Overnight at Old Monk Monastery in Rural Nova Scotia

This week's cabin video is a little different. I'm at the historic Birchdale Lake in southwestern Nova Scotia. This property has over a hundred years of history, starting as a hunting and fishing lodge with guests such as US President Teddy Roosevelt and baseball hall of famer Babe Ruth, which later turned into a monastery for the monks and nuns of the Carmelite Catholic Church. And today it is a private property, but the original cabins remain intact. For the next 3 days, I'm going to be spending a night at this cabin to explore the land, eat some good food, and learn a little bit more about the history of this magical spot. Oh, yes. I'm making brazed moose ribs. I got these ribs from my buddy Matty B, who shot a moose this past fall. Thanks, Matt. And he really hooked her brother up cuz this is going to be absolutely phenomenal. GODS OF THE NORTH WOODS, Hunting and Fishing Tales from Nova Scotia, 1860 to 1960. There's a chapter on Birchdale. Four camps, 12 rooms in all. Rates $7 per day by agreement per week. So, it's been about 3 hours for the moose and about an hour for the acorn squash. And I think it's time to check them out. We're going to start with the acorn squash. Okay, let's see what we got here. Let's see if the camera is set up properly. Yeah, it's pretty good. All right. Woo! I wish you guys could smell this. It is smelling really good. Oh, I just got a glimpse. Let's go here. Oh, mama. Look at that. Fall right off the bone. That broth is rich and oily. Let's see. Oh, it's really hot. Man, this is freaking good. Oh my goodness, Matt. Thank you so much. You're a true friend. Oh my goodness. We're going to start with the squash. Oh, that comes right off. All right, so we got some acorn squash there on the base. Look at that juice. Got three ribs there. Some carrots in there, onion, garlic. Finish with a couple sprigs of thyme. I'm going stick that back in to eat it like a popsicle. But the demonstration shows that this is fall off the bone. This is emotional. That might be one of my top meals. As you can see, we got a few leftover pieces. That was a lot of ribs, but I do have plans tomorrow for that. It's a beautiful chimney. You can tell this chimney is going to last way longer than any sort of wood material because of the types of rocks that are used. There's a lot more thought that goes into rock selection when you're using rocks for construction than you might think. Generally, you want to have a metamorphic rock because metamorphic rocks are the toughest, most durable, and the most abrasion resistant. And that's because when a rock underos metamorphism, it is hit by a lot of heat and pressure. And that causes recristallization of the minerals and that is realignment and reshaping. Similar to quenching metal to harden it, metamorphism hardens rocks. And because of that, it's used a lot for construction activities. But this place is full of red squirrels. I spent about an hour this morning chasing them around, trying to get the shot. I recently got a new camera that has a little bit of slow-mo capabilities, so I was getting that 120 frames per second. We'll see how that works. Glory to Glor. I'm going to go do a little exploratory mission around the grounds. There's over eight cabins. They're all unique to themselves, all with their own character. There's a main lodge and the chapel, which is now known as the sanctuary. I'm here all by myself. It feels pretty special. This is the main lodge and this was the first structure that was built. Birchdale was a fishing and hunting lodge from 1911 to the late60s. At that time, Teddy Roosevelt, the US president, as well as baseball hall of famer Babe Ruth, came here to hunt and fish, man. I got this all to myself, though. This is crazy. This was built as a chapel during the Carmelite monk era. Today it's used as a they call it the sanctuary, but the architecture in this place is incredible. the hand hued timber, the design. There's a library up here, too, which is pretty neat. A lot of books about religion and spirituality. The Carmelite monks are a type of Catholic religion where you dedicate yourself to isolation and God, but they bought this place after the hunting and fishing era, and this is where they would live full-time and pray. They didn't even talk much to each other. Each of these cabins was known as hermitages. I've never heard that word before, but it's a place to be a hermit. You don't talk to anyone. Even the chairs here, they have blinders, so you can't see your comrades. Behind my cabin, they recently failed a tree. And I got this little axe. And you guys know I love chopping wood, so I'm gonna have a little fun. The maul I had in the last video would have been the perfect job. I got this smaller axe. So to handle these bigger logs, I'm not going to be able to do a big Hercules smash right down the middle. I got to chip away on the sides. I don't know how well this is going to work. This is a small axe for a big log. These are some pretty big logs. And with this small axe, or most axes, I'm not going to be able to go right down the middle and do a power chop. So, my first chop is a setup chop to initiate the first break. And then with these, I should be able to do a one shot wonder. Oh man, look at this. They obviously put took these down because of all the It's full of ants and grubs. Heat. That's some really old avocado here. Hit with some lime. And we're going to finish it with a little bit of mayonnaise right on top. Oh yeah. Just like that. All right, guys. Three moose tacos. Really satisfying. This is a good meal plan. All right. Maybe a little bit more. Little mayonnaise. Yes, sir. So this morning I just want to finish up this tree. I got so close yesterday. I got to finish what I started. A little tip when you're chopping naughty wood. This tree fell this way. So, all the grains in the tree are running this way up the branches. It's much easier to swing an axe with the grain than against it. So, I'm always trying to have the bottom side of of the the log up, and it makes it much easier to split the wood. And when it's on the ground like this, these big pieces, you can just give a little smack right between the legs. Make sure not to hit your foot, though. That would not be good. So, this tree obviously went down because of rot, bugs, and it was a dead tree. But sometimes when there's a dead tree, you'll find something what's called fatwood. And that is resin saturated wood. And you can know because it smells very resiny and it's kind of shiny. And this stuff is really good for starting fires. So, if I needed to, I could shave off that and use that for tinder. A little mousse and locally farmed eggs for breakfast. You guys know I love my Bushwhackers oats, but how could I say no to this? Morning. >> Hey, >> where we have just like cords of wood on every cabin stack. >> I don't know when the first time I would have come here, but basically my whole life. >> The amazing thing about Birchdale is that it's different for every person. I think that everybody finds the magic in it. There's so many stories here. There's so many connections and friendships and to the land and to the people. And like this lake system is a beautiful place to explore. There's so much wilderness around us. We're sandwiched between the Tobiatic and the Silver River Wilderness area. Endless endless opportunity for exploring. This was the first year since the '60s that this has operated as a business. um which is really exciting and and that's sort of when I became a part of this thing in a bigger way to contact us or if um someone wanted to visit here the best way is to reach us by email. It is a very unique off-grid experience here. So we like to make sure that people are well prepared for what they're going to experience. All right, guys. That just about wraps it up. If you guys want to check out Birchdale, I highly recommend it. The link is in the description. They did not pay me to do this. I'm just a big fan of what they're doing here and the history that it has in Nova Scotia. The link is in the description. Reach out to Nicola. And if you do come out here, you know, you can always leave it better than you found it. There's always wood that needs to be chopped and always chores that need to be done. But this is such a magical spot and I'll definitely be back. Guys, thank you so much for watching. We'll see you next time.