The Birth of a Dugout Canoe (video) A spellbinding short film - building a dugout canoe using traditional methods and hand tools (ecoTrain)
Don't watch this if you're in a hurry!
Actually, maybe you should....
The main question that kept coming to me as I was watching this fascinating documentary was, 'How does anyone have the time to do that?'
It must have taken months and months to carve that huge tree trunk into a real, working canoe. But that's exactly how they would have done it in the olden days.
Did people have more time in the olden days?
Well, of course they didn't. A day is a day, a year is a year, a lifetime is a lifetime. There's only so much anyone can do in a day, a year or a lifetime.
Most people these days wouldn't spend months building a dugout canoe with a sharpened axe. It's really really hard physical work, for a start. My arms were aching just from watching this. Most likely, if you needed a canoe to cross the lake by your house, or to go out fishing for your supper (which you probably don't) then you'd buy one ready made from fiberglass or plastic. And why not? It does the same job after all.
Most people wouldn't even know how to hone an axe blade to that level of sharpness. That kind of thing takes experience and skill, which itself takes time to learn and practice.
But still it makes me wonder... how do these people have time to build a dugout canoe by hand, while I don’t?
Whatever the reasons - it looks to me like these guys have got the right idea.
Check out their other videos on YouTube. They're called 'Northmen' and do all sorts of traditional building projects.
Do you have time to build a dugout canoe?
Is it something you would do?
Would you worry that you're late,
and you've got so much else to do?
To pay the bills, to fix the car
Get the kids to school on time
To clean the house, to go to work
There just isn't enough time (even to think of a better rhyme!)
Or would you get up in the morning
Greet the brand new day
Swing your axe till the work is done
And when it's finished, sail away...
Consider that next time you're in a hurry!
Visit www.northmen.com for more info on who these people are and what they do.
I watched with my morning coffee. I think it counteracted the caffeine.
Observations in no particular order:
I especially liked the guy with the orange hat. But maybe I just liked the hat.
Wow
Where were the women?
How will it be wide enough?
Oh!!! I get it.
I bet Gideon was salivating looking at that guy's workshop.
Is it comfortable to do all that woodwork with so many rings?
Risky move to test it first time in freezing water.
I wish I could be on that river too.
Beautiful.
Time is a precious commodity, definitely well spent on work like that.
Thanks for sharing Gideon!
I'm sorry to hear that it counteracted the caffeine. I hate to waste good coffee, and the morning coffee is the most important cup of the day. Next time I shall try to post something to enhance the effect of caffeine. I doubt very much if it would be possible to build a dugout canoe without a lot of coffee. Without coffee it would probably still be a tree standing in the forest.
It wasn't a bad thing!
Your little poem has raised a smile
From graft like that I'd run a mile
I'm not surprised that @eco-alex
Would grab an axe and carve a palace, tho....
Great comment @healingherb
You've really got a way with words!
Yes, maybe a dugout canoe isn't everyone's cup of tea
But it's a good thing to make from a big old tree
And it's good to know - if you've got the time and a good sharp axe
You could sail away, and not pay tax!
(Oh no... I can't stop now...)
I wish I could vote, atm @stillgideon :)
Time to share my favorite boat building video. Very meditative.
Omg, what an immense job
I guess it's one way to keep warm in those northern winters
well, little by little, bit by bit.. if you do a little bit every day.. sooner or later you will get the job done!
That's true... like the guy who broke out of prison by cutting through the bars of his cell with tooth floss. Took him years , but he did it. True story. Where there's a will there's a way!
indeeed! that's how i managed to finish building my earthship. 4 years,, bit by bit..