Log Cabin Part 1 - Bushcraft Shelter - Building a small log cabin with only hand tools before winter

Every man who has ever watched a western movie has questioned himself as to whether or not he thinks he would have the guts to survive in the wild. Only through mortal combat with Mother Nature can a man test his true fortitude. There are many ways to test yourself against Mother Nature, but one thing is clear. You must have a home base and building a home with nothing but some basic hand tools separates the men from the boys.

This series documents my attempt at building a small log cabin with nothing but a knife, saw, shovel, hatchet, axe, and a length of string. Every day that I worked on this cabin included a 5 mile roundtrip hike with all my tools and supplies. This isn't one of those YouTube bushcraft videos where you are going to catch a glimpse of my house in the background because I'm building this in my backyard or hear a car from the highway because I walked two steps into the woods and always point my camera away from the road. This is a video series of me pushing myself to the limits to build a cabin before winter hits. I have two options. Either I finish the cabin and survive or I don't and I freeze to death.

Each video will include step by step instructions of exactly what I'm doing. As I add more episodes I will include a list of each episode and a one line summary of what I'm doing in that episode so that you can jump around to watch what you want to watch.

Log Cabin Part 1 step by step instructions :

1) The very first thing you have to do when you are building a structure is to layout the foundation. So, I begin by driving four stakes into the ground which will represent the four corners of my cabin. This cabin will be 8 feet wide and 8 feet long. I know that my boot is 12 inches long, so once I drive the first stake into the ground I simply take 8 steps to the next corner and drive another stake into the the ground to mark the next corner of my cabin. I repeat this process until I have all four corners staked out.

2) Once all four corners are staked out I have to make sure that the layout is exactly the same dimensions on all sides. The way to do this is to take a length of string and run it from one corner to the opposite corner and tie a knot in the string which will represent the length of that angle. Then, you take the string and run it between the opposite two corners. If your layout is exactly square then the distance between those corners should be exactly the same as the distance between the first two corners. If it is not, then that means that your layout is not an exact square and you need to move your stake. My layout wasn't exactly a square on my first try, which is why you see me move the stake slightly to make the layout an exact square.

3) The environment where I'm building this cabin is very moist and there is a lot of snow in the winter, so I have to raise the entire cabin up out of the dirt and into the air 2 feet, so that the bottom of the cabin doesn't rot. To do this I must first dig a trench around the perimeter of the cabin. Later, I will add posts and a wooden foundation that the cabin will sit on so that it will stay as dry as possible and last as long as possible. This step would not be necessary in a dry environment. You could just put large rocks down on each corner and build on top of them.

4) I'm building this close to a river because I want easy access to water. The downside to that strategy is that the ground next to the river is going to be full of big round rocks. As luck would have it, both corners in my first trench had giant rocks right where the corners of the cabin needed to be. My only option was to use a little ingenuity to pry them out of the ground with a large log that I cut for the task.

5) Once I got the rocks loose I was able to lift them out of the trench and set them aside. By the way, unless you are 100% sure that you can lift something, don't do it. I've hurt myself in the past doing stupid stuff and believe me when I say there is nothing worse than tearing a muscle in your leg or hurting your back and then having to drag yourself back to your car because you acted like a dumbass.

Episode Guide:

Part 1) Layout foundation and begin digging foundation perimeter.
Part 2) Coming soon!