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In 2013 we bought a little cabin in the woods as our permanent home. This decision really changed the course of our life. Living along a flowing river full of trout, surrounded with a canopy of old-growth forest has taught us the values of living within nature. But, like all good things you always want more. For now, we intend to keep this little slice of heaven but are looking to set up another home base a little further north.
Since we’re looking for land that has both a fresh water source and plenty of acres to manage a woodlot we’re expecting to have to pay a fair fee and know we’ll need to put most of our financial resources into the land itself. We also want to design a life that allows us to live a debt-free life to avoid financial stress and worry that often prevents people from properly considering environmental factors in their home building decisions. When even the cheapest mass-produced house is beyond the reach of most, concerns about quality and environment are often pushed aside. This project is going to explore traditional building methods that have environmental concerns at the forefront.
The biggest question most of you will face if trying to pursue a similar journey is where would I be able to get logs legally that wouldn’t have a negative environmental impact. With a little looking around you might be surprised how many people have planted woodlots because municipalities and conservation groups have been providing grants and subsidies to landowners encouraging them to fill their land with trees. It’s expected that one day these trees will be harvested for lumber. However, sawmills are looking for trees larger than 18” in diameter. In southern Ontario that’s going to take roughly 60 years and for the trees to get that large and they need a lot of space to grow. In my case, the landowner happened to be family and was more than happy to have me out there thinning his woodlot. So part of what this cabin project will showcase is making use of logs smaller than those that have commercial value. I did harvest a few bigger ones for key elements of my cabin design but for the most part, these trees are a byproduct of woodlot management.
If like me, you wish to self harvest your own logs it might be worth inquiring with the local landowner who have woodlots if they are willing to sell you some trees for a trade of services.
If you plan to work the wood with hand tools and build a cabin without heavy machinery, I’d highly recommend using a Coniferous species. Coniferous, also known as evergreen, are trees that have needles instead of leaves. In woodworking, we call these softwoods as they are much easier to work with when using hand tools and much lighter.
This woodlot has White Pine, Norway Spruce, and Siberian Larch. The larch are similar to a native Canadian Larch also known as Tamarack. Tamarack is a word from the native Abenaki language, which simply means “wood used for snowshoes.” I will be using some Larch in this project since it is the strongest and most rot-resistant tree on the woodlot but for the most part, I’ll be using the lighter, and easier to work with, White Pine.
Although it is a little disturbing to see how many trees it takes to make a small cabin I feel so fortunate that my cabin project won’t contribute to the deforestation of the old growth great Canadian wildness here in Ontario that I love exploring. At the rate of tree growth, and the size of the woodlot, if managed properly there would be trees for many many generations of cabin builders. My goal is to self harvest 100% of the wood used in this cabin not only reducing deforestation but also reduce environmental impact with the reduced transportation costs, and manufacturing of synthetic materials.
Tools
(Disclosure: These tools were given to us by Husqvarna to test)
Husqvarna 26” Forest Axe
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Husqvarna 536 Li XP Battery Ch
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Wool Coat:
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Camera Gear:
Drone
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Main Camera- amzn.to/2CYlYL6
24-70mm lens - amzn.to/2oG7hIw
70-200mm lens amzn.to/2oGECTv
Camera Case / Camp Table
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