 If you're new to the channel or just tuning in, we are building an off-grid cabin in the wilderness of the North Main Woods. Completely off-grid from power. I'm building this cabin with an 81-year-old best friend and a few other friends that are going to come and join in when they can. There's a lot of challenges on a build like this. Safety being one of the first. And also having the right supplies because you can't just run down to the hardware store down the road to pick something up that you forgot. Sadly, in this episode, you're going to see one of those challenges that we were not able to meet. Stay tuned. You'll see. Place them here. Jesus. I think heats up in a minute. I know. All right. We're up here. It's the morning. We're finishing our cup of coffee and going to make a couple cuts and get going anyway. But it's day number six full day on this build right here. And Donnie and I are working on the front deck. I got to say, it's really day number seven. But day number six, we spent most of the half of the day cleaning up before we left for home. Half a day driving home. Yeah. So we really can't count that as a work day on the building. So it's another beautiful day. We've hit a good stretch of weather. The current project that we're working on is decking over the farmer's porch. It's 28 foot long by 8 foot wide. We ran out of time at Donnie's sawmill. So we weren't able to mill these hemlock planks that we're going to use for our decking. And we did our absolute best at the lumber yard to pick out what we could for a decent lumber. And we really wish we just had milled it ourselves. Did you crown that one? No, but it looks pretty good. For the grain? Yeah. When you're installing a continuous run, whether it be a deck or a wall or a roof, the first run or the first course is always the most important one. If you're going to bump an edge up against it. So you really want to get that first course straight. We might just have to crack down here, hit in here, and on the end, we've got spikes right here, Donnie. There's a spike in those nails. The boards are off. Maybe it's the other board was off. Like this? Yeah. And start the nail in. It gives it more pressure. Yeah. I think it might have been the board before that. It's hitting hard on this board. This one's a little bit narrower. Yeah. It is hitting at the end. I think we've got to live with it. I don't think we're going to get it. I could put a ratchet strap over it. Try it. Work that in. Yeah. I'll get on the inside and just push it. If you want to do that in first, then it's easier for us to stand here. It's a hell of a lot easier. Yeah, you get that where you want it. Want to do two runs? Yeah. Although Donnie picked off the best of what they had at the lumberyard, it still isn't very good. Most pieces are crooked. Some of them are different widths, you know, by a quarter here or there, and then some of them are even different thicknesses. So it's pretty poor from the lumberyard. And like I said, we wish we had just milled them ourselves, and they would have been a lot more uniform. We would have been responsible for them. Yeah, I really underestimated this. We had just realized that we're not going to have enough decking in our haste at the lumberyard picking through their piles. We just didn't figure enough or didn't load enough. I'm not sure what happened, but we don't have enough decking. Yeah, but you know what? If it's tight and we run out, we run out down the end, it's not a big deal. We'll just pick up some more and finish it. No, we just never walk on that part of the deck. We're going to be short. Let's just keep going with starters. Let's work our way back. We're putting these decking down with screws in case we ever have to remove a board. It's a lot easier with screws than it is with nails. I just had to cut something off it. Oh, okay. It's like a six or... If it's eight, then it might have been too narrow. Check for narrow. Oh, okay, nothing wrong with it then. Oh, maybe it was eight exactly. Was it eight exactly? No. Eight foot long exactly? Yeah. That's why it's there. Yeah, we're good to go with it. Got one joint there. I don't know if that... Yeah, that's... I should cut a one trial for this one. Yeah. Go with some longer ones here, just because we're at... Or front door step. This one's going to have a bow, ain't it? What's that? This one's going to have a bow. Yeah. Oh, was it narrow too? Or was this one... I measured it. I thought it was seven. I don't use... How's this one come? That's eight foot exactly. Yeah. That's 96. It'll probably be all right. Was that one... It'll be all right. It'll be all right, right? Yeah. Those two joints are terrible. Maybe finish with that one. Or no, you can't. It's not three-quarters. We've got sub-hand of them now. Narrow run. As long as we've got enough for the whole run, right? Yeah. Is that even going and old on it? What's that? It went on... I think you've got to use the... I don't think I'm going to get any more force than I can get. Yeah, you wiggle it, but it's... Is it going? Yeah, not all the way, but you wiggle it. I think you've got to use the... Block. Action, it's just almost impossible. Get two rows in right here. That one was a little thicker too, huh? Thick and thin. Yeah, they vary. I guess you've got to expect it with rough lumber. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's good. Like it? Yeah. Okay, we had a little sag in one of our six-by-sixes on the front of the deck here, so we've got to jack it up and put a post under that in the middle of these two spans. And hopefully that'll take that sag out of it before we put a post here that's going to hold our rafters. So that's something we have to do ahead of time. Should be two. I'm going to have to go up a little bit with this. She's settled a little on me. I'll let her off, okay? Yeah. She's almost touching over there. Pretty close. How's the level look? Down just a whisker, but not bad. Like should I shim this or...? No, that's... I'd leave it. That's a perfectly level right there. Is it okay? Yeah. That's so close. Okay, that's what I like to hear. And that's touching. Beautiful. So I'll throw a screw on that and just keep it from kicking out. Right. Okay. If some have, we'll have to cut a couple diagonals. Yeah. Does it? Yeah. Okay. A lot better. Great. All right. So we are flat, plumb, square. Now the next step is going to be to do our posts along this with a header that's going to catch the rafters that are going to run into the other roof. So we're all ready before the boys get here when it's rafter time. Which one? The inside one? Yeah. Those measure three and three-quarter. All they do? Okay. So if I go, what? Eight. Eight foot ten and a half. Let me see what that looks like. The four by sixes are on the corners, right? Four by sixes, yeah. The other thing to get the height, Joey. Yeah. If we were sitting in there, I guess there's no way we're going to... I just don't want to hit my head. So anything over my head. Right. To the top of these posts, if I make the post eight feet. They're getting ten inches ahead or on top. Yeah. I don't think I need to make them eight feet. I don't either. Seven. Seven foot. I made those posts seven foot. And we got ten inches above that. Yeah. I think that's going to be, that's going to be good. Yeah. Will that leave enough of a pitch? A pitch for the snow to come off? Seven. That's seven, eight right there. Seven inches. Yeah. Then the rafter is going to go, you know, up onto that roof. Yeah. I'm just, my only question is, does that leave enough pitch for the snow load to come off? I think so. If I go six, six on the posts, we're going to be roughly eight feet up onto that roof with these rafters. We are. So that is going to be eight feet, say seven feet, just to be safe. Seven feet. Looks like it doesn't change the pitch much too much. According to my calculations. Too much from what? From the ten. Oh yeah. Because we're lower here by eight inches. Right. Seven. Seven inches roughly. Yeah. Yeah. Seven. So if you do go, what were you thinking? Seven foot six. I was thinking the post six foot six with the plus the header on top is ten. Is seven four, right? Yeah. So that's ample headroom. Yeah. That's seven four out there. Yeah. I would think that would be good. That gets us above our doors, right? Our doors and windows, right? I mean, you know what? What time we get out there? Even here. Here, my tape measure is a lot sturdier if you want it. It's right here. Okay. Seven. This is seven seven right here. Right there. So maybe I ought to go up three more inches. Yeah. Just get us that headroom above the door and the windows in case we ever did finish this ceiling off. Well, let's see. Roughly right there. Yeah. Not above. Yeah. You're two or three inches above right there. All right, that's seven eleven. So six foot one post. Seven eleven. With the header. Those posts you're going to have to cut the right amount because they're not getting a header. If I cut the post seven foot one, plus the ten inch, that's seven eleven. Yeah. And then the ones that go in on the house, you just cut seven eleven. Yeah. Yeah. So we can come right straight across. That's plenty of headroom, you know, to get in under. Oh yeah. So if I cut the post seven foot one. Okay. For the outside post. Yeah. For the outside and also for the inside. Good. Should I not cut this? No, you can cut those. Getting a pair of these in here. How much is it off? Yeah. Seven sixteen. It's out off the building, seven sixteenths more? Yeah. On that side? Yeah. It's longer off the building here. That's ninety five. This is ninety five and seven sixteenths. Jesus. Is my overhang too much? Hold this again. Yep. Side line. Which one? Yeah. This one? Yeah. You got so many lines here. We're going to keep it ninety five. I got three inch. Maybe that would be good for the bottom of these. You don't want to use those big four inch? Yeah, I guess we can. I mean we could drill them out if you want. You want to get up the head, mate? I don't know. That one I took a little bit more off on the front. So this has got to go this way. One on the outside. Two that way, you know. That's a big grab right there. Yeah. You liking that? I'm liking it. It's perfect. It's still perfect? Yeah. Nice. That's what I like to hear. So... Maybe one on this side. Like this? Inside and out, yeah. Then one this way? Or two? I think two that way. Okay, still like that? Yeah. That might have been a little too much of a day. Was that hitting that other one? Yeah. I'm pretty sure it did. Wow. I mean that's right on the bubble. Okay. I love it. All right. Yeah. How do you feel about this one over here? I keep good about it. Go with it, yeah. Oh, sorry. That's all right. Yeah. I like it. I like it a lot. You could double check that one if you want, Donnie. Looks pretty good, doesn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Want to send it? Yeah. I think you better do this top one. No. Yeah. You got this, Donnie. Just once you get her going, hold her right to it straight. And the straighter you go, the more it stays plumb. There you go. Perfect. Want me to cut? Yeah. I'll dig them out. Do you want long 2x4 or just anything 112? Yeah, what? Anything 112, it's fairly straight. That about is super heavy. Like it? Yeah. These are all 2x4s here, so we got a lot to choose from. This one we could bring straight enough. Yeah. This one's not also. Oh, do we want to put our Vs up? Oh, we put those up after. Yeah. We don't have anything to go to now. That's a good one. Once you cut the end off. Yeah, I could dig out the rest of it. I hope she makes it. Yeah. We'll set her right here for now. Yeah. Another 112, Candace. So I'm gambling, they're all 112, right? Oh, I don't know. We've got to measure, I guess. I hate gambling. Yeah. We got the first one up there, cut. Have you already got that one? Am I going to center or am I hooking? What am I doing for the measurement? Center to center roughly. Center to center would be that far side to this front side, right? Yeah. That's 110 and a half. 110 and a half. Hook to the front side. 111 and a quarter of the last one. 110 and a half. Yeah, and then 111 and a quarter. Okay. To the outside, right? I measured, I hooked this step hole and went to the front side. So it'd be center to center. So no, we got to add. We got to add. Yeah. I'll get you a better measurement. I'll get you outside to the center. Okay. Yeah. 110 and a quarter. 110 and a half. 113 and a quarter to the outside. Yeah, you want me to just put those up and nail them? Yeah. I want them to screw them down. I got three. I'd use those four inch screws and screw them down into the top of the post. The big GRKs with the heads? Yeah. Okay. What order are these in, Donny? This is the middle one. This is the first one. Okay. I think I'm going to gun nail these up and then I'll hand nail the two by four on top down. I'll gun nail these up with those three and a half, the longer ones. And then I'll hand nail the next two by four down. Oh, yeah. On the top. Yeah. What's up, buddy? Yeah. How's it going? We don't think you were going to show. Really? After last week. Yeah, you guys put it through me pretty good. How'd you feel going to work? Oh, my God. That's great. Nice. How you guys doing? Stevie's back. Stevie's back. Back for more. We're in luck. We're definitely in luck. I was thinking we'd take today off and go bird hunting or something. We can? Yeah. It's the first day of bird hunting. Yeah. We're not far off. Be honest with you. Yeah. We've got more stuff. You keep forgetting stuff. We'll get the work done in a hurry. I wonder what we can have Stevie do. He can help me with these freaks. Okay. These pretty straight, Donny, have you looked? Yeah, I liked you got it. Probably. I told her, Donny and Joe bring a ton of eggs. She said, I don't care, just bring them with her. You brought your black stone all cooking in the mornings. Yeah, I got it. Beauty. I helped you. No, I'll just have Stevie hit it with a nail gun in a minute. I just want to make sure I'm flush. Does that look pretty good? It looks pretty good. It feels good. Yeah. Feels like I could come out with just a hair. Hard to see it from here. It's damn well close enough. Hell yeah. You want the nail gun? Yeah, I got it. No, I'll let Stevie grab it. Cause I want to hold down on this when he hits it. Oh, okay. I'm not sure what's going to happen. Straight up and you're trying to catch this one through this one. How many? Oh, give it one there. Did I get it? You know. Okay. And then can you get one more right here before? Yeah. Beautiful. And then we're going to go all the way down. I just want to make sure it stays flush. Okay. Yeah. She didn't. Yeah. You should be able to do the whole length now. While you're right there, Stevie, can you just butt this tape measure up to that one and use this nail? Yeah. Or hook it on that. Yeah. One 10 and a half, Donnie. All right. Stevie, this is a big push, this trip. Yeah. Donnie's excited to see what we get done. There could be weather type by Wednesday. We better be. You get it? Yeah. Yeah. That's a happy one, Donnie. You know, I'm saving these long ones for the second one. Yeah. There isn't any more. Oh, there isn't any more? There are all two before. Stevie, how long are you staying on this trip? Till this afternoon. The rest are all. Can I leave you guys, let me take a break for a while. No, no breaks. No breaks. It's like the slave drone. There's a drone up there, then I'll catch you, take it, breaks. Yeah, I know. So, I'm not going to flush this. I'm just going to put them together, okay? Yeah, right. So you can go, you can go from the unders and boom, boom, boom, this way too. So. Yeah. So do the unders same and they're not going to be flushed to the outside just so you know. Okay. That's up here. Yeah. That's about all we got for Spikes left, I think. It's driving Stevie crazy. Yeah, it's stapled to a tree. Well, we got the porch all taken care of. We're just going to do some kind of corner bracing on those four by fours. It'll be decorative and a little bit supportive too. And we're running a little late for lunch. So we're in here now. We're going to have some lunch. What's on the menu today? Good stuff? The best peanut butter and jelly. There's a pretty low budget on this, on this here job. So peanut butter and jelly is about all we can afford at this stage. Yeah. Yeah. And we've got we've gone pretty far into the budget to Donnie so we can afford Canadian white bread. Yeah. That's about it. With with Sam's member club, peanut butter and jelly. Peanut butter, jelly, Stevie. What are you thinking? Moose stew? You guys just take a peanut butter and get some more ham and salami. No. We're on a budget here. We can't eat ham and salami every meal. I can't tell which is decorative and which is part of the... You know what, Donnie the mice will eat that off of. Yeah. He's still here. This one in on the end. You're going to put this... No, you're going to put... No, you have to hold me. You got it? Okay. You want the other screw in there? Two of them. No, you don't have to. Just one's enough. So we can put this one in now, I think. Yeah, those look good. I don't know which one. These are both the same, right? No, it doesn't matter which one. I might move this one down there just so they look the same. Push it inside? Uh, either side. These ones should have been flush. As they were, you know. Oh, I guess the 2x4 is different. Yeah, it's just on the post the same. The post should be the same. What's the post going on? Check the battery. There's three batteries in it. None of them are. Check the battery. Push that button on the back of the battery. Yeah, that battery is dead. We're putting all the dead ones on the hub there. On the wheel well. So that, yeah. Here's a battery here if you want it. Yeah, you can pop that off, Stevie.