Cabin Life Below Zero: Winter Camping and Ice Fishing

Description

A visitor spends the night at my off grid log cabin and the following morning we head out on the lake in sub zero temperatures to fish for northern pike and panfish. We spend the second night in a heated canvas tent at the side of a frozen lake, which groans and creaks all night as the temperature stays below -18C, 0F.

My good friend Terry guides us to a private lake that holds a good population of walleye and northern pike. We catch pike, perch and largemouth bass through the ice and we cook the pike on the small woodstove in the hot tent (winter camping tent).

The tiny house is perfect for two or three people so we have room to spread out our fishing and camping gear. I sleep up in the loft and Joe sleeps on my dog Cali's bed on the main floor (which is actually a bed/bench alongside the dining table.

Off grid cabin life at the wilderness homestead includes living off the land, so on the first night we cook black bear ribs over the open camp fire alongside grass fed beef steaks, fried potatoes and steamed spinach with garlic. The following morning we have farm fresh fried eggs with sourdough bread, toasted on the woodstove.

You can find Joe Robinet's Youtube page here: https://www.youtube.com/user/josephallen19

Links to gear used in this video:

Solar LED light bulb 15W

http://amzn.to/2BQvSQ2

Agawa Canyon Boreal 21 Saw

http://amzn.to/2BPV6OF

Copper Fairy lights

http://amzn.to/2BCmF0X

Solar String Lights

http://amzn.to/2DvgU2n

Banneton 12” round

http://amzn.to/2ByxwsF

Lodge Dutch Oven

http://amzn.to/2kHuxDQ

Flamen heat resistant gloves up to 500 degrees

http://amzn.to/2l1mRMm

Rocksheat baking stone

http://amzn.to/2kF6eql

Mora Knife

http://amzn.to/2BOiv35

Lamp OiI

http://amzn.to/2qz0nZ1

Wall Lantern (candle lit)

http://amzn.to/2Dpa0MK

Moka Pot

http://amzn.to/2DEomvO Canada

http://amzn.to/2ndmtw6 USA

Canon 6D

http://amzn.to/2EdaZjs

DJI Mavic Pro

http://amzn.to/2DHuJib

Bragg’s Sprinkle

http://amzn.to/2EdouzK

Cabelas Ice Hut

https://www.cabelas.ca/product/80349/cabelas-ice-team-five-sided-360-full-thermal-ice-shelter

Eagle Claw® Multi-Purpose Jet Sled

https://www.cabelas.ca/product/34435

Axe

http://www.torontoblacksmith.com/

To see what I’m up to during the rest of the week, please follow me on my other online channels;

Website: http://myselfreliance.com/

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/MySelfReliance/

Personal Facebook Page (Shawn James) – https://www.facebook.com/shawn.james.msr

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/myselfreliance/

Mailing Address:

P.O. Box 20042

Barrie, Ontario

L4M 6E9

Canada

Tags: log cabin,My Self Reliance,off grid,my self reliance,self reliance,off grid cabin,Self Reliance,cabin,cabin life,joe robinet,primitive,bushcraft,camping,forest,woods,rustic,tiny home,woodworking,maker,wood,wilderness,ice fishing,inspirational,winter camping,survival,fishing video,diy,tiny house,homesteading,primitive technology,shelter,cabin build,axe,building a log cabin,winter

Video Transcription

makes it 132 super cozy yeah hanging stuff up there and settle on in well you have your lunch yeah yeah know what let's see much have you know you want your wrap or sourdough whole week sourdough yeah okay next week I make it work I've read this a little bit nicer than mine to be fair shot thank you luxury you're gonna go soft I don't know if we're gonna make very sure statement it's funny you get to where I've got used to not mention this before but I've gotten used to cold camping over the last several years well since I lost my cow or got rid of my cabin first cabin what was out here 2000 or 2001 so I'm basically cold yeah there's and not uh you know having that lobster cover heated cabbage start legal soft already keepin though it's only been a couple of months and never use a hot temps until maybe last year as well yeah I like those two do you know it's two different kinds of can be right I'll still do blokes but still this your book well look at the difference with um well creep we're getting older to I guess a little bit of I am pleased but if you look at you know the hut tenting wasn't really mainstream until recently you couldn't get off tents unless you went today creepy yeah shows or the guide tents you know right oh yeah sitter center yeah so now it's more available and a lot more information out there but also a lot heavier rates that's not stuff we I like to explore from the globe of these stuff yeah yeah they're good for a base camp kind of thing and then go from there or whatever yeah definitely have their place in so to just biddies ready I always happy about it I'm so pleased given my cable dolly infection so we're going pike fishing part of the reason Joe's here at the cabins we're gonna do a little ice fishing trip and cold camping a lot of cold can't be hot tent camping so we're gonna head out from here in the morning and go I do it onto a lake where does some Pike in walleye set up the camp in the voice of the tent and headed over the ice now it is gonna be pretty cold and I think something at least so it won't be too bad but gets the minnows and fish with those for both the pike and the walleye pick really cold in here in Canada mostly but I'll try some of these lures as well last time actually two and I haven't seen each other for here I just came here until I have the interview thing yeah we've been on for anything since would like Carolyn Caribou that's it like almost a year now mm-hmm trying to sharpen up this next she's pretty sharp so let me just put a strop on a sharpen it last week as you saw before I had to do with my wife's face fishing so I just touched those oh this is actually a Maura everybody's in the morning I'm so this is a more I play soccer so it's it's got a hold style once I've had this forever and doesn't nothing really can happen to it you can replace the blades if you do chip them feel of a painting of baby blue on stuff yeah it's good so for you guys don't know that or have a watch which probably isn't too many of you Sean James here has a YouTube channel called my self-reliance and he's built this cabin by hand with with hand tools and he's got a whole list of catalog videos billion from the ground up starting one last spring yeah I think me last spring until now and he's still he's done the cabin nine percent down the cabin as you can see tons of stuff more to do on it more home study stuff to do so check his channel oh I'm sure you guys are like it's very interesting he's blowing up right now it's you got to get on in on the ground floor so most of you guys probably know Joe as well of course doing I've been going I've known each other were only first year a year a few years ago to first trip we did together and still got the park two years ago it was a new trip but I wanted to learn the traffic yeah and I couldn't teach apparently the friendship was born in it all I remember from that trip is dehydration that is Baci di dream I remember losing that trout after catching I tried to clean it off of the water is all money only on to get a picture it's like this big anyway but I'll be stuck where you work for that one I worked and then she got away then we cooked Chum oh yeah yeah yeah it's a perch yeah fall fish perch and go oh yeah we've had trouble no the trouble a little baby baby guy oh yeah yeah I've already done three ways or yeah yeah yeah yeah check that video to the original whatsit yeah they're original so this year will be two years of study doing dressed together we're gonna do another spring Knut really fun a new one this year have you I missed that last year

well we did a big one but didn't get made for the turn oh yeah there was no it didn't work for me man this right here so very well from one year to the next and what's all this year so I mean you guys been following along and seeing all the snow that we've had here at the cabin well where is it now

we had three thoughts typically but I'm not sure of this typical everywhere in North America we get what we call a January thaw and usually once middle of the month we'll get a few days of warm temperatures well some of the snow melts but this year we've had three thoughts up to nine degrees Celsius and brain know quite a bit of rain as well so really not the simogo so you don't even need snowshoes which kind of look forward to as a Canadian here in Ontario going snowshoeing and now that it's gone but can't complain because it is easier to walk and the animals are able to access food that they haven't been able to earlier the sleds pull almost every lesson on that crust mmm I shoulda brought my skates the lakes are clear right now no snow on them I could have brought my skates and that's he told the sled around that's hitting typical Canadian oh yeah yeah got a couple of new knives here Joel brought up for me from adventures for I don't know do you know anything about these things I do yeah I do uh this is the fisherman model this is his first I believe first run at that take of the the fisherman models so he had a little bit of trial and error with the sheaths but came up with a really really quality sheath I think what they made it you know oh yeah everything you know everything so we got a pretty good Bend on it mm-hmm for a fillet knife and that's cedar that's a cedar wood with OD green spacers so that's really nice I've never seen a cedar wood handle before mm-hmm when I saw that they were doing that I was pretty interested in and then I turn up to the yours and then he set to matching well I'm not seeing classic this is a really nice knife I'm actually pretty jealous of the color combo on this one in the whole whole getup with their matching cedar with green again we got matching a harsh deal so yeah thanks to those guys yeah thanks guys appreciate it [Applause]

what is it way think three pounds yeah [Applause]

looking for a wild animal Traxxas shall we sing its run around like crazy through all this area so let's see it mostly for acting for wild kali this is actually an otter truck would have walked through here when we had that thaw and then it refroze and tell all by its activity its behavior so once is an opening a little fast water right there so it doesn't freeze weirder shelter just back in the bush right behind it in March but you can see it went from that water to just up around the corner where that burned out dead hemlock is up there there's more open water there a little stream so this otter is obviously going from stream the stream and you can see the otter slide right here they'd like to when they get on ice or snow or a slope they like to throw their bodies down and to blogging themselves across the ice for they're pretty cool animals see the moose tracks going up through the deeper snow here had a feeling there was moose back here again I saw the moss spring but they have that many around so this is just a single moose walking through it's a pretty good-sized track so probably a bowl the three came through also and melt so it's frozen now and they're pretty rare you defined lightning yeah like Easter that's great yeah is this that little island do you looking thing that we saw over there it is okay so not so bad any right to further that's the thing a lot of people ask me why just cut all the trees down and what am I gonna do around the cabin for the forest fire prevention and what I'm going to do to protect the cabin this area is mostly hardwood did you wish to set for these little pockets around the waterways that to grow all this disease definite first trees well that's the fire has are usually in the summer these dry off they're like tinder fiery spark yeah I can light them it's like a ladder yeah and then it's jiggle across the tops well because we have brakes hardwood breaks in sapphires don't really travel here so you get these little one-acre fires heat from a lightning storm that really doesn't get out of control there's a big hemlock so they're all dead yeah well let's go ahead and the whole you can see the fall it looks like that okay so it is all burned up yeah yeah this I mentioned this in another video early this drove of burn here was struck by lightning I think two years ago - I don't know it was two years ago but last year looked fresher let's put it that way so it's probably year old it up fire went into the ground and burnt all of the roots of these trees and then they started falling but there's hardly any fire damage up on the trunks or even in the canopy which is kind of unusual so don't know where the fire started and how it spread underground without travelling into the tops of these hemlocks but see or just burn right through the roofs of this yellow and now when I'm gonna go over soon - and a hemlock still standing on a maple there I think and Cedars so like I said it's a grove of mostly coniferous trees you just said us burned up at ground level muffled over this is going to be a wildlife habitat for the next 20 years you show sugi ban so shall she sued Yvonne whoever you say that term that wood preservation technique I used on the logs for on the the floor and the roof this is charred cedar so that burnt from the inside out this charcoal this stump probably is going to stay here for 10 years or more even though it's thin it's just a hardened charcoal piece of cedar which already lost a long time when it's elevated off the ground especially well that is actually natural wood preservation bird and cedar like that literally like I said it's in the last that could last 80 years visible to covered in snow and melting and moisture [Music]

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bear ribs and steak beef steak I don't know if I mentioned before on video but bear has to be cooked too well-done can carry trike analysis which is similar to what Porky stand carry commercial meat and stream until they straighten that out by watching what they fed the pigs but it has not been eradicated from wild game so bear can carry the troika knows as parasite so cook it too well-done and you're perfectly fine these are bear ribs big old plate of ribs you guys will take advantage since you're betting there gets bigger - 20 there are other layers off steal a little bit of spinach and garlic here

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you are go for it want to be good at asking too much oh good do you like spinach yeah oh you do yeah I seem surprised but you seem very surprised Martin this is well done but thank you Figg used to the cabin life man Steve and garlic a good fresh is it seven three seven thirty so we probably finished dinner clean up back up a few things and the first thing that we're going to head out and go ice fishing so I'm going to get a fairly early start of the start a thing to do that mmm-hmm very cool very cool not literally

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next I am NOT exercise one little swear word they said I'm so sad it to the Gatorade

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alright well we've got you our spot we're gonna call home for today tonight first thing we want to do is clear spot both got some broader shovels with us clear away the how much over a couple inches of snow there is set up the hot tent yeah and then we can get out on the ice start cutting our holes [Applause]

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couple months ago like no trucker 10 tells what these poll okay so yeah it's really easy actually put together seen the way we operate I know show my age okay [Applause]

decent catch a couple lows yeah it's a good meal for ya yeah [Applause]

nice dinner decent yeah this one eats pretty good dinner I don't want to great oh you're kidding just a chunky one that's good

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oh maybe in an entire lifetime this lake he was surprised what he did that's an eating size to their Pike from that hole inside the hut this time nice chunky good eating pike clean it off with this new knife that Joe hooked me up with so from adventure sworn new fillet knife line that they just started well cut water I got my cup there's three on the ice with the three on the ice was three Pike on the ice because three pikes first and then I've got a perch which it kept and then just says I was pulling the lines up ended up catching that I think the biggest spike of the day so I have those frozen outside most of the pike only have two Pike fillets in here and the perch so I'll cook those up and I'll bring the rest of the Pike back to the cab oh thanks what I'll do is just roll some water and some butter in this pan sort of poached in butter just gonna bring any seasoning from the cabin or much oil that was good thanks guys drop with the fish into the boiling water and butter took three of them actually that plates cold so

right first test what are you okay three miles extreme mile hmm alright guys I am we are going to bed there goes its blues you just ignite blue nope the irony of a hot tent you're down at this level it's cold and you're up there it's 100 degrees but it's nice coming in from outside you stand up you can't warmed up then you lie down get in bed and you let the fire go out so you're really dressing and using a sleeping bag that's suitable for the coldest temp but you're not the warmth I'm sure when you have the fire going so like sleeping bags a minus 30 or minus 40 down you got a down jacket I stripped down there pretty well nothing if not nothing and just keeps them close nearby so that I can throw them on if I want to go out and want a cup in the morning so that's it I say good night I'll see you know [Music]

so welcome back to the cabin by the way if you watched all the way through the video and you're at this point I appreciate you sticking around for a video that's not typical of my videos lately appreciate everybody who's been following along and also so many new subscribers and new viewers really overwhelmed by the response to the videos I've been making in the and the lifestyle I'm creating here so I really really appreciate every single one of you viewers I really just like I said I'm overwhelmed of this video that you just watched is not typical of my videos over the last year because I didn't do any cabin construction but I what I did do is get out with a friend and and got out to enjoy some of the beautiful winter weather we've been having if you if you don't recognize Joe if you haven't seen his videos and make sure you check out his channel you'll see some videos from the two of us in the past on both of our channels and I'm sure in the future as well I think this is a good video to talk about resources natural resources especially in this area this is not typical I guess of places that a lot of you guys are living and and what you're used to up here in Canada we just we have very low populations about 30 million people living in there in the country and the second biggest country in the world so we have very low population density except for in the South areas like around Toronto and Montreal and no anywhere in the southern parts of the province provinces so when you see me out harvesting trees cutting trees down it's because we have an abundance of them and if I take one tree now in fact when this this great big black cherry drops it's opening up the canopy so that sunlight can reach the forest floor here all these little saplings that we have drawn here are going to grow up into trees so the forest needs to keep evolving so why is that relevant in this video you saw us catching some Pike earlier and panfish that perch that I caught what I try to do is for focus on the species that are typically overabundant or that are underutilized so the fish that we're fishing for our northern pike I tried to keep those as much as possible most people don't they send them back into the water they release them and what happens is the system becomes overabundant with pike and is less diverse because less other species can compete with them so it makes sense ecologically to harvest pike from a lot of lakes that's not the case everywhere of course but in this lake in particular that we're fishing too many fish too many pike what happens is they become stunted because they're competing for the prey species so that way it's encouraged in fact the ministry has encouraged people to catch more fish from this little lake even though it's a little private lake and only a few people actually have access to it and I have to really thank my friend Terry who's been so generous to me this year allowed me to harvest some things from his land but also just to spend some time together

in the outdoor has been a lot of fun Terry so really appreciate that I really really like doing things alone whether that makes me an introvert or something wrong with me or not I just really enjoy that but doesn't mean I'm a total introvert and that I don't like people so I really have a good time when I get out with some friends like Joe and you're seeing a lot more of my wife out here with trips we've always been doing stuff together but whenever I've been building the cabin I am alone completely and that's sort of a personal challenge that I gave myself but you know when they ask people that live a long life what the secret is almost invariably it's good relationships having love in their life so you know I encourage people whether you're an introvert and you whether you like to have your time on your on your own or not I encourage you to form some deep relationships and and make sure you do you have good people in your life that you want to spend time with certainly creates a richer life when you look back those are the things you're going to remember you might might not remember some of the more foolish things and in your life especially the things that are kind of imposed on us like like work in modern society so getting out in the outdoors enjoy some time with friends and family I don't think there's any better memories that you can make and I'm thrilled that I was able to do this and I continue to do that so get outside have fun work hard but make sure you enjoy your life too and have lots of fun and great relationships so that's it guys that for this episode look forward to seeing you up here at the cabin again next week take care have a great week [Music]