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jsahara24
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# Posted: 11 Sep 2023 04:11pm
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Looking good!
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Aklogcabin
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# Posted: 12 Sep 2023 12:43pm
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I am really impressed. That is a beautiful cabin and site. You should be very proud. Your family will be making a lot of great times there. How's the fishing around there
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Grizzlyman
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# Posted: 17 Sep 2023 09:36pm - Edited by: Grizzlyman
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Aklogcabin
Fishing is great! Lots of northerns, smallies, and good sized bluegills. Walleyes are a bit harder to find but been busy trying!
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Grizzlyman
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# Posted: 17 Sep 2023 09:43pm - Edited by: Grizzlyman
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Still hadn’t Fixed the chimney supports from this winter yet. Fixed them this weekend by installing a new set, and securing them with spax lag screws instead of just normal screws. I think it really was a fluke last year so we’ll see moving forward.
Finished painting the outbuildings finally as well this weekend. Looking good!
Also just did some more general cleanup.
This is such a beautiful time of year. Colors are almost peak and there aren’t any bugs at all. That and 60-70 degrees every day.
But we know the cold stuff is coming!!!
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Grizzlyman
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# Posted: 16 Oct 2023 09:14pm - Edited by: Grizzlyman
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We are shutting the cabin down for the 3rd Time this weekend… always bittersweet.
Last weekend we did a lot of grouse hunting. I also installed our permanent water system. Used copper to replace the vinyl tubing I’d been using all summer. I have more work to do on the copper but So far looking good.
Been a great year. Been able to enjoy the cabin this summer vs just working and building.
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 16 Oct 2023 10:26pm
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We get 'ready for winter' but never really 'close it down'; ie, I make some trips in depending upon access and sometimes my wife comes along.
Goodonya for taking some rec time vs always working and building!
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Grizzlyman
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# Posted: 24 Oct 2023 07:55pm - Edited by: Grizzlyman
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Closed down the cabin this weekend. Will be the last trip until the lake turns solid.. then a few winter trips.
Fall is just so incredibly pretty up at the cabin- hard to leave. Got a number of grouse this weekend too.
We have FINALLY cleaned up the ENTIRE site. Took lots of hours here and there spread out over the summer to do so. But everything is now in its final form. I still have some hacking up fallen logs and chipping to do… but that is all stuff in the forest surrounding the site. Filled up my sauna woodshed to let the wood season so it should be decent by spring.
I’ve learned that You can ALWAYS use one more day…But if I did have one I would have completely filled my big wood shed with split wood. Oh well it’s 1/2 full. Lol.
I also finished replacing the vinyl tubing and sweating all the copper for my piping. It’s all external and will bring water from the 60 gallon holding tank into the cabin now via RV pump. I plumbed it to directly fill our countertop water filter. This is preferable over a faucet given the limitations. The RV pump should Cycle on when the spigot is opened. I also plumbed an untreated spigot on the exterior of the cabin.
Additionally, I cut and marked out another 1/2 mile of trails. All together now we have about a mile+ of trails for hiking on our property. And there is a bunch of state land that has decent game trails for hiking to behind us.
Summer #3 has been very productive. Not as much from the “building†side but a lot of little details necessary to finish everything. This summer I:
-built sauna deck
-sided sauna, outhouse, and shed w/ cedar shakes
-built sauna lean-to for water toy storage
-built shed lean-to for lumber and material storage
-cut the forest back to 30ft for fire management purposes
-reinstalled chimney bracing (and beefed it up!)
-Installed a water system to bring lake water up to the cabin
- replaced wood stove with a Vermont casting stove
-reconfigured stovepipe for new stove
- finished widening treads on the staircases up the bluffs
-Installed a reverse osmosis system to filter and drink lake water
- removed R/O system and replaced with countertop doulton filter
-finished trimming out sauna
- replaced vinyl tubing plumbing with copper
-cut trails
- made a landing for “extra†small 14ft boat to stay permanently
-moved construction garbage pile about 100 yards into woods
-cleaned up all the construction garbage and material
- did more fishing and hunting!!
Life is good. Enjoy a few Northern Minnesota fall pics!!
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Grizzlyman
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# Posted: 24 Oct 2023 08:04pm - Edited by: Grizzlyman
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Few more
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Aklogcabin
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# Posted: 25 Oct 2023 11:07am
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You have to beautiful cabin n site. I'm proud for you. And sooooo nice that you enjoy going to the cabin with your wife. I grew up in northern WI and miss the sound of drumming grouse. Although partridge have been introduced to our area and we see one once n a while. Spruce grouse here. And they taste great too. Nice to read your story
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Grizzlyman
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# Posted: 24 Apr 2024 10:50pm
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We will be heading up Friday to open the cabin back up for the season. Not Much happened this winter due to basically zero snow- we were up only once this winter due to sketchy ice up through January and lack of snow for snowmobiles the rest of the winter. We went up in February and there was about an inch on the ice to ride on only. .. and that was gone a few days later. We did finally get some snow in early April, but only hung around for a few weeks…. Can’t imagine much changed in that short span or had too much snow damage in that span.
One interesting thing though is our dock took a beating. We have a permanent dock. Usually the ice locks up and doesn’t move once it’s there until it goes out. Rocky lakes like ours can handle permanent dock if they’re built right. This was such an odd year for ice. It came and went and strengthened and weakened almost the entire winter. No snow means no insulation and the ice was a lot more Susceptible to temperature swings and would basically keep adding and moving all night long every night, and start to weaken in the sunlight during the day. Some snow is incredibly important for ice.
You normally can hear the ice popping and moaning somewhat, but it really was a trip this year. When we were up in February the ice was pinging and “laser sounds” literally all night long. You could just stand outside and it was so loud and nonstop- especially on the wilderness lake.
Anyway, the ice cycling caused a massive heave on our side of the lake. Normally rocky shore lakes aren’t susceptible to heaves as the rock doesn’t budge and therefore the ice can’t heave- sandy shorelines are different- But rocky shores lock it up in place.
My dock has a 2” “insurance” steel pipe bolted to the rock wall to keep the ice from pushing the dock into the shore. It also has an angle iron bracket with a 3/4 bolt fastened into the rock on the shore side. The ice sheered the 3/4 bolt off the angle iron bracket. Not bent, straight up just sheered it off. The heave lifted it and sheered the bolt clean.
The 2” steel pipe bent like a hockey stick. See pics below. There a couple of where it was starting to bend vs how it finished. I haven’t seen it yet- these were just from a neighbor. I can’t imagine the force needed to bend a 2” pipe in straight compression, just incredible… it also bent the 3/4 bolt that fastens it to the shoreline
The dock seems to be in decent enough shape still- we’ll see this weekend- the dock guys are going to come and reattach everything next week. It’ll probably have to be adjusted back into place and re-leveled too.
They make these permanent docks ultra beefy for this reason. The legs are 3” pipe so they shouldn’t bend. The ice bent the heck out of the permanent bumpers but that’s a quick bend back. If it can last through a winter like this…
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Grizzlyman
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# Posted: 28 Apr 2024 11:13pm - Edited by: Grizzlyman
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Well our dock was still there but beat up.
That bar folded and is bent at about 45*. The whole dock shifted about 3-4 ft toward the rock wall shore. That bracket that sheared off the bolt is bent almost up almost perpendicular- ice must have heaved underneath. Also one of the legs of the dock is bent 45* under water. It must have caught on the rock and not budged when the dock moved. In one of the photos you can see it sticking out under the water at a 45* angle.
The whole dock is overall in good shape just a little messed up a bit. Should be fixed this week by the dock company.
We opened up the Cabin this weekend. Cold! 48* Saturday and 37 today. Started snowing today! But no more freezing in the forecast.
No damage to anything else over the winter, and no mice! Everything overwintered perfect.
We gave the stove a workout and had the stove cookin all weekend to 75* in the cabin.
I did set up the water system. Took only about an hour to get it back online. Pumped up water to fill the big tank. And used the “new” system for the first time. Worked great.
Also set up a number of air rifle targets in the trees for the boys and myself and had fun shooting the pellet gun.
Looking forward to a good summer.
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TrinitiAshlee
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# Posted: 30 Apr 2024 01:59am
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I believe my construction project will likely require similar foundation work. I'm constructing on a ridge in Central Frontenac, Ontario. Have you navigated through the permitting and inspection process? I'm finding it a bit unclear regarding what the building inspector expects. It seems like your approach might align with what they're looking for. I'm considering pouring both 20-inch and 16-inch footings, or even a 9-inch sonotube if I opt for that route, to ensure a perfect fit to the rock formation. Your foundations appear to be in excellent condition.
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Grizzlyman
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# Posted: 30 Apr 2024 03:40am
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TrinitiAshlee
I did not have to deal with an inspector for construction. In our area they did inspect the outhouse but the structure itself did not need any permits other than a build permit-so sorry but I can’t help you there. If it’s unclear, I would just ask them. Tell them what you’re planning to do and ask them if that would work. At least here, I’ve found the inspection/permitting dept all to be willing to work with you and very helpful-almost surprisingly so.
Regarding the foundations, you’re right they’ve held up great- and look more less new. They have not degraded one bit in the 4 years since I’ve poured them so I would say this method worked quite well. I’ve kept the water off of them, and being right on granite there is no heaving or movement.
It’s unclear to me how well a sonotube would work on granite like this since it’s not inherently stable if it’s not buried and backfilled for lateral support. I personally think wider is better to”grab” more of the rock below. If there are fractures or some character to the rock below even better as there is more purchase for the concrete. The method of just putting a square form on the rock and filling and leveling with concrete did ultimately work quite well. The only thing I would change is to use 8xs the forms. That way if you put it on an unlevel surface there is more width to the form- even if you only fill it 4”.
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Grizzlyman
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# Posted: 27 Aug 2024 11:27pm
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Just an update. Summer has been busy. I haven’t done much work this year. Some- yes but nothing real major. Most of the work has been clearing land/ mulching. Lots and lots of chipping, chainsawing, and moving around old wood. Filling up the woodshed.
I’ve spent days clearing deadfall from around our property and thinning out the trees. I’ve cut the forest back quite a bit as well. We have a clear 30’ plus now around the cabin. I’ve left a few nicer pines in the “clear area” as well as some maples. I did ultimately limb most of them up 10’ or so just to keep the area clear and cleaner.
I’ve used all the mulch to mulch our walking trails.
I also redid some of our path on the way up and put in some earth stairs. This was not without difficulty as they were a sh*tton of rock under the surface that needed to be moved/smashed up in order to create level steps. - It has Defintely improved the site though and the walk up.
I also put a tire swing in for the kids.
we put in a nice log swing but the fire pit.
We gathered up all the extra pallets we had laying around and built a fort with them for the kids. The kids immediately went to work harvesting moss and chinking the pallets lol.
Been doing a LOT of fishing instead of just work work work at the cabin. That’s been a welcome change.  
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jsahara24
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# Posted: 28 Aug 2024 04:55pm
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Looking good and glad to hear you are enjoying the fruits of your labor!!
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Grizzlyman
Member
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# Posted: 27 Oct 2024 08:38pm - Edited by: Grizzlyman
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Been a fun summer fishing and grouse hunting this fall.
A few projects though nothing as significant as before this year
-biggest project was insulation. I insulated the floor with spray foam from underneath. This was actually fairly easy surprisingly and not as horrible as I had imagined. The floor now stays warm in the fall and the foam also helped to deaden the floor a little bit making it feel more solid.
- I did a lot of clearing and chipping deadfall this summer. Chips used to build up and pad trail up to cabin.
-thinned out trees quite a bit creating a much clearer(but still private) lake view. May take a few down next year yet.
- my better half finished painting interior entirely- including loft.
-Exterior stained sauna eves and fascia. Also painted outhouse interior (note picture shows removable brace installed only for snow load in winter)
-cut more trails through woods. Have about 1 1/2 miles of trail now for hunting and hiking
-fixed dock that had gotten disfigured by ice last winter
-replaced some plumbing and faucet setup. This will be our final/long term water system. The faucet is a large curved high faucet and elevated above the counter so that it can swing over to fill up our water filer, and then swing back to provide unfiltered water into sink.
- installed sink drain and u-trap through floor to allow for sink to drain out of cabin. No longer just using a slop bucket for grey water.
-installed a few other usb chargers around cabin
- bought and ran permanent extension cords to make water pump and generator operation easier.
-dug up trail up to cabin in places (and moved/smashed) large rocks in the way to build earthen stairs on steep parts of the trail.
Been a fun summer not working my a@& off every weekend! Major projects for next year will involve tin tile ceiling below loft. Other than that nothing major planned!
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Grizzlyman
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# Posted: 27 Oct 2024 08:54pm
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Few others.
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 27 Oct 2024 09:21pm
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Very NICE 
Fwiw, when we had a similar loft in Cabin1 we found putting the bed headboard to the middle sure beat sticking my head into the rafter on a sit-up.
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Grizzlyman
Member
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# Posted: 28 Oct 2024 02:32pm
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gcrank1
Agree! Kids actually sleep with head the other direction- toward the tall side even though headboards are on the short side.
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willywilly2020
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# Posted: 2 Dec 2024 03:06pm
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Love following your build! Couple of questions:
1. How did you insulate your ceiling?
2. How did you learn about your sauna design/build?
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Grizzlyman
Member
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# Posted: 5 Dec 2024 02:04am
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willywilly2020
Ceiling is insulated from above. Theres 3” of pink foam insulation in sheets above the roof sheathing. It’s not the best insulation but it’s good enough to keep the cabin 70 with the stove going and below freezing. I then used 5” structural screws to attach purlins to the rafters by screwing through the foam- this also secures the foam down. I put the steel on the purlins.
The sauna was my own design but influenced heavily by a 100 year old log cabin sauna at an old
Camp in MN and the finer details were gleaned from “the sauna times”. They have a how to ebook for like $20 that has everything you need. In retrospect, I should have made the sauna a foot lower ceiling but you just never can tell until It’s done. It’s 7’ at the corners and 9’ at the peak. 6&8 would have been better.
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