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Home Alone with my Dog at the Log Cabin, ASMR Tapping Trees, Off Grid Refrigeration

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Rating: 4.0; Vote: 1

This week, I am home alone with my dog at the off grid log cabin and we get a lot done - tapping trees for maple syrup, harvesting lake ice for summer refrigeration, finally installing hinges and handle on the outhouse door, ripping logs for future projects and more. I cook two meals - poached lake trout with wild rice and tabbouleh and beef soup with mixed vegetables. Cali, our Golden Retriever, is 14 months old and still full of energy. She is a retrieving fanatic and I love to watch her retriever her training dummy, which is one of the reasons I prefer sporting dogs. Their passion to work is incredible and Cali is clearly happier retrieving than doing anything else. In fact, she'll ignore dog treats or bones if there is something to retrieve first, whether that's a thrown boat bumper or a wild bird, such as waterfowl or grouse. Her lineage is more show that field, but most retrievers, whether Labrador, Golden, Chesapeake, etc, will still have that instinct to hunt since it is what they have been bred for over many decades. Cali is a passionate retrieiver. The video starts with me and Cali walking along the ice on the edge of a large lake in Ontario Canada. Huge chunks of clear, blue ice have accumulated along the pink granite shoreline and then refroze into beautiful sculptures. I collect some of this ice, bringing it back to the log cabin in the woods to store under sawdust for summer cooling. However, an unprecedented warm spell for February melts the ice before I get a chance to store it in sawdust to keep it cold. The temperatures are up and down, but generally much warmer than we are used to hear in Canada in February. It gets as high as +9 Celsius on one day and the sap in the maple trees starts running. I tap about 15 trees, installing spigots and steel pails to collect the sap as it runs during the day, freezing at night. I will tap another 15 trees once the weather stabilizes and we get many days above freezing in a row. The sound of sap dripping into the buckets at this time of year is music to my ears, ASMR, as it foretells of spring to come. The birds are getting more active too, so the forest, which was virtually silent a few weeks ago, is bubbling with the sound of birds and squirrels becoming more active in anticipation of spring. To make up for the melted ice, I cut large chunks from the stream behind the cabin and I store it in a shallow pit, covered in sawdust and a tarp. I will need to add a lot more ice and sawdust over the next couple of weeks in order to create enough mass to stop it from melting too much over the summer. Next year, I'll build an ice house to store it more efficiently, so this year is more of an experiment. Tabbouleh Recipe: 1 cup Curly parsley chopped 1/2 cup chopped mint leaves 1-2 garlic cloves minced 1/2 cup Hemp hearts 1 1/2 cups diced cherry tomatoes Dressing: Fresh lemon zest (1/2 a lemon) 2 TBSP fresh lemon juice 2 TBSP Olive oil 1 tsp red wine vinegar 1/2 TBSP pure maple syrup Salt and pepper to taste Combine dressing ingredients in a bowl and pour over top of chopped ingredients. Stir to combine everything and serve immediately. Links to gear used in this video: Solar LED light bulb 15W Agawa Canyon Boreal 21 Saw Copper Fairy lights Solar String Lights Banneton 12 round Lodge Dutch Oven Flamen heat resistant gloves up to 500 degrees Rocksheat baking stone Mora Knife Lamp OiI Wall Lantern (candle lit) Moka Pot Canada USA Canon 6D DJI Mavic Pro Bragg's Sprinkle Eagle Claw Multi-Purpose Jet Sled Axe
Date: 2020-11-30

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Comments and reviews: 10

Dane
So i like these formats much more. I get a sense of completion & then as important i get to hear you talk.
When i started listening i didnt think there was much time left. I built a worldwide empire w production crews and the lot. But there were lots of heart attacks, death experiences & severe consequences along the way. By changing my perspective as i view my past & these videos i am creating another journey. I was shocked at how life style change, changed my mind and body. The journey will be longer now at a proper speed & unending & much more satisfying. I stop now to take pictures that i include in my paintings. My ideas using quantum physics within my profession has brought me to a deep love of nature.
Its better now and someone else will take it further when i am done as i have done with those whose shoulders i stand on. I thank them all. They taught me even when i didn't know they were.
Dane
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Titanas
Life is True that all we gonna die and hard work and enjoyment extend the life, coz life without meaning is not a life and it over really fast, people like you who enjoy the nature will last very long coz they are part of the nature, in theres days all peoples like dolls working, stressing and die before pension, the gov seems wanna it, but is some smart people who falling to them hearts and doing this thing what are you doing buddy, don't worry about tress or oil supplies coz nature can RECOVERING fatser that you blinking the eyes, people thinks that they can cut all forests and destroy nature but they an idiots they can't even land on the moon: )
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Balazs
Hey Shawn,
im jealous for what, where how and why you are doing it. in some point i wish i could do the same, but not everyones wife wants to live in a log house: ) Although watching you fulfilling your dream gives me some point of relief that i might be able to do it one day, as it is possible! Keep on doing what you do. About trees, if you cut down 15 trees for your house, they will grow back, thats different to the cutting acres of wood to provide wood to everyone. if you are outside in nature, you will only take what you need. Most people dont understand that, especially those who dont have trees in their country!
Greeting from Hungary
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Robert
Hello Shawn I'm a carpenter by trade and I've started watching your videos and I want to thank you for helping me find the joy in my job again. I've gotten into that day to day mundane feeling and really just going through the movements, but since following your videos like I said i found why I became a carpenter to begin with, I'm making something with my hands from scratch and I take great pride in the work I do. so thank you for the inspiration. Keep up the good work and be safe and healthy out there.
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DhaTi
Now I really don't know about your personal life but I do have to say that from what I can see, you have a very understanding wife. There are wives who don't want their husbands to do his thing. They prefer the husband to stay with them and spend with them and such. Some wives get jealous if the husband is away and not being with the wife most of the time.
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Richard
The journey or the destination, which came first? From where I'm sitting, the Journey would be, What makes mama happy. And the destination would be, As long as she is willing to make this journey with me, the destination will be the Here-n-Now! May God continue to bless you, your family and Cali.
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Gesiggie
I live in South Africa, what I see here is you are building a little piece of heaven, food to restore your soul, such peacefulness around you is hard fought for all over the world, to keep that peacefulness is hard work. I am really amazed when watching these videos, thank you
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Ertan
hello. I am ERTAN. turkey
I'm watching you from and you are being really sincere. I would like to be in that environment while watching you. To have a cup of tea by the cozy fireplace. You should keep making videos like this because that's what suits your personality.
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Heather
I'm in Sydney Australia. I'm an ex farmer, for me it's about getting back to living as self sufficient as possible, living off the land and off grid, as now I'm old it's getting too hard to pay the bills that keep increasing in price.
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Anita
Loved your huge response to the commenters, well said. Just tell everyone it is an ongoing project and no one knows what future plans are. Living as you do is a year round labor of love. to have your peace and serenity.
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