BUILDING A FORT IN THE WOODS - Major Repair on Back Wall, Preparing for Winter, Large Fire Inside.

Hey folks, how are you? Joe here, we're at the fort. I got the pups with me. It's been a long time since we've been here to do a video. I've been here probably about once or twice, I think, since the spring, and I know that there are some damages to the fort. I know there's things that we have to repair. I don't know how severe it is, because when I saw it, it was only one or two logs, but again, it's been quite some time. So let's go, we'll spend the full day out here, we'll repair the fort, we'll cook up some good food, and have fun with the dogs. Hey folks, how are you? Joe and Tripp are here. going to jump into the fort video where Tripper and Beauty were out there building it with me having a lot of fun. Before we do that I want to give a huge shout out to my sponsor for this video HelloFresh. With HelloFresh you get fresh pre-proportioned ingredients and seasonal recipes delivered right to your doorstep. The holidays can be hectic as we all know but HelloFresh keeps things simple with recipes and ingredients that cut out grocery shopping and limit meal prep time so you can spend more of the festive season with friends and family. As my family and I have come to find out recently HelloFresh's recipes are delicious they offer so many recipes to choose from each week to help you break out of your recipe rut you can save time and stress effortlessly with HelloFresh they offer 50 menu and market items to choose from every week including veggie calorie smart and gourmet options providing plenty of variety for different types of people you can also eat more sustainably HelloFresh is pre-proportioned ingredients mean there's less prep time for you and less wasted food so as you guys know I'm gone a lot right I'm gone on multiple day trips all the time so my wife is doing all of the cooking for the whole family on top of that she's cleaning taking the kids to school doing the whole nine yards like she's got a lot of stuff to do so when I come home from these trips I really want to help out I don't want to have all the burden on her all the time but I'm not great at cooking I'm a steak and potatoes kind of guy bacon and eggs kind of guy so it's like you can only have breakfast for dinner so many damn times a week with HelloFresh the box came to the door the food was ready in packages ready for me to cook like the chicken was wrapped up in its own thing the vegetables in their own thing and they're pre-proportioned and laid out so you know what goes with what the ingredients are specifically laid out like in layman's terms anybody can understand it if I could go to hellofresh.com and use code Robinette 14 for up to 14 free meals and not just that three free gifts as well so once again hellofresh.com use code Robinette 14 to get up to 14 free meals and three free gifts thanks again hello fresh for sponsoring the video you helped out the family I'm sure my wife was very happy your food is good on to the video she's still standing that's a good sign okay okay not too bad Oh back wall okay oh yes see that I knew that was gonna happen that long that's what I called I called that from the get-go okay it's not a big deal we can fix all of this we can fix all of this all right you can see my window held up great window with the birch frame that's all good my door is even good too it just needs a log to roll up this isn't looking so bad I'm really happy with this oh check this out ants have been going to town okie-smokies or maybe termites or whatever but that kind of idea quite a bit there even more right here so that's them chewing up the wood for those of you who don't know i did not get a white fluffy dog this is emerald's dog and that's my crazy dog, it's Tripper please before we start uh before we start really digging into the work let's take a walk around the floor and see what needs to be worked on the most a little assess the situation action we'll get up onto this onto the roof too and see but from here this side looks pretty decent the back obviously this is all going to have to get torn off and one of these holes on the bottom is going to have to be replaced it's still there some ice in it so that can be just put back on right there no problems oh my goodness look at all the dust making some ants happy see this is all out it's gonna be pushed back in and uh and wedged shimmed back in properly maybe some more weight on the top will help too but this is the biggest problem here that pole broke obviously and although the support pole broke and all those Tripper that's a bad place to dig man and all those fell so alright that's what we'll get working on first and I guess this year we'll try to see if we can get that snow wall in the front here this year's supposed to be a much better year for snow it can't be worse than last year it's getting a little chilly so grab my gloves before we start to work you know I'll probably put this door up to point point proven okay so almost four years of this being up and one pole broke which resulted in the back coming down it's really not that bad it's not a big fail in my mind so this it's got to go but also obviously these have to come off first so I can repair it better but he's been asking me why aren't you going back to the fork Well, I was just trying to do something a little different for a while And I did And I knew I was coming back here for the winter So now that it's We're on borrowed time, honestly For not having snow So I would like to get this all squared away Before we get a good dumping of snow And then that way maybe I can come out here Camp during a blizzard Be pretty protected Good video, eh? All these are solid, man Everything's solid It's basically that one But it had a lot of weight on it, too You know you want to go Careful, bud Alright, there you have it tarps hold up pretty well, too I'm getting this bench out of here. It's just pissing me off Rebuild it after I've got the other side propped up a little bit Well, I get this side tied on I want to make sure it's all secure and everything's tied exactly where the other one was Because I think it was structurally important because now this is looser than it was before I took that off We'll tie everything together build it up again I just grabbed one of my old uh logs from the back for here it's pretty solid and we'll grab a different one when we need to replace it no big deal it fits so I'm gonna go through the back stop the back wall okay so we've got it up supporting where it wants to be the other side has to come up still a little bit more do the Canadian jam old faithful so now that that's on there's pretty solid i'm just going to take this extra piece wrap it around just to try to support it as much as possible there she oh there she is good girl beauty are you a good girl hi good girl hi good look at that tail look at that to you look at that tail go good girl doing a number on that log it's fixed solid not moving but you can see the back wall moves quite a bit now so what i'm going to do is I'm gonna pull it in as tight as I can and to hammer a bunch of big stakes on the outside of it I was gonna try to tie it together but it's all kind of tied together no Trevor stop digging there tied together for integrity and I need to tie it to something that's strong not just to itself so I'm going to peg it in, we're gonna do that before anything so that it sits properly when we get all the logs on and the bed made and everything not for you for the ends at the top just so it doesn't mushroom out on me too bad, this one in there beauty, where'd you go now girl, come on, what? oh this is all squirrel meat animals are using this for like crazy, I figure if I put two or three more of these here butt this up as far up, get these in as tight as possible and I'll get another one tighter than that, still working up a sweat, like I said I'm really surprised we don't have snow already I was up just north of the Sioux three days ago and there was like four inches of snow on the ground, it's unbelievable but here nothing, so there was some on the ground, I should, I shouldn't say nothing there was some on the ground but it's melted I put these two really tight to the bottom but then this one I put farther away from the bottom and closer to the top to push it in I think I'm gonna do the same with this one farther away from the bottom and closer to the top to push it in, I feel confident with this, it's a little, you move it a little bit but nothing to where, nothing close to where you could before that's all settled I tied in some sides got everything squared away i went up on the roof and it looks all right i'll show you that in a minute but i tied that up there a little bit farther let's get our our logs back under here to see if we can regain shape i want you to stop digging at the foot of my fort tripper foot of the fort saggy saggy saggy look at his ears are you a gremlin did you get wet last night you get wet after midnight tripper well the back log looks like it will work for support pretty good the support log it's a great success you can see though why all the stress would have been on that log put some logs underneath it to support it to get a couple for the middle they're pretty happy with that looks really good honestly it looks probably even better than before so that's nice and secure there I did use some of my my bed poles to finish off this I put more logs in there than there was and they're uh anyways it looks good i'm happy with that so we'll deal with the bed after i'm going to make a different bed style i'm going to do the traditional like uh stacked wood instead of what i had before it was flimsy before we'll do the stacked wood we'll do it a little bit lower because my whole plan was to use that as a bench and in the bed but i always sit in that chair that that hidden woodsman chair so when the bed was that high i couldn't sit up straight so i'll make it a bit lower that way I'll be able to sit up straight I might even make it a little bit farther this way closer to the fire we'll see though I am happy with this okay your your bum's in the camera we'll have to cut some to that size but I want to do that before we go any farther so that I know that that's gonna be secure now get all the mouse poop out of here why don't you just stand right in way of that tripper good call man okay that's looking good almost level two which it was not at all when i first started no digging all right he's in there do the same thing on this side trap please man he's like digging at the foundation of the fort sees me doing it i think he's like i'd like to do that too dude dude dude dude dude nothing even happened man nice and easy you know he makes it real easy to be out here do what I'm doing I do keep bringing them I'll lift it too much if at all I feel good about that I'm getting hungry so before I go any further we had a fire going so that I can cook up some good food this is for a little walk with the dogs got some birch bark and twigs get this fire going here 25th times a charm now he's going to run around like a fool for a while i need to make it this way a bit more rocks from home or this one that'll be a rip roar here in a minute let's clean up though let's get all this cleaned up before we start doing anything building wise in here yeah it looks like i'm gonna need two or three logs for my bed but that is no rush right now move this for a minute so i can rake out all this stuff i like having the barrier there for sure for sure all right this is my idea making the bed with the four logs on the ground right like one two three four at the other side a big log across this way and then or sorry another log across this way and then logs going this way for the bed i originally was going to use this but this is cherry wood well i think this is just spruce here if i'm not mistaken yeah that's spruce this is cherry let's save the cherry for firewood and plus the spruce is a little bit bigger we'll get a bit more height i've had this stuff come on since I made the shelter the fort here I've kept these logs I've used them to cook with to prop up my grill I mean and like I've had them for other things but this is a good use for them I think even everything out to we just gonna get a roughed out idea for now then we'll get the food on for the next stage of my bed I like these thicknesses just thickness of these logs and while this has been a good ladder and sawhorse and things like that I don't really need it you know I mean it's just been bonus extra I can make a better more dedicated each one of those this is actually a tripod that I use for both those things so I'm going to take it apart and I'm going to use the logs for my bed it's grown right into there got two different widths because I'm sure this is not gonna be the same height on both ends got the thicker thicker one should go here I think okay might be a good idea to pound these stakes into stakes in to hold these in before I get too far as well man I'm getting hungry here it's not bad actually at all that side this side can do the same and the back I've got this log here is jammed lengthways across that side wall and that side wall so that's not going anywhere that'll be the back and then I still got storage and stuff back there and then I'm just gonna continue to put logs here but I will I will do the same I did to this on that side pretty slick pretty slick fire's coming good too almost time to cook nice nice and clean eh okay you're getting old when you have to make sounds and stuff when you sit down what happened oh i sat down oh i'm not feeling too good today what happened i slept wrong what all right got some potatoes some garlic some onion go on go clementine for dessert too we're gonna cut all those up we've got eggs and we got bacon i think what i'll do first is cook the bacon in the pan for a little bit just to get some bacon grease in there and we'll finish it off on the grill because i really enjoy the taste of the grilled bacon but it'd be nice to get the grease in there i have oil but if we can use bacon grease that's all the better and we'll give the dogs some bacon as well, at least Beauty will get some any trip I'll give you some after you know that going crazy dog, they call her all day long can't find her, she's off doing whatever being a dog, the minute I get the food out look how close she is to it I ain't no dummy, bacon's good that other stuff's getting there, I'm gonna throw it all in, we're gonna throw it all in, maybe oh hot hot hot grease in there, potatoes, onion and garlic going oil or butter is imperative if not eggs stick like boy butter in the bottom of that and get that on the fire as well, okay everybody all right, potatoes and onions and stuff are basically done and the bacon is pretty much done too so I'm gonna the eggs aren't eggs need to sit for a minute so I already scooped out a lot of the grease I'm gonna put these bacons back in here just for a minute and I'll take this off the heat because it's cast-iron it's gonna stay hot right, so I'm not worried about it getting cold or anything, just set it here next to the fire still stay hot, we want to get this with some twigs underneath it to get it boiling pretty quickly now so I can eat all my food together flame age under that whole bacon you like crisps like bacon crisps yeah right oh really good all right guys you think you can eat a piece now and we wait long enough to beauty how many more do I have I think I can spare one more I could spare one more for you that will leave me with for God he's pouring on Google we are calling this done so we're gonna make a tea up with the water that we used to boil our eggs okay that works well dirt off my gloves before okay that water falling what are you doing finding truffles stick his nose in you're weird you're a weird dog bro I I got to show you guys this. I got to show you guys this. Look at that. What do you think? McDonald's got nothing on my breakfast. Maybe we can use this one. The potatoes are like hash browns, but bacon-y. Ketchup would be nice. I should have brought some kind of bread. Make a little sandwich with this egg. Hot egg. What's up? Tripper is not a normal dog. You guys know that, right? Like, this is how a dog normally acts. This is a normal dog. Tripper's a special case, man. I forgot. I forgot how normal a dog can be. The yolk's not runny, but it's not solid either. It's like somewhere in the middle. It's nice. it's nice i'm gonna eat this i'm gonna eat this and we'll get up onto the ceiling or the roof rather and check that out i feel pretty happy with the progress for today cleaned up fix it completely it's fixed i shimmed up the sidewall as well we'll get on the roof see what he needs doing up there and potentially get a couple more lugs for the bed but that's not important right now and uh yeah i do gotta bring extra rocks for the fire pit we'll make the snow wall this year hopefully and that door is over there for this side too but again i like to leave some some sunlight coming in for filming purposes right like I don't need it to be all closed in I need light in here I can't flip on a switch over here you know okay soaked up the fire again food was good tea's almost done time to clean up in here and go up to the ceiling I don't I don't even like this dog I swear not even a hater get away from me beauty you get away from me beauty I can't stand you you're such a good girl I like the open space so we're gonna get rid of this for now sorry dude no big deal just goes over here is this garbage oh I do want to keep this excuse me this wood get moved soon but big deal me too I'll probably store this underneath the bed it was super handy to find no or no around it in the past but I'd like to get this even more level you guys remember I had to really take a long time with the shovel and the pick in here and flatten her all out maybe I'll wait with that I don't know I want to make it even so I can probably use a saw well we'll try it we'll try and see what happens might have to use a Silky saw hopefully it's not too wide no Oh Trevor, this is where our Silky would be better. Oh Trevor, this is dead anyways. Cool, that's why it's so easy to chop. Oh that's not so bad, better than it was. It's starting to rain a little bit. Solid roof. Okay, so we got a good air flow here. When you look at it, it really does come to the end. There's almost an overhang, so I'm cool with that gap. I wanna stretch this tarp out, get rid of some of this standing water on here too. Oh, Tripp, watch out, buddy. Tripper. Runs right under it all. Oh, Tripper. Tripper, he's in there drinking my tea. Oh my goodness, dogs. Self-inflicted, you know, keep bringing them. All right, life is much more enjoyable with dogs, don't you agree? Okay, right there, pretty covered. The only thing is that tarp is kinda loose, but it's not a big deal. There's just gonna be snow falling on it, I kinda want it to be loose. Looks fine from the inside. beauty in there you see what you doing beauty what are you doing beauty we got ourselves a door again boys and girls back in business cool looks like it fits even better than last year a little bit of a gap underneath that's all good gaps everywhere so that's pretty much filled in now this side except for right here which I do like having open as a secondary entrance third entrance I guess my tape job was last year can get rid of those boards and that garbage up there cool this is looking great lots of room these are all really hard wood really dense hard dry hardwood for fire the old fort back in action well I think that's it for today you got a lot done feels much more spacious flat protected this there's this thing is not a straight angle at all this is not a 90 degree. It's as wampus as you can get but that says uh that's true Joe fashion you know. I did not create the 90 degree angle. So we end the video here with the first time back at the fort in a long time. I hope you guys enjoyed it. We will be back soon. There's supposed to be a snow coming soon so I hope to get out when that happens either here or on New Camp or a different different spot. I like going to different spots you know what I mean but this is the staple right now especially in this time of year tons of people were asking for it like i said man i get comments it's so funny you know what i mean like it's so funny you guys mostly don't know because this isn't something you follow like crazy or i have to pay attention to this stuff so a couple years ago i get like the the season before last fall i get all these comments like Joel the Fort is is uh worthy of more two more than two episodes a year all this stuff so i start going to the fort more of that in this time of year last year and i just start doing tons of fort videos then i get these comments saying like all you do is go to the fort you never go on adventures anymore or stuff so it's like trying to find a middle balance between that to please everybody but to also please myself and to keep myself interested in it and to have fun while i'm doing it right so i like to switch things up again i'm sure i made you guys sick of canoe trips i saw that in in the views i see it but it's like and i still have like five canoe trip videos that i haven't put out because i don't want to like piss you guys off even more you know what i mean it's like i know what you want to see and it's not that right so it's this for now and then you're gonna get sick of this and hopefully next spring you'll like that again i might post a canoe tripping video throughout the winter once or twice just because i have them but again i'm going to be doing this i have a lot of cool shelters i think my niche right now is going to be testing out different shelters building shelters or testing out different winter shelters that i buy or that people send me or things like that i seem to get better views on those and there's like a point to the video you know what i mean like you can actually see me using this piece of gear or me building this type of shelter and how well it works for me i like that that model i don't want to do that in the summer again i've been doing this for 12 years 15 years i don't even know anymore i don't want to do the same thing all year round and i'm really blessed where i live that we do get different seasons right so i can switch it all up every season and i'll be doing more i bought a snowmobile so i'll be able to go out farther i'll be able to camp off of it i'll be able to do a bunch more stuff in the winter with that so that's a huge help i'll be going out in the hot tent with friends by myself with the dogs so lots of stuff to come if you guys know me and if you guys have watched the channel for a long time you know that that's how it is i switched up with the seasons and i've said that multiple times so i do appreciate the people who stick around for all of it i also appreciate the people who have certain things that they like to watch, and that's what they watch, it's all good, you know what I mean, I'm not going anywhere, I'm here to stay, I'm gonna do this until I don't get any views anymore, no, you guys don't wanna watch at all anymore, I still wanna do it, I'm still having fun, things change, I used to be the guy up here, and I'm not anymore, and I see that, I know that I'm not the top guy in the camping bushcraft genre anymore, and that's totally fine, I'm still here, you know what I mean, I'm still in the running, I'm still doing great, so it's like, I believe that I'm one of the longest running people in the genre, if not the longest so that's saying something right i love what i'm doing i love that you guys watch me still i love that i get to do this for a living and we're going to keep doing it so anyways didn't mean to go on that rant but that's what happened i hope you guys enjoyed the video we'll be back soon see you later