to the bottom here so the billy can can fall properly, it might even still be too tall we'll see, fire looks much better now, not so flowy and that does fit right underneath pretty good I wouldn't be able to really remove the lid while it's on here still to check it to see it's boiling so I might just trim it down like half an inch just here But I don't want to go too far to compromise the integrity of the strength of it. There is where the fire sits Let's go right above it with the hanger So from this one a smack in the middle and drop it down boom right there Okay, this deck one here got him got him. Oh my legs are so very warm So we'll tie a taut line here and at the bottom so we can adjust it both ways if we need to I don't have to tie a taut line hitch to the bottom We just put on the one because I can go as far down as that needs to go It was right there and then it can go sorry that that's way farther than it needs to go Then it can go way up. So, okay, let's tie this so I don't have to notch it Actually, I want to you know, make sure that I can tuck it up out of the way. I'm not using it so bad gonna walk over here yeah okay all right let's get the water in there and see what it looks like I might retie it it's fine that hangs totally fine nothing wrong with that at all so I can drop it down my hands to the cylinder all right that's pretty cool that works it's sturdy it's flat it's all wampus but it lays flat okay cool good bit of coals man I'm gonna make up this other wall sorry this other door and uh maybe then cook up some food i'm getting pretty hungry this is uh bottoms of a big cedar sorry spruce tree cut some limbs off they're nice and dense probably got some resin in them as well to go real good i'm sure and you know what if i didn't even want it if i just wanted to keep something warm i don't want to have to cook it or boil it or whatever just a simmer bring it all the way over either side just kind of have it residually warm. Yeah, I'm pretty happy with that pot hanger. It's going to do exactly what I need it to do. Hang pots. I moved it to this side to get away from the fire. The flames are all on that side of the wood. We've got this propped up pretty good. It wiggles a little bit, but it wants to go back to the top. It wants to go back to the log once it's done wiggling. It doesn't want to fall. I've got that jammed in in the slot. I feel like the plastic is the easiest, quickest way to get something up here until I figure something you know or maybe that's sufficient enough for the winter who knows we'll see so I cut a log pretty light that that styrofoam we want to brought back a pretty light log I cut it to fit right in here perfectly so what I'll do is I'll cut the plastic just longer than this I'll tack it up and I'll have it loose on the bottom I'll tack it to this I'll be able to roll it up and prop it up out of my way as a door or leave it down when I go so let's do that now I got my butter melting for my to start cooking my food a little more hard to work with because it's cold cutter not too wide we're sitting pretty good amount of butter in there okay this might not look like much to you but it is egg cheese onion salt and pepper and that's going to be my little omelet more butter in you know can't have too much butter in your life drop down get your omelet on girl there you go full of old wrap scenes today and how you can use them in your daily life good Good bed of coals, wow. No, it's spreading. Okay, let's go see how that food's going. It's white. Okay, that looks just like the butter on top, actually. I might even pour that out. We'll see, we'll leave it on for a second, see what happens. The much talked about pea meal bacon. It's like ham with cornmeal on it, I don't know why they call it pea meal. Well, growing up we called it pea meal. Pea meal bacon, pea meal, pea meal. I know we call it, sorry, pea meal bacon. It says pea meal bacon. say pea meal bacon, bacon, bacon again, Joe. Point is, it's super good. Super good. Flip. Flip your bacon. Here we go. That's the spot in there. It's a hot one. The far two are not really done. The close one is. I'm going to grub that right now. Oh, that's done. Cornmeal crisps up real nice. I've planned for the other two. Oh, man. Nice and fluffy. Look at that. That's slick. That turned out so good. not even remotely stuck because the mountain of butter nice oh I'm pleased can you tell I'm pleased at that holy smokes excess amount of butter in there but make a tea up this water the most efficient meal it looks like an omelet bite from Timmy's it's a little buttery it's a little buttery you know but we could have cut down about half the butter on that that's slick even better well look at that that's my sandwich the other one is for eating the other piece for eating this is for makings making bacon with making okay I'd over did it with the butter I'll give you that that is ridiculously good Wow you can even taste the pepper in there but could Terry put a slick there's so many complaints all might be a little bit of butter in that too, it's a little creamy okay well we're gonna finish this up and then continue on the door haha look at that I messed up on the plastic, I can fix it, I cut it long right we have an extra over here I tack it, I thought I had, I guess anyways, it's not a big deal. It'll cover most of it I can take it off if I really want, like I'm pretty good now It's a tack anything there because I'm gonna need to roll this up and down. I just tack something right there Let's just see if that works and stay just like that trim this up a little bit there while I'm here so I can have air flow and all that and all of that jazz then when it's nighttime Or when I leave or if it's cold it's snowing, my door is blocked now. so I'll use the other side or I just whenever I'm like working or like walking around in here And doing stuff and building or even just being out for the day This is gonna be up because that's a pain in the butt, but I don't want snow in here I just don't I want a dry area. I'm not scared of snow But this is the goal just like the top like when I leave I'll do the top up, I'll do this be pretty good because that right there behind you guys only open spot for snow now and i can unroll this tarp i forgot that i had this long and rolled up on that log i can roll this log over past that so i'll have two tarps on top of each other to bear the weight of the snow in this little gap here this is not great i need it loose so that i can roll it up and down maybe here a little bit that's fine let's get this up and out of here and it's it's temporary you know I don't need this in the summer time. We're getting in clothes man There will always be improvements on the fort and additions and things like that But just for the winter proofing I think that part is almost done. Okay, let's get that up Need to affix the plastic to the wood it just stays in there being rolled up touching that tripod I have my gloves on most of the time but again it loses dexterity sometimes you just need it's free I wear gaiters in the wintertime when I don't have tall boots on as I don't like snow going down my boots imagine that so I've had these same ones for a long time maybe I'll move over to the smoke real quick had these for a real long time they're really my only pair I've ever had maybe four years five years now got it from Mac in Canada the States probably REI find a mat but pretty durable they keep snow out they're pretty handy a little winter tip a little winter tip camping tip but for like stuff where you're not going to be moving around too much nothing beats those big pack boots you know like the big Baffin's that come up to here and there's look like transformers boots to put plastic over here on this gap i will well if i have to it's not a big deal but prefer to put wood so i'm going to go back there in that big log that i've been using that's been laid down i've I've used all of it except for one piece, just at the very end of it now. So I will go cut that and get that over here and see if I can prop it up here just as, like, a block. I'm getting dripped on, like, that's just because the tarp's rolled up where the snow was. Anyway, let's go do that. I think I'm done here for today after that. That's going to take a lot of work to cut that and get that over here. We'll prop it up, see how it looks. Hopefully we'll close down everything, shut it all in. Maybe we'll prop up a big fire and see if I can get it warm in here. or at least somewhat warmer than outside it has warmed up though like uh outside the temperature has definitely warmed up from this morning it's probably only like negative five or something like that now you know what before i go and do that see this big tree right here it's broken off right there and if that comes down that's hitting the fort right there works here right so from inside the fort right there it's only prudent and wise to take it down before it comes down And I can also use it for blocking up pieces of the fort from the elements. So while I have my big tools here, my Nan's axe and my big saw, let's take that down. My spruce logs are there. Okay, so this is, you know, decent, decent size around. I'm going to make a V-notch. Probably going to try and drop it right that way. So I'll make a V-notch on this side of it with my axe. and then I'll come in behind with my saw and make a cut at the hinge saw this is this would come down any any minute easily I had to go get my gloves a bit more okay well snowy yeah that's about perfect I'm happy with that alright so the idea is to go just above the hinge she's gonna go real soon see my hinge Worked out all right. Happy with that. Get this big bruiser back to the fort now, a little tall. That way works. This one was much easier to carry. I have more I can just kind of prop up on the outside to hold them all in. But now for the really only open spot, it's here. When I have all the plastic on and everything. Let's drop the plastic, do up the roof, crank up the fire, see what happens. I'm warm already. It is actually, I swear, I'm not exaggerating. I'm not lying. It is warmer in here than it is out there. I can feel the warmth on my face when I come in here the rocks alone have to be radiating a Ridiculous amount of heat. Okay, this this is the way I'll have it up if my roof is Intact like if my roof is all set up and not pulled back. I can't Anyways still open enough where I can walk in no problem and easy to close and not on top nice again and only behind you is open spot hangar tucked away over there just because I can't tuck it up there anymore that's fine I can even slide that over more if I wanted to but she's ready to deploy boom no problem and over the way there we got a front wall our side walls with the window our door our door at the fort a little gap there that's okay no snow came in there not last night or last this past snowfall at least back wall no snow on the bed at all, all that completely dry and there, there is your only opening, that's it, and it's really not that open, it's still blocked with trees and snow can blow in for sure, but not much, I've doubled up the tarps, this one on the roof has come over past, it probably goes to here, maybe a little bit right to there so that's something anyways, a little bit extra protection pretty happy, see what I mean about the tarp looking a little quilty, it's a little bit like a quilt, I'll put another log in there, like I said before pretty happy, pretty pleased, oh it's not too smoky at all in here, like I said, just had to get going again, I'm comfortable in here again, the temperature has gone up, I don't know what it is, but I'm not cold, I'm gonna get packed up and get out of here pretty soon, I'm gonna let that fire die down, you know, for a little bit longer and go, I um, excuse me, I know if you guys remember, but a while back, probably a couple of months ago now, I told you I was working on something pretty cool and, uh, it's still happening. We're still doing it. We, uh, I can't say anything yet, but in the new year, hopefully near around spring, I'll be able to tell you, but that's what I have to go take off and do now too It's going to be very cool, but you guys have been awesome lately You guys are always awesome, but I just really do appreciate the high views. It seems like every time around this year, around this time, I start to pick up in views and interest again. I don't know, Maybe it's because I start coming back to the bush crafty things or YouTube is just that's how it is this time of year But yeah, it's appreciated. You guys have a great day See you next week I'll try to put out two videos next week, it's Christmas soon And I have a special video coming for Christmas Eve as well. So again, have a good day, treat people nicely Be a help in this world not a hindrance, that's what I'm trying to do Sometimes it's hard All right folks, I will see you soon on another video