Back in 2002 I was working in Northern Saskatchewan, and in the next town over to me, I became friends with a man I continue to admire.

His name was Duane, and he worked as a radiology technician in the local hospital. He was divorced and owned his own house, but had no interest in material luxuries, so rented out the house, and just lived in a room in the basement. At least for a while.

You see, he also owned some otherwise useless woodland along the Saskatchewan River, which he spent far more time in than his small room in town.

Indeed, he would go riding in his own woods, and built himself a small cabin that he ended up choosing to live in instead. One day, he invited me to go riding with him, do some trailbuilding, and to see his place.

He built the entire thing with nothing but a small axe, using the surrounding resources. Everything. Including the furniture. With nothing but an axe.

These are the pictures I took that day.

That’s a younger me in the first picture, with my old Trek Fuel 90, and Duane in the all the others, modelling his handiwork.

That’s bloody impressive!

Nice story and pics!

Impressive.
Did you find a book bound in human skin & a trap door ?

Werther’s anyone?

(Sorry! 🙂 )

Now that is superb.

😀

Excellent.

They buried her in the fruit cellar.

He built the entire thing with nothing but a small axe, using the surrounding resources. Everything. Including the furniture. With nothing but an axe.

Judging by the neatly trimmed ends of many of the logs, I reckon that big bowsaw came in handy at times as well… 😉
Stunning place, that’s about as traditional a log cabin as you can get. Just lovely.

That’s great, always fancied doing that, and with the possibility of huts being allowed in Scotland I might get the chance one day.

If you like that sort of thing have a look for the Dick Proenekke videos

If you like that sort of thing have a look for the Dick Proenekke videos

Beat me to it whilst I was out night riding.

Fascinating tale, it takes a content soul to live a life so simple. Chapeau.

brilliant. Cheers SR.

If you like that, you’ll like this

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYJKd0rkKss[/video]

and this

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3J5wkJFJzE[/video]

That is cool.

What is also cool is that you are still wearing that jacket.

If you like that sort of thing have a look for the Dick Proenekke videos

Beat me to it whilst I was out night riding.[/quote]

d’Oh! 🙂

I have never seen a stove like that built out of wood, let alone with an axe, how did he do it?

The Dick Proenekke film is great. cheers.

you know….

I’ll bet that’s not a very nice place to live after a while.

A bit like the North, no? 😉

in a similar vein, I have been reading this this morning:

For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact, Unaware of World War II

In 1978, Soviet geologists prospecting in the wilds of Siberia discovered a family of six, lost in the taiga

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/for-40-years-this-russian-family-was-cut-off-from-all-human-contact-unaware-of-world-war-ii-7354256/

Lacking guns and even bows, they could hunt only by digging traps or pursuing prey across the mountains until the animals collapsed from exhaustion

fasinating article, The Lykovs, apart from from some Kalahari hunters are the only “peoples” that science knows of that practised persistence hunting.

Where did he plug his iPad into ?

What is also cool is that you are still wearing that jacket.

😀 If it ain’t broke…

you know….

I’ll bet that’s not a very nice place to live after a while.

You’d be right if the reason you moved in in the first place was because of the novelty. If you live like that anyway, and are content with reading and writing and collecting wood and appreciating the quiet and beauty of the natural world and fending off bears, then I’m not sure I agree with you.

this bit is a frightening thought.

Famine was an ever-present danger in these circumstances, and in 1961 it snowed in June. The hard frost killed everything growing in their garden, and by spring the family had been reduced to eating shoes and bark. Akulina chose to see her children fed, and that year she died of starvation. The rest of the family were saved by what they regarded as a miracle: a single grain of rye sprouted in their pea patch. The Lykovs put up a fence around the shoot and guarded it zealously night and day to keep off mice and squirrels. At harvest time, the solitary spike yielded 18 grains, and from this they painstakingly rebuilt their rye crop

the fragility of agriculture without having back up.

If you live like that anyway, and are content with reading and writing and collecting wood and appreciating the quiet and beauty of the natural world and fending off bears, then I’m not sure I agree with you.

read that article about the Lykovs…After a while the effort required to just “exist” in those sorts of houses cut off from everything and everyone just takes it’s toll, while one can eschew modern conveniences, the grind of daily existence would soon wear away the novelty. (for most folk, and certainly me, I’d reckon)