What you bring to the table with your wilderness content is joy, gratitude, and awe. We can watch other men deprive themselves more or test themselves more. We can watch other men build more finely crafted cabins, stay away from civilization for longer, or bushcraft their way out of trouble with greater sophistication. We watch you anyway, those of us who do, because what you always, always remember to do which they often forget is to savor where you are and what you're doing. That first bite of food, that little noise you make when you taste it, that always makes the cut. A half week of hellish hard labor, and you still took the time to show us how your respite from that work made you feel. You still launch that drone, film those shots which show us without telling us what an awesome and remote wilderness surrounds you. Your tent wasn't the heart of your channel. Your cabin isn't the heart of your channel. The north woods of Canada aren't even the heart of your channel. Thoreau wrote: "Pursue some path, no matter how narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence." He didn't say this as a throwaway line. He wrote, made a life of writing, in reaction to a particular kind of horror at the way modernity and industrialization had cut so many men off from something essential in their own souls. His life's work was a battle to take that back. Your content is deeply engaged with that battle. In the coldest of cold winters and in the hottest of hot summers, hounded by biting flies in wildfire conditions or hacking at Canadian Shield rock with the wrong tools, reacting to the content of a creator with better funding and a bigger community, you always remember to show us your love and your reverence. You seem to understand, as an editor and as an essentially Canadian artist, that these quiet, appreciative moments are the best of all of us. That's the heart of your channel. Roam. Experiment. Fail. As long as you remember to show us the best of how you felt along the way, you're doing something few others on RU-vid remember to do. That's why I'm here. How you put a voice to the awe and to the love in your soul. Keep that, and a lot of us will stay. Hot or cold, skilled or clumsy, hard or easy, alone or in company. Record, give thanks. A lot of us are going to stay to be a part of it.
Wow. This is one of the finest comments I have ever received. It truly made me feel so good about what I've been doing on this channel. Thanks for taking the time to write this. I sincerely appreciate it. Jay
A couple over easy eggs on the corn beef hash 😊 yum .As for your digging , never dig without a bar ! 6' point at one end chisel type head on the other. Good for breaking rock , cutting roots , loosening soil & rocks .😊
he's from Labrador central (like me) and it's all glacial deposit back home, you can dig for ages in a lot of spots and its mainly an orange-brown sand. Lots of topsoil as well as theres a lot of marsh and river delta in the area. my father had the outhouse hole at our cabin done in an afternoon, but there was maybe a literal handful of rocks.
I was thinking the same thing a hammer drill would have helped a lot , even now and get you a little deeper , can't have the out house hole too deep lol.
Even a small 3 pound sledge hammer with a couple different sized chisels would make a lot faster work of the rock than trying to chip it with the shovel - I use a small piece of 2x4 with a 3/4" hole drilled in it to hold the chisel whilst I swing the hammer.
You can rent or buy an electric jackhammer that might break those rocks..Also if your hole is not deep enough you will have freezing troubles in the winter..You can buy lye that you mix with warm water and pour it in the hole to dissolve the waste and kill the smell..It works great to keep your outhouse clean and fresh...
I got so tired just watching this video that I had to go take a nap. Have to agree with you that this is the hardest thing you have done yet. Congratulations on a hole well dug.
You need a six foot spud bar to pry loose those rocks. Much easier than a shovel. They have a three or so inch flat wide end and a tamp circke head on the other. Generally inch or more diameter bar. Heavy and strong. Good bid, good cooking on the cb hash. Catsup. Yeah some more flavors mixed in. Onion pepper etc. All good. When you cut those trees off try to turn the blade flat to the ground as low as you can and cut them off. You don't want to trip on them or have to shovel around them this winter. Made chop them off. You going to have to dig dredge the creek bed to get in their. Long time yet before rains or snow.
You need a Mattock ( dual headed pick axe, flat blade one side pointed pick the other ) great for getting through tough rooty/ rocky ground . 👍😉 Also like somebody else has said a heavy duty sds drill with breaker chisel bit.
Well done Jay. At least once you have it built you will be able to sit there and contemplate how hard it was to dig it out. A crow bar would be a big help.
Jay, your perseverance and hard work with that hole is admirable. Your laugh cracks me up. 😅 You are a very good cook. Your food always looks so delicious. It's making me hungry, so now it's time to go make a good breakfast for my own family. Have a great week, stay safe, and God bless you always. 🙏
@@joeholm4591 I think the key is having a high-quality strainer to capture food particulates and then really the only thing going down the drain is soapy water, which is not going to harm anything. Having said that there may be local ordinances in place that have to be considered.
Jay brother In the UK we use a breaker bar for what u are doing It's a 2 meter thick strong metal bar a point at one end and a wedge at the other end the weight of the bar when thrown into the hole will shatter the rock easily if you split the rock with a spade Also a very versatile tool to have at the cabin
Great video. Considering you are seriously by yourself up there, consider chainsaw chaps, as you never know when you might slip. Also, as someone who has cut out a lot of roots with a reciprocal saw, getting a carbide demolition blade is worth it, even if you ruin the blade.
A good oil for wooden utensils is mineral oil. You will find it in the laxative section at the grocery store. It will soak into the wood and protect it from absorbing water and cracking like any oil but it will not go rancid like a vegetable oil will. I use it on the cutting boards I build. I have one that is about 10 years old and still in good shape. As long as you keep oil in the wood and water out they should last indefinitely. Great video. After watching you dig that hole, I had to take a nap. Wore me out.
Since you are dealing with so much rock at your cabin you might want to look at purchasing an eze-break Micro Blaster system. Not sure of Canadian laws but we use it a lot clearing land and improving our property. If you can’t then would either definitely go with the impact hammer like others said or a breaking bar “not the pointed one”, or wait till winter and build a very hot fire in the hole. It’ll make the rock brittle and the melted snow will fill in the cracks and freeze breaking rocks apart that way.
Tools we had in the Army were a shovel, a pickaxe, and a long handled pry/ crow bar. Looks like the pick axe and pry bar might help you out there. Probably going to want to do something to support the walls of the latrine pit so they don't collapse. My favorite cut is a strip steak. Just enough and a good one has the right combination of lean to fat. For the hash I would delete the carrots (too sweet) and add an onion and a bell or jalapeno/ serrano pepper. Thanks again for the great video, keep up the awesome work! 🤠👍❤
Right Andy. A 50 gal drum works perfectly. Cut one end off the barrel (bottom) an then cut the top to fit the hole depth I imagine a round plastic trash barrel would also do it, and might be easier to cut.
When using silicone type fillers have a mug of water beside you and keep the smoothing finger wet. This will leave a far smoother finish and does no harm to the silicone.
Looks good I’ll have to try your corned beef recipe,and if you only use part of can the bottom part can be used as a lid and put back in your fridge. Love the channel cheers
Hi jay. The pie crust idea is good although I think making a dry English Pasty or a baked turnover sort of affair would be very nice for that excellent dish you fried up there.
Reminds me of growing up in Montana, they nailed 4 2by4s in a square, handed me a shovel and told me to take that square down 6 feet. We used a spoonful of hydrated lime every use. Probly still in use
I spent last week in Yellowknife for my new employment. It's was my first time to NWT, and I can't wait to get back! It was a new appreciation for your content.
Another great episode, Jay! The steak and the corned beef hash meals both looked crazy good! Suggestions: 1. Yes to the onions, and save some of the red bell pepper from the steak dinner for the hash. 2. A carbide blade for the Sawzall with roots and dirt. (Aggressive teeth that cut faster and blade holds up longer.) 3. A digging or spud bar or a hammer drill. (The digging bar requires just Jay power; the hammer drill would use batteries, but probably much faster.)
Hey Jay. Here an idea . When building the seat for out house attach a chute made of a flexible, durable material so the chute builder down plus hole gives you the depth you need. Then use the little rocks and sand at bottom of out house for absorption. . I seen this used on another channel.
Needed a 60" (5ft) Chisel Digging Bar (6.2kg) Pry Road Concrete Wrecker Wrecking Bar. Would have been a whole lot easier on that rock. Love your videos.. Live vicariously through them. Keep em comin.
I have loads of bush rock here, hiring a jack hammer to break that darn rock is good. Veg oil and all seed oil is so bad for humans. Extra virgin olive oil is best. Or butter. Mash potato on top of corn beef hash is yum. Thanks for video Jay❤
With all the rock under foot you need a “COLLINS 60” pinch point pry bar” in camp. Heavy to haul up there but oh so worth it for this hole and the future. Ace hardware in States.
Who would've thought that digging an outhouse hole would be so entertaining? Throwing the rocks into the hole was the best😂. Seriously, though, what a tough job. Was that a Corelle dinner plate? It's amazing how far those plates travel from their home base in NYS.
A handy tool for digging in rocky and rooted soil is called a root axe. It's an iron bar about 5 plus feet long, weighs around 25 pounds or more. One end is flattened to form about a three inch wide blade and can be sharpened. The other end is usually pointed which is useful for prying rocks. The weighted feel of the tool makes it pretty efficient once you get used to it. I lived in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania for about 13 years. Trying to dig a hole with a shovel or post hole digger alone was futile. An iron pry bar or a root axe made digging jobs easier. An old fashioned hardware store would be the best place to find one.
To add to the cornbeef hash, I'd add onions definitely, choped quite fine, I'd also add white cabbage so you kinda get a bubble and squeak and really crisp it up, best bit in a hash and a bubble and squeak is the burnt bits, in my opinion. Well, you were having to work hard, though you seem to be enjoying it,.... kinda. Nice watching your videos, I love that you learn on the job, I'll be waiting for your next one, sending love from Great Britain ❤❤❤
This was one hard-working four-day episode. As I watched you struggle through the rock, I kept thinking "Where's the jackhammer?"" 🤔 But you managed with sweat, perseverance, and I imagine a few four-letter words. When it comes to steaks, ribeye is a favorite. But after I discovered flat iron steak, I was amazed at how tasty and tender they were. This is a steak when cooked properly can be cut with a fork. Looking forward to the completion of your outhouse project.
Mmmmm Ribeye, my favorite too. Had top teeth all pulled 15 months ago, haven't been able to eat anything that good since. Hate my dentures and have worn them maybe 3 times max. Bring a pickaxe for your land, in case you need it every time you build Jay. Take care.
Big Job. Place a layer of stone, a layer of mud/gravel, another layer of stone, etc, etc, etc. This will build up the hole to compensate for not going deeper. It will give you a sturdy base for a pallet to build the outhouse on. Pick up a bag of lime too. "Sprinkle a cup of lime in, each time you pooh, that way i'll smell good, the next time i'm used". :)
Thanks for doing these videos. Always been a dream of mine to go to Canada, one day I will. Finally went abroad for the first time last month, I went to Norway 🇳🇴 . 😊
Good on yah Jay for your perseverance on that hole! I thought for sure you’d have paused till coming back with a wrecking bar or a portable hammer drill. As for cuts, definitely a beef ribeye and second best is a pork shoulder blade steak cooked over the coals.
If you guys get brown sauce (HP sauce, but not the fruity variant) over there, you should give that a try instead of ketchup on your corned beef hash (also great for a bacon sandwich). I believe the A.1 steak sauce that they have in the US is similar, but I've never tried it so would be unable to comment
one thing I would suggest maybe spending in half a day that little river that you have to push the boat through maybe you can go through it and spend a day getting all the big rocks out of the center of it make it easier for you to push the boat through
You might consider making a harness and a rope for pulling your boat through that shallow passage (like you being a horse) less tugging involved for sure ? Great videos tho. 😎
I Absolutely Love your new style of videos Jay!!! ❤ The cabin, outdoor projects, cooking Amazing food!!! That spatula was Awesome!!! 😃 Loved it!!! Thank you so much for everything you do in your videos!!! I sincerely appreciate it, and I Always look forward to seeing your cool new videos!!! 😊 P.S. Rib eye is steaks and the absolute best ever!!! 😋 LOL!!!
How about a pick-ax? I’m going to make the corn beef dish, it looks delish, maybe topping it of with 2 fried eggs. Thanks for your return Jay. Loved your spatula.💕👏
No advice. Keep doing what your doing. Been watching for years and I love your can do and learn mentality. I'll never forget you putting your skid floor for your tent. I was hooked. You figured it out and look at you know. ❤
Corn beef hash ….. when I make it I do the onions first get them all caramelised then I add a can of juicy corn niblets, delicious 😋😋😋then loads of Worcestershire sauce on top once cooked!
if i may, when you do pile your rocks around the finished hole, remove the sod from under them, as the sod seems to shift as you step on it. save the sod you removed, use it for filler etc in the rocks you pile. also i would dig back on the path going down to the cabin and use rocks from what you can find to fill it in. saving your woodash and sawdust to throw in on the hole when you use it is a big help as well.
