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Even considering the very long legacy of thoughtful, well-produced videos on this channel, this one stands out. I found it really contemplative and sparse, which really allows room to breathe and just take in the sights and sounds. I think it was a really smart aesthetic choice to rely solely upon diegetic sound, rather than add music or narration or extra sound effects. Relying on just the location-recorded heartbeat of the axes and hammers sawing and pounding away really allowed the event to speak for itself. Great stuff!
You can still get them new. Got some for my boys a couple of years ago on amazon. What I want to find are the pegged and holed wooden red bricks that were before legos. Used to use them along with the lincoln logs for making the chimneys and fire places. Was a naughty boy in that I would cut the bricks to make them fit with the lincoln log houses.
This reminds me of my childhood. My aunt lives in a small village, and whenever a house was being built, the whole village came out to help that person/family build their house. The whole village was built by those in the village. Every time I visit I am amazed that the community was literally built from the ground up by those living in it.
Holy cow I got an ad in the middle of the video? Are you guys finally monetizing? I’m happy to waste a few seconds watching an ad as long as it supports the content you provide. No such thing as a free lunch and I want to support you guys as much as I can. Keep up the great work!
Such fantastic videography and an amazing project. I'm sorry if you've mentioned it elsewhere, but can you provide some context on the project? I live less than 10 miles from there and I've not heard a peep about any of this happening. Is there somewhere I can donate a few files and sharpening stones? So painful to watch them gnaw away with neglected tools.
I really loved this video. It brings the struggle of day-to-day life in an era that was really not all that long ago to the forefront. I don't even live in a big city, and I still can't imagine having the kind of communal bonds and shared competence in real skills that these early frontiersmen and women had. It's really humbling - we act like we're better, smarter, than those dirt-floored peasants that were our 5th-Great Grandparents because we have RU-vid and phones that make us look pretty in real-time. But if you look around, who can build a house? Who can grow their food? Who can even cook a simple meal from raw ingredients? I'm not here to say "millenials are dumb!" because I am one myself and I think the problem is societal, not generational. And it may not even be a problem at all. Just a cost of change, change that was largely for the better, objectively speaking. Not dying from cholera is probably worth the third-hand nostalgia of one Internet commenter. Anyway, thank you Townsends for your wonderful work.
All that communal bonding wasn't always so warm and fuzzy. Working together was a matter of survival. I am sure time pressures were a big factor in getting things done. It wasn't all that romantic.
Also, holy cow. Don't get me starting on chopping wood when you depend on it for heat. That means you chop wood in the winter, when it's cold and awful and blustery. Chapped skin, exhausted, wet. It is not delightful.
Sorry but the Millennials I know may be tech savvy and tho that is paramount to the 21centuary I feel sorry for a lot of you. It troubles me when I hear confessions of the absence of the most minimal cooking knowledge...c'mon you don't even know how to boil water on a stove or steep a tea bag? I've heard these confessions and I hope they were joking. But observing Millennials in break rooms at various temp jobs...
All in all this was a good video. I could have done with a little narration. Example, why were they peeling the logs and what would the peeled bark be used for? Would be used as siding or roofing? Why were they not notching both sides of the log to get a tighter fit? Is it because this is a barn and not a home? What were the different axes and their use? Same question for the saws.
I'm no expert, so take this with a grain of salt. They peel the bark so that there's fewer places for bugs to hide, you only really need one notch unless you're building a really tall cabin, the different axes and saws are used for different tasks. One axe is used for basic cutting, one is used to make flat cuts along the logs, etc.. Same with the saws
You peel the bark because otherwise moisture gets between the log and the bark and they rot. The peeled bark being used will probably be in part 2, but if memory serves correctly it was used as roofing, siding, and other uses as well. I think you're right about the notching being because it's a barn. There's three different axes they used in this episode: a traditional axe/hatchet to fell the trees and for starting deep cuts like notches, etc., the L shaped axe or more precise chisel type cutting, and then the larger flat headed axe is used for planing. The different saws are just for different type of cuts and for speed, for example the two person saw has those really huge teeth on it which produces a coarser but quicker cut for thick logs, etc. The finer the teeth the smoother more precise the cut.
A follow up question as regards the bark. I saw a documentary where they said stone age man would soak the bark they stripped from a tree to get the tough outer layer to peel off so they could use the softer long fibers underneath to make rope. Is that what they are doing here?
This reminds me of Little House in the Woods. God, it was my favorite book as a child. My sisters and I had a hard time taking turns because we'd all want to read at the same time. This video makes me want to read it all over again ❤️
Wow such a great video, not ALMOST, but just a really good documentary. The sheer craftsmenship that went into the Aethetics and soundscaping of the visuals are astounding! BIG props to your cinematographer and director!
I'm a bit surprised they didn't using any moss between those saddles. When I lived in Vermont a neighbor built a log house that he moved into slightly after finishing the outside, and he used a bunch between each interlocking piece. Said it helped keep it from moving when building it and it would allow the logs to settle better under the weight over time without slightly slipping to the side. I volunteered at the Explore Park in the Blue Mountains of Virginia for a number of years and the 1750's era fort was entirely built by hand with period tools. The main house was a two story log structure and although the spaces between logs were daubed with a mixture of mud and deer hair, the spacing was no where near as wide as you see on this structure. Each year they would have a "daubing party", where everyone would fill in any cracks or voids that had fallen out from the previous year. We would save deer hair from any hide that we tanned there. Although much larger than the one here, It was surprisingly snug and comfortable. One time I spent the night on the second floor, sleeping on a rope bed. Tightened the ropes up just slightly before laying down on it so I would "sleep tight".
I have been watching this channel for the last 2-3 months all of your videos are amazing, well thought out, and executed extremely well. But this one feels like it was produced by the history channel or something, masterfully done and I hope to see more videos like this!
its time to get the younger generation away from the video games and out in to the woods to learn how to survive without all this modernization, if my dad can teach me in the 90'sa how its done (he was a carpenter), surely we can teach them today the value of hard work and what it means to follow through with what you start and the satisfaction of completing that task.
Hey, John, I'm curious. Recently I've started reading the Foxfire books -- yes, mid-20th Century, encompassing memories of people back to the mid-19th Century. I'm in the middle of the first book where it's describing building methods. Were similar methods used since early America? It seems most of the same tools and techniques were employed throughout.
The sound of the axes hitting the logs. A distinctive hollow sound. To think my ancestors made housing from these logs and de barking them. I learned so much today. Thank you Jon. These were simple yet uneducated people erecting a structure. No simple minds here. We should count our lucky stars we live in houses with many amenities these folks never dreamed about. Thanks again Jon.
It would be interesting to know what level of education these folks might have had. If they were from the north they were probably literate as the north had a strong literacy rate. I'm not so familiar with where folks in this area came from
This is really cool, I'm interested by the idea of self sufficiency/living off the land/off the grid living and I always thought of those who've done it, you don't have to reinvent the wheel, the past provides the answers to be successful.
1:00 I find it amazing how much technology has advanced and changed to the point where any one individual can create professional looking films with vantage points such as this one (from a drone). Keep up the good work! 1:50 meanwhile, the tree is saying: "AHHH! YOU'RE SKINNING ME! YOU'RE _SKINNING_ ME!!!" 11:20 I'm surprised they aren't singing any 18th century working songs to create a rhythm and pace to the sawing.
I would have a strange question: Could your track back where did you get exactly that axe from? I'm just curious, because I have one that looks the exact same, and I have no idea if it's possible that our axes don't just look the same but they are the same (P.S.: I'm from Europe, so it's pretty unlikely)
It's a lot of work, but it can also be dangerous. My 2nd great uncle was killed at a barn raising for his father-in-law property in 1916. He was struck in the head by a perline beam and killed instantly. The man helping him was also injured, a seven inch long gash in his scalp. Back then they often referred to barn raisings as "Raising Bees".
I liked the woman with the Indian skirt. Although, being part Onondaga (Iroquois), we kept our skirts longer and the lap-over was more substantial, because no matter what your background, modesty was paramount in a time when men could be less than "genteel".
While I was watching the first minute and a half, I couldn't help but thinking some of those people looked familiar. It all clicked when you brought up the town... Right outside where I live! Very cool, thanks for sharing!
I know this is four years after the fact, but thank you for filming and taking part in preserving/recreating the history of my home of East Tennessee. Once you leave the hustle and bustle of the city, and sometimes even within them, early 19th century structures are a stone's throw away. That's why I believe this area, the extreme end of Appalachia, is among the most beautiful in the country. Time goes on but we remember our heritage.
Another awesome video sir. I love the cooking ones so much... but I also really love these. And this one... just amazing. Keep it up. I cannot wait for the Part 2.
Man I was shocked to find that this is really just a normal RU-vid channel, the videos look straight off the History Channel, I thought they were TV clips haha. One of the most proffesional channels I've seen in a long time
I cannot imagine, save for these videos, the deprivations, hard work, stamina and strength the people in the past must have had. Watching this video give me a pretty good idea of what it was like back then. I wonder if the person I am now could have made it. It also would pretty much account for the short lifespans people had then. Awesome work by these folks. Thanks for filming it and showing it here.
I often wonder if our look back at history is incorrect in the sense that we think they're so primitive. Even immigrating from England, they have structures and sophistication that is even around today. I just have trouble believing that they were doing things the hard way like this back then.
Great video. You realize how far you've fallen into the rhythm of the project when the #2 pencil appears at 11:03 and you immediately notice how out of place and jarring it is.
I'm fascinated by their attire! Would it have been normal in the 18th century for a woman to be working in a thin, short shift? Or is that more of a modern-day concession for comfort?
Oh my, so many OSHA nightmares. Loose dangling sashes, bare feet, no steel toed shoes, no hard hats, safety goggles, no safety harnesses. Yet, they manage to git er done! The bare feet really had me cringing though. I would want the hardest shoes I could find of the day.
Just curious, any information on building sod houses these would often cheaper to build and then build a stronger better log home as they could. There would definitely be more of these types of homes (sod or log) than brick in the time period.
The sound of the logs, when being chopped, sounds like there is a echo or reverberation sound. Was that something that one could hear when chopping or did the microphone pick this up?
