Jacob Goes Off Grid Day 137 Part 1

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This is a video from Day 137 of going off-grid. I went 'off grid' six hundred and forty-six days ago and it has been quite the journey since I got dropped off at this old fallow farm and built (continue to build) all my own infrastructure. I have been video documenting the entire process and have just recently begun publicly sharing some of the videos. I have been sharing the videos privately since I started the entire process which I call Jacob Goes Off Grid In The Woods. 'Day 1' is the morning after I arrived at this little place in the mountains in the 'dead of winter' on January thirteenth of two thousand and seventeen with my dogs, my wits, minimal gear and very little hard currency to work with. Slowly I have done my best to breathe life into a very old farm and give it all my best, 'learning as I go', and documenting the process as best I can. It has been quite the journey so far. @jacobpeacock

In this video I show where I had an idea to do a shed extension that extended from the roof that I previously built over the dog kennel.

I explain how I sloped the shed roof towards the roof over the dog kennel and how it will make a much better system for collecting rain water than a gutter. It is worth mentioning that when I built the dog kennel roof the uphill side of it was nearly a foot higher in elevation than the downhill side of it which would ensure that the water would always flow towards the downhill side.

I talk about how the shed extension will give me a place to get out of the rain and give me a place to store my tools.

I talk about having to de-bark (skin) the black locust logs that I used during the construction of the shed extension and how I saved all the bark to be used as mulch.

I talk about going out into the woods and retrieving the piece of black locust that I use as a header and how it was covered in moss and green growth.

I explain about notching the header piece on the fatter end to make sure that I maintain the slope (level/pitch) that I wanted the header to rest at.

I show my trick of using two boards screwed to a post so that I can set the header into place by myself and do whatever notching (of the header) that is necessary without the header falling off the posts or having to take it down and lift it up (onto the posts) multiple times.

I talk about how when working with round wood that it is important to use your 'eye balling' (looking at it all) to help maintain everything staying more or less level and plumb.

I show how I cup the rafters so that they fit onto the headers. I also talk about not skinning (de-barking) the poplar rafters but how it is better to do that if it was going to be a living space.

I talk about how each piece of round wood is going to be a 'custom fit' because each piece is unique and how it is a lot of 'detail work'.

I talk about how my best advice for people building with this sort of material is to really take their time and repeatedly get back away from what they are building and look at it all from afar and give it a 'critical eye'.

I talk about doubling or tripling up the poplar rafters just to re-enforce it in case some of them rot out or there is a heavy snow load.

I talk about how all the fasteners that I use are high-end fasteners and explain the types of fasteners that I used in this particular project.

I talk about not skimping on the fasteners when working with this sort of material (that is gathered on site) because the amount of money that is being saved is rather large (as far as lumber goes) and buying good fasteners is still going to be much cheaper than buying lumber. I do not say it in the video but using cheap fasteners on black locust is a nightmare.

As always this is just a summary of the video's content and not meant to explain everything that I cover in the video.

Tip: If you have trouble viewing the video you can always right-click the video and click 'Save Video As...' and download it directly.

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