Off Grid Cabin Part 4, Insulation, Lakers and Splake

We’ll this time I pulled my 13 year old out of school a few days early to get some work done. 3am wake up call on Thursday morning, a 7 hour drive, and by 5pm we had all 20 insulation bags snowmobiled in. Let’s just say my son slept good that night! Friday took us all day to insulate all the walls and vapour barrier everything. One thing my son has learned while living on a farm is that dad always preaches “work hard and then you play hard”.

So staying true to my words (even though I wanted to insulate the ceiling yet while we were there) we spent Saturday and Sunday playing hard.

Saturday we left late morning in search of a lake only open for fishing Feb15-March15. Lakers we’re on the list. An hour snowmobile ride north down the trails, we arrived. And then the wind. Oh the wind!!!!! My son soon learned what laker fishing is like in the middle of the lake in 50km/h wind gusts.
5 Lakers landed. All cookie cutter 18-20 inch fish. We realized that the fins on the fish were freezing fast in the wind so no pictures to show. A learning experience for a 13 year old. Not eating them, get them back down the hole ASAP in that kind of weather.

Sunday was just a casual day. Stayed close to the cabin on a near by Splake lake. Fire on shore. All 4 rods dead sticking kind of Sunday. If we weren’t so lazy we could of caught way more fish than we were rewarded with but we were actually just content to be out and watch for the rods bending. We lost so many fish! But managed to take home 2 for the pan for supper.

Back up next week end to finish up insulation with a friend and find a few more different lakes to fish. This winter the plan all along was to never fish the same lake twice. I’ve been know to just get comfortable ice fishing the same spot on the same lake always. It’s been fun pushing the limits to see how far into the bush you can push to find that little Lake x gem.

Till next time…

Insulation. Looking out the window where the kitchen sink will be.

Wind! Used the sleds as a wind break and even had the lid propped up and held in place with the axe to limit the wind.

Weekend in one photo

Splake!

Simple, easy, 1 pan meal deal.

looks good you are getting there. that pan of fish sure looks good.

Sounds like a wonderful life choice what you are doing with the family. Just out of curiosity and I admit that I am completely ignorant of these kinds of things, but was there a reason for the wall insulation to go in before the ceiling? Just wondering if having the ceiling insulation installed first would prevent more heat loss since heat rises? Or was there an installation reason that requires the walls to be done first?

Cathedral ceiling, and no ladder. We could of made due moving the table around and a plastic chair on top but this dad wanted to live for a few more years. Plus it would of been a gong show trying to vapour barrier by myself that high. Bring up ladders next week end to finish up safely. You are correct in heat loss part. Yes it would of made more sense but sometimes you just do what you can with what you have at the time. It wasn’t that cold out on the week end. Loaded up the wood stove at 10pm and we were plenty warm till 6:30 am. Even with just the walls done.

Good stuff Greenpark. I think that laker lake is open til March 20th this year. Might get you an extra weekend of fishing in.

Awesome report…enjoyed reading it

You are living the life, enjoy it to the fullest. Nice cabin. Jut some screw eyes in the rafters way up, then run some 550 cord and coat hangers to hang up wet clothes.

Cathedral ceiling, and no ladder. We could of made due moving the table around and a plastic chair on top but this dad wanted to live for a few more years. Plus it would of been a gong show trying to vapour barrier by myself that high. Bring up ladders next week end to finish up safely. You are correct in heat loss part. Yes it would of made more sense but sometimes you just do what you can with what you have at the time. It wasn’t that cold out on the week end. Loaded up the wood stove at 10pm and we were plenty warm till 6:30 am. Even with just the walls done.

Ahhh...all makes perfect sense now!

Enjoyed your report

I hope you have a big heavy door on your cabin to keep my favourite forest animal...(BEARS) out of your new place.