#20 Building a Deck for a Bell Tent

Raspberry. I'm using this plant app called, what is it, picture this, to identify the plants. It's not always right, it sometimes gives different results, but you know, kind of learning what's all growing here. I think it's all weed, but what is that? Maybe it's something I could eat. Parsley, cow parsley. So much of the soil that I need to use, need to lose over there. I'm putting over here because there's a bit of a ditch. I'd like to even this part out. There's a small retaining wall there, four meters in front of the house, and it's nice if this is a more, sort of a terrace. Some people were asking if this was wild garlic. It also has the white flowers, like these ones. Is it focusing? Let's see what the app says. Lily of the valley, and let's try it again with a flower, because sometimes it's off. Yeah, same thing. Sometimes when I use it on trees or plants, it's giving different results, but this seems to be accurate. Yeah, and it's quite invasive. It's everywhere on the hill here. It's quite beautiful on this undulating hill, all these waves of lilies. It's really beautiful. I think in a few days they'll have beautiful white flowers. So let's have a look at the other fruit trees and the bushes, because now it's quite clear which ones are actually alive or not, and a few of them are blooming. This one was doing okay. I think it was a gooseberry. Starting to have little flowers. Let me see what the app says. Red currant. Oh, so those are berries here. And this one is also looking to do pretty well. The app says a Missouri gooseberry. It's also flowering. It's looking pretty healthy. Some beautiful little flowers there. This is another gooseberry. Looking okay. Oh, this is a raspberry. And then this is a European plum. It just loses flowers. There's a few flowers here, but that looks quite good. I'm not sure if it's going to give fruit, but let's see. This is a pear, quince. Not doing too well. There's leaves, there's some flower buds. Let's see how it goes. Ah, it's a plum again. Oh, it's the same one up there, of course. And then here, according to Johannes, is the only chestnut on this side of the hill. And it's also planted by the previous owner. It must be like six years old. It's doing quite well. So I've been drawing up the deck in Sketchup, but I have to make a new drawing because the measurements were not right. It was kind of a quick and dirty one I did in the last episode in the camper, actually. Yes, Sketchup is a great way to kind of draw very simple things like furniture, anything you want to build. The basics are quite simple and you could go quite complicated with architectural work as well. But I'm not an architect, but I can draw up a deck. I've learned this through YouTube. You can find a lot of tutorials and it's really nice. This one has to be redrawn because it's kind of a messy one. All right, another batch of wood. This is 50 square meters of chestnut, tavola they call it. It's basically trees cut up in planks of three centimeters. So you've got different widths. The widest about 25, 30 centimeters and then thinner ones. And I just bought a whole block, so it's 50 square meters. For the deck, I only need like 30 square meters, but I'm going to use this for flooring and all kinds of things. And then there's the beams or rafters for the base of the deck. What do you call that? Studs? No, footers, also not. I just bought up, I just brought up the velox and I'm gonna do one batch now and then tomorrow the rest because it's already... What time is it? It's around 9, 9.30. So I built a little workshop to make the deck. I have to cut long planks and all the planks I have now, the boards, they are different widths. So I need to put them through the saw table. So I've built something, a little platform, so I can run the boards over this table because usually the table is too small for that. I got two miter saws. I've been using this one for quite a few years, but it doesn't have the rail, so it's too small to cut these 15 by 5 beams. So Batavia sent me this a while ago. It's a Dutch brand and they have all kind of tools and they're all cordless. Same as this one, but I had a problem with the batteries. It was a bit weak. Yeah, they've got great tools, but I don't think a miter saw have to be cordless, right? Because it's usually on a workmate or a table like this, so it's fine if it's... And it needs a lot of power, you know. Something like this you want to have cordless because you're walking around and the same with the drill. It's great if it's battery powered. Something like this is fine if it's wired. But this is big enough. This doesn't have that, so I'm going to use them both and see. If this one is working well, it would be great. Then I've got these ones here to support. So what I have to do is, because I don't think it's enough power, strangely. So I have to cut very lightly, you know, thin strokes until it's through. Otherwise it blocks and then it doesn't work anymore. Then I have to turn it off, sort of reset it, and then it works again. It's all right, I can make it work. The reason why I'm screwing them in first is to have a bit more control to get them in straight. Otherwise, if I'm hammering, these are moving a little bit. I'd like to get it straight, you know, just for peace of mind. It's not that important, it's out of sight. The reason why I nail them instead of screwing is because nails are stronger in sheer strength. So meaning the downforce is stronger on a nail. If it's pulling strength, of course, the screw is stronger. I've got a custom-made knife from Birdman. It's a Dutch knife maker. Nice Dutch flag. It's very unusual to put that on a product. Good size, beautiful leather pouch. That's a beautiful knife. The frame is finished. It's a very satisfying job. The outer ring I finished with the chestnut boards because I didn't have enough. I want to leave some big beams. There's going to be a little platform in front of the door, so the door of the tent is going to be right there. There's going to be a small platform and then a stairs down. I'll do that next week. Then the boards on top is going to be next week as well. It's going to be a bit more work because I need to shave the boards because it's rough lumber. I'm pretty happy with this. It looks very stable. All right, see you next week.