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Preparing My FORT for Winter - WINTER IS COMING!

Description

I head to my Bushcraft Camp or as I like to call it my Fort in the Woods! Winter is coming (as Jon Snow would say) so I reinforce the perimeter walls of the camp, chop wood to fill the log store, reinforce the natural shelter and the ladder on the Hunting Tower. This is to help protect the camp during the Winter Storms to come...

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Video Transcription

winter is coming [Music]

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what you doing what you do ya know

[Laughter]

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[Laughter]

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[Applause]

[Laughter]

[Laughter]

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hey guys thanks very much for clicking on this video I'm here with Jax just down here staring at me because I've got a lovely steak some pepper red pepper and some onion as well forgive me I know I'm not meant to cut in the frying pan but it's got to be done guys look at that oh look at that beautiful hmm

I've also got me some Lushington sunshine pale ale from Skinner's brewery down in Carmel when I went down in Carmel with Amy Ajax well last week I think it was so can't go wrong paid out bit babe that's the loudest but went like 50 feet over there that is the loudest bottle opener I've ever had oh my ears ringing call that's lovely you can't be a good beer and some steak and being out in the woods at camp hmm

No

give me some in a bit me just begging me in a minute guys I'm gonna go through everything that I've done here at camp there's loads that I've done to prepare it really for winter because winter is coming as they were saying Game of Thrones but yeah i'll show you everything i've done here at camp just to help prepare it really for the harsher conditions in the winter which is here in the UK generally not too much snow but it's mostly very strong winds and a lot of rainfall so just trying to prep it already for hopefully it won't be too harsh this winter but you never know and yes for those wondering I do have food for Jack's don't worry just whack some oil in the pan chopped up some red peppers and I'm half an onion half a red pepper half an onion just to give it a bit of flavor put a bit steak spice on it and it goes down absolute rate let it go in all those juices okay so I've had that food and what I'm gonna do is run you through basically what I've done to kind of prep the camp for winter because obviously the harsher conditions come in the winter we get the strong wind to get arraigned and there's just a few little tweaks I've done to really prolong the life for the camp because it's not gonna last forever guys it's you know it's gonna rot away as all wood does but I'm just basically trying to prolong that life so let me start with one of the walls down here so this is kind of like a double wall and a lot of people say why have you got two logs in your walls not one well I don't have two logs in all of them but the reason being is when those bottom ones rot away which they will do they'll just get filled in by the next ones at the top here and if I need extra firewood I can just pinch bits of wood off the top there and use that over on the fire so it's there's sort of no practical reason to it really it doesn't make the wall any better but it just gives me a bit more wood to work with so I've reinforced the poles I've got you know these are the old poles here they're much thinner I've still got the old cordage there but I've got thicker poles and better cordage upon for sort of Hesse and Hesse and wrote pretty Hessian kind of twine I've put another poll here in the middle just because every time we sit on the seat down here down there you're leaning against the back here generally and it's pushing the wall that way so this stake is wedged really deep in there just to prevent that again I've done thicker snakes over here much better cordage

this lean-to here the source was my second - really - but it's now could be the primary link tale I'm not sure yeah I've still got to finish that raised bed on there what I've done is this was just resting on the wall here and it's putting so much pressure on this wall and the other wall over there so what I did is I actually got a stake and it's now all resting on that stake and another stake that side just over there it's resting on it and I need to put one just to support underneath here as well again wrap together with with twine stronger twine all reinforcing it I'll move this chair this chair was over there but it was getting in the way when I've got the ladder the ladders now at the moment

line down under the moss shelter because that's where I put it to protect it from the rain if I leave it out it's just going to get wet and you know you rock quicker so I store the ladder under there when I'm not here at camp so I've moved the chair that was there pop to here so two people can now sit there enjoy the warmth of the fire summer they can still fit in the shelter just makes it easier access around there this area I haven't actually touched I've still got to reinforce the cordage it's just string on there at the moment just garden string and look guys that's lasted two years that's that that's one of the first wolves I did and it's lasted two years so that cordage is still tight you know I can still feel the tension on that still tight it's not snapping so I can't I can't really say that that's bad cordage at all if anything I'd say the paracord that I use down here slipped even more so definitely string or twine is a lot better or you know Hesse and rope ideally would be better hey buddy hey buddy yeah you like the company yeah so going in the camp I've actually this wall was completely falling down if you see some footage now I'm showing you you'll see in the background this wall is actually had about three or four logs width it was too wide and it was all falling down really so I completely changed that to just one log fitness like that reinforced again with the stronger twine thick much thicker poles and thicker logs and that will last again probably two to three years quite easily I'm actually using part of Jax's dog kennel or doghouse here just for a bit of wood storage for the sort of thinner logs which I will batten up eventually in the winter still got that to finish still got to put an extra layer of Bracken now that it's just starting to die back now that autumn is sort of coming it started to die back more so gonna put more gonna put more Bracken there I keep the sawhorse down here now because again it keeps dry from the layer of the hunting platform there and the roof of the hunting platform T so that just keeps it dry again prolonging the life of it I still got to change the cordage all the cordage along there its bits of old fishing line that I've had but I'd like get some twine on there pink although practical fishing line doesn't look very good say it's not really bushcraft so I gotta change that eventually as well so with the ladder I've actually changed the string that was on there it was although it worked it wasn't practical for long term so again and put some stronger twine on it and all of all the cross struts there and like I say I take this down and I put it under this shelter every time I go because it just prolongs the life of it stops the wood getting wet because under here there's a tarp and then loads of logs as well so it's gonna be animal on top it's gonna be completely dry these are all spare logs that were from that wall here so this wall here had about twice that many logs which I didn't need so I've kept them all gonna chop them up eventually saw them up stall them in here probably cause you see where Jax is it's much better seating arrangements now obviously I've got to change the rope on that but this is as much as I could do today really so I've got all that done there's that extra pole that's now supporting the whole of the shelter there it's not putting all that weight on the wall and I've got to finish the raised bed as well five pits the same haven't changed that I've patched up the moss this side on the moss lean-to because there's areas where it just basically blown down and it wasn't it wasn't doing any any good any protection there so I've layered much more moss on there ready for the winter for the winter rains down here you see I've reinforced stakes every sort of meter half a meter really and that's because all that moss when that gets wet that's like a sponge and it just absorbs all the water keeps it there retains it and then it just makes it so much heavier as so much weight on that lean-to shelter so because of that weight leaning down like that it's skidding out underneath at the bottom these sort of wood poles that are up here these wood poles are all skidding down and that's what was starting to happen it was starting to bow out here so what I've done is I just staked in some thick steaks all along there just to help again prolong it it won't it won't last forever but it will help to prolong it a bit more so I've made a start on the log store unfortunately I can't fill this up all in one day it's going to take a while so each time I'll come back here I'll chop up some logs sawed them up so then I'll split them and this is where they're gonna go yeah that's where they gonna go

you gonna go in there most of them are about this size but there's a few yeah it's typically he patios TP is TP but most of this size but the longer there's longer ones at the bottom again I'll change this I'll get different sizes throughout the winter every time I come I'll just put more on I also have just take a few off they're black top wedge it in with some logs and that just keeps it dry then throughout the the rainy months when it's gonna be tipping down these these can only support you know they're not protecting it completely from the water so they're just there to that's just there to try and keep it as dry as possible really I have left some out all season you know throughout the winter they'll absorb the water they're now dry and absorb the water and try and that's really the way she'd do it with logs to get you know really efficient long burning logs but that's the plan anyways just keep most of them under here keep most of them dry because I'm only gonna come here you know on occasions I'm not living here also where I've tidied around the camp here it's a bit big bit of birch but there but where I've tidied around the edge of the camp here because there's deadfall all around this wood and the semi-step would let you see huge tree dead down over there there's so much dead for and what I've done is I've collected it all up just stacked a load of dead wood here now although it's not amazing for burning it can be used it will create a smoky fire and I can use it to smoke food smoked bacon and meats and fish and things like that it will still burn it just won't burn as efficient here's the logs in the log store but camp is looking good haunting Tower

it's still intact it's suffered some strong winds but it's still going really well really pleased with it thank you to everyone who watched camp up day 11 I built this I think it's had over a million views already which is incredible so thank you still need a bit today there's the other wall that I finished and I need to put where I've done a wall this side I'd like to do a wall this side because this is the poorest side of the cambrian he left I've just stuck some already Denman Bush there

so that needs another wall there so there's always work today well guys thank you very much for watching this video on preparing my camp for winter I hope to do many more videos here now over the winter I tried to keep my content as varied as I can mix it up a bit do different sort of overnighters in different woodlands but this is definitely a winter camp I've got plans to move the tarp up I'm going to need probably dad's help with that because we've got to restring it up higher there's loads of little bits to do but I've done them the majority of the work I wanted to do before the colder weather and the stronger winds come in the winter thanks so much for watching all my videos I really appreciate it you know thanks for hitting the like button if you have thanks for subscribing if you have if you haven't please click the subscribe button be sure to tick that little bell notification so you can get all your notifications and thanks again for all your support me and Jack's really appreciate it see you soon in another video guys probably next week [Music]

you

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About the Author

TA Outdoors

TA Outdoors

Bushcraft, Wild Camping, Wilderness Hiking Trips, Solo Overnight Camps, Shooting, Hunting and Backpacking. My dog joins me on some of the trips. His name is Jaxx.

My name is Mike. And I'm addicted to adventure...

Check out our other YouTube Channel TAFishing: https://www.youtube.com/user/TAFishing

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