How We Make Our Own Lumber For Our Remote Cabin

There's just one thing left before we

can finally close out the permit to our

cabin addition.

This week, we're finally building some

railings for the deck.

>> But instead of buying lumber, we're

going to make our own from trees on our

property right here in the mountains of

Western Canada.

This past winter, a windstorm knocked

down several Douglas fur trees. And

after cleaning the branches, we hauled

the logs to our sawmill.

We either had to lift them onto a

trailer and drive them around or we drag

them with the quad.

So, last week we used a bunch of our

wood that fell from a storm to turn it

into our fence.

>> You good? You got that?

>> I guess so.

This week, we're finally going to take

care of our deck railing, but we have a

lot of wood to mill. This is our cut

list. We don't think we're going to have

enough trees, but we'll use what we

have, and then we'll go look for some

more dead ones. First on the list, 14

6x6 posts, 4 ft tall.

>> So, it's going to be 6x6. There might be

a bit of corner in it.

>> We debated having the post just be the

log and we would debark it, but it's a

lot quicker. This way.

Level PV.

Kira, that is not a good spot, buddy.

You're going to get blasted.

>> I've got two square sides now. So, I'm

just going to set it to six inches. So,

right now, I'm just measuring how far my

blade is from the bottom. So, I have to

measure this first one, but after that,

we're all set and we can just run them

through.

>> Hero, get out of there.

>> Oh my gosh. This is a whole 2x4. This is

fur. Fur is really heavy wood, dense.

Oh, Kier's right there. K, he

>> sure is.

>> Go somewhere. Go somewhere.

I think the big timber is going to look

great.

>> That's a beautiful post.

>> This is actually so beautiful.

>> It's like clear. There's no knots in it.

>> Wow. How are you going to cut it?

>> I don't know. [laughter] Like I said,

>> we don't

>> I don't have a saw that can do that.

>> We don't have a big enough saw.

>> See, this is what the mill's good for.

>> This This is where the money saves.

>> Yeah, this is quick. Like

>> quick. And these timbers are so

expensive at the lumber store.

Dude,

>> are you going to angle the tops like we

talked about?

>> Huh?

>> Are you going to angle the tops like we

talked about?

>> Yeah.

>> So, do you need a little [laughter]

>> Who got sawdust in there?

>> Better than that. Yeah,

good one.

Okay. Up.

There you go.

Okay. More.

Oh my gosh.

I think it's cuz

Beautiful.

>> Looks like it's from the hardware store.

>> Yeah.

Gro has not been feeling very good

lately. He uh hurt his back leg again.

>> Kro, come here.

Leave it, buddy.

Let's uh just jack it up.

>> Wow.

Wow. This one's dirty. This one might be

too big for the chipper.

This one's heavy. So heavy. So heavy.

On all of our posts, we have the heart

of the log right in the middle. And

that's not the best way to do it. When

you get high quality lumber, there's no

heart called free of heart center. But

since our logs are so small, you can't

get a 6x6.

>> So that's another reason why big timbers

are so expensive.

>> Exactly. Need giant trees.

>> A giant tree cuz you can only really use

like half of it.

>> Why can't it be the heart of center?

Because

>> heart of palm

>> when the tree cracks the cracks will you

can see on this one radiate out from the

middle. So if you don't have that middle

then that limits the movement in the

wood. So I can guarantee that in a

year's time there'll be a crack right

there. All closest to the heart.

>> Okay, Carol, let's go.

[laughter] Don't laugh at him. 12 years

young. You want to go have a nappy?

Dropped off the first load. Back up at

the mill. This tree is very curvy. Up

off the jack there and touching the jack

there.

>> What about this?

>> Why did I walk farther?

>> Taking a little break. There's pee on

the deck.

>> There's pee on the deck.

>> Oh my gosh. There's pee everywhere.

We're eating good tonight. Oh my gosh.

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This is our last one. Last one. We're

just about finished the first item on

our milling list. Remember

to take care of your equipment.

Two likes on this video and we'll build

a a sawmill barn.

My tomato plant has gotten very big. I

didn't know if we'd get enough sun, but

look at these cherry tomatoes. These

guys are going to be ready in a few

days. We've got this set of tomatoes

growing tomatoes there and tomatoes

there. These are going to be big Brandy

Wine tomatoes. The cucumber is starting

to flower and that little thing is going

to be a English cucumber. I've got one

broccoli that I think is doing really

well. The rest are not growing as as

big. Same with the Roma.

I think this spot might be too sunny.

Dill is coming in strong. Got my

strawberry patch that probably won't be

that good until next year. Zucchini is

starting to flower. And then this is our

pepper bed. These are Parker's

jalapenos. Those are starting to flower.

Oh, and another zucchini plant, too.

Back here. It's the first days of July

right now. I think by August, we're

going to have a pretty good harvest. All

of the wood is under the tent, and it's

got to dry for at least a day. You can

see the moisture on the edges. We've had

a lot of rain recently, but it's

starting to dry up, so that'll be good

for the wood.

Good morning to you and to the robin

who's making a nest on our AC right now.

We did a rough cut with the chainsaw

yesterday. So now we're just getting

them to the exact length with the table

saw, miter saw, and we don't have a big

enough saw for this.

If you're doing timber framing, you just

use a circular saw that's big.

>> Yeah. It's called a beam saw.

>> We've got 14 of these posts. So, we got

to do 28 cuts, but each cut gets flipped

three times. That's just to get them the

length we need.

>> Yeah.

>> So, how much were these for the post

again?

We need to take turns flipping the log.

It's like doing a dumbbell every time

you have to turn one of these around.

>> I should be doing all of them.

So you do this so that I can square up

to the miter saw.

>> Yeah. Just so there's no fluff on the

edge.

That's beautiful.

H heart of center.

I'm trying to Notch out the bottom

corner so that post can still sit on the

deck but also be attached into the side

of the deck.

That's as much as I can cut with my

circular saw.

Let me just clean up the edges.

>> There's 14 posts and only nine of them

have a straight edge. The others are

corners.

>> And then last step, I come in with the

belt sander and just straighten up all

my cuts.

And my last step is to drill the two

bolt holes. So, we got this long drill

bit, and that's to help me make sure

these are dead straight. When there's a

long drill bit, it's really easy to see

if this is off at all, so I can make

smaller adjustments. If the drill bit

was really short, it's tough to get it

nice and straight.

So, one other thing I do when I'm doing

my layout is I try to make sure the

heart is on one side or the other, not

on the front or back, because when it's

going to check, it's going to split

closest to the heart. So, I'm going to

have a check down the side. I'd rather

have checked down the side, a split down

the side than I would in the front or

back.

The circular saw can't cut

an angle that way.

Good morning. Parker and I basically

just crashed out yesterday. It was a lot

of work. These are a labor of love. But

look how beautiful they turned out. And

now we have to stain them to protect

them from water. Look at that notching.

So, this is going to be a corner post.

Hopefully, we can get these up today.

Each post needs two coats. And we are

going to be staining them yellow.

I'm just kidding. This is just a clear

protectant. We painted the trim a darker

color so that it could blend in with the

water stains that already existed on

that trim that was on the existing

cabin, but we wanted to keep it to that

natural wood color. So, we're just going

with a clear. Hopefully, it looks good.

They're covered in the dust from

sanding. I love the debarked corners.

They make it look more like a log and

less like a milled piece of lumber. Each

one of these is going to need two coats,

so I'm going to be here pretty much all

day. Going to put on a good podcast.

Listen to the birds chirp.

These two I stained yesterday and they

had a whole night to dry. This one is

fresh. So, look how much it lightens up

to its more natural color.

you over here cutting holes in our deck.

>> Okay, let's see if it fits. Have you dry

fitted already?

>> No.

>> What?

>> Wow.

Okay, so this one's not stained yet. I

think it looks great.

>> Sick. Looks like a castle.

>> Timber framed

>> decoring. necking

>> pretty much.

>> Yep.

Oh, it fit. Ow.

This is amazing. And then the railing

will be like here.

>> Can I find some product like a wax or

something

>> to fill the tops of these?

>> That's a good idea.

Get a dab of that on the bottom. And

then I level it this way first because

that's the way my screws go in.

And I'm kind of limited on where I can

put my screws on this one.

Don't use this as [laughter] an example.

Why' you pick this one?

>> Normally, they're about that far apart.

Do you remember the stairs that came

with the cabin? The handrails were just

small trees.

And then later on, we're going to put

additional structural screws into our

fascia board. Otherwise, all of the

weight from the railing is just on that

one board. In our area, you need to be

able to apply 200 lb of force anywhere

on the railing without it falling down.

So, these ones are a great example.

These posts are bolted to this front

board. So, if we were to try to twist

this off, this whole front board could

just peel right off. So, we're going to

take additional structural screws and

put them into all of our joists so that

it ties back into the deck

>> around the whole deck.

>> Yeah.

>> So, another $100 in hardware.

>> You got it.

Is that good enough?

Wow, this entrance is grand now. These

posts are huge.

Really makes a statement and warms up

the place. But we don't have long enough

bolts. We have to go back to the

hardware store. So, we'll install this

after we make a trip into town. This

guy,

>> there's about four of them we can't do.

>> You getting tired of picking up 50 lb

posts? Oh, the corner. That's a lot of

cheese strings.

>> It's going to make the deck feel bigger.

>> You think?

>> I think we're claiming all that space.

Before we had to like stay tucked in

close to the house. Now, if we wanted to

like the the furniture could go up

against the other side.

I really like it from this side. It's a

bit busy over there.

>> I like it.

>> We still have a ton of work to do on

these railings and they're going to look

completely different when we're

finished, but it was a lot of work to

get to this point. So, we are going to

finish the railings in the next video.

Thank you guys so much for being here

and we'll see you in the next one.