Thread: Alone in the wilderness

What, no 8,000 grit stone for the axe & drawerknife?! Nothing but files to sharpen his edges?!

He wasn't too bad with the tools knocking out the notches for the logs, but I did have to wonder about using Spruce for a mallet - it's a strong wood for its weight, but it has very little of that (weight). I guess you work with whatever you've got on hand. Pretty good effort - doubt I'd be able to knock up a cabin to keep out the Alaskan Winter in a short Summer. Pity the extract skips all the finishing details; I wonder what he used to chink the logs? Modern log cabin builders use mortar, but you wouldn't be able to pop down to Bunnies for another bag of mortar mix in the wild.
Cheers,

There's lots of moss on the ground in coniferous forests. Simple blunt wedge and pound it in. Lived in a cabin like that on the Churchill River/SK for 4+ months one summer = wonderful.
Spruce mallet? Sure. Beat it to death, add it to the pile of stove logs, create another mallet. My alder wood mallets come and go in the same way. As I don't have a stove to burn round wood, I just toss it over the fence into the neighbor's back yard for his fire pit.

Parts 2 , there's more as well

Yeah, come on over. Looks like my place for a thousand miles

There is a companion book taken from Dick Proenneke's journals under the same name, which is a nice quick read. He goes into detail about the design decisions and harvesting the materials he used in the buildings.
It is worth taking the time...

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

..... I just toss it over the fence into the neighbor's back yard for his fire pit.

As long as he knows it is you that is adding to the pile.