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 uh have fun with the dogs hey folks how are you joe and tripper here we're going to jump into the fort video where tripper and beauty were out there building it with me having a lot of fun.

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Not too bad oh back wall okay oh yes see that i knew that was gonna happen that log that's what i called i called that from the get-go don't dig tripper not in the fort okay it's not a big deal we can fix all of.

This we can fix all of this all right yeah this needs some some work you can see my window held up great the window with the birch frame that's all good my door is even good too it just needs a log.

To roll up  okay  hey what are you doing anyways this isn't looking so bad i'm really happy with this oh check this out ants have been going to town.

Okie smokey 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 okay bud 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 all right stripper 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 gonna 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.

Wow 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 pull 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 all right 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 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  yep point proven point proven.

Chair oh look at all these  okay so almost four years of this being up and one pole broke which resulted in the bat coming down it's really not.

That bad it's not a big fail in my mind so this that's got to go but also obviously these have to come off first so i can repair it better everybody's been asking me why aren't you going back to the fort well i was just trying to do something a.

Little different for a while and i did 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 protective that's always a good video eh can't fit in the blizzard see all these are solid man everything's.

Solid just basically that one piece but it had a lot of weight on it too oh that one's hiding shoot okay  come on.

You know you want to go careful bud all right there you have it tarps hold up pretty well too  beauty stay here girl can't go home without you good girl there's half of it.

Half trippers got up there oh snap look at all the paracord i forgot i had awesome heck yeah all right i'm getting this bench out of here it's just pissing me off i'll rebuild it after i've got the other side propped up a.

Little bit while 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 so we'll tie.

Everything together build it up again i just grabbed one of my old  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 at fit 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 it'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 where she oh there she is.

Good girl beauty are you a good girl hey how you good girl how you good girl look at that tail look at that two look at that tail go good girl just 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 going to pull it in as tight as i can and hammer a bunch of big stakes on the outside of it i was going to 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 like i said so we're going to do that before anything so that it sits properly when we get all the logs on and the bed made and everything nope not for you not for you.

Uh chamfer the ends at the top just so it doesn't mushroom out on me too bad let's go get this one in there beauty where'd you go now girl come on no what oh this is all squirrel mitten animals are using this for like.

Crazy okay so i figure if i put two or three more of these here bought this up as far up as i can i'll get these in as tight as possible then i'll get another one.

Yeah i gotta get 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 uh three days ago and there was like four inches of snow on the ground it was 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 ah all right back to work 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 and push it in ah darn it i gotta cut that one so i feel confident with this it's a little.

You can move it a little bit but nothing to wear 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 at his ears are you a gremlin did you get wet last night.

Do you wet after midnight tripper start getting our logs up  nice okay well the backlog looks like it will work for support pretty good the support log.

Is a great success you can see though while the stress would have been on that log we'll put some logs underneath it to support it too this time i think i might have done that last time but you know you know elements.

And it's just wood just gotta get a couple for the middle there there 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 gonna make a different bed style i'm gonna 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 just to use that as a bench and in a bed but i always sit on that chair that that hidden woodsman chair so when the bed was that high i i couldn't sit up straight so i'll make it a bit lower.

Up that way i'll be able to set up straight i might even make it a little bit farther this way closer to the fire um we'll see though i am happy with this what's up trip good boy move move buddy okay anyways.

We'll have to okay your bum's in the camera move oh dude 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.

Foreign  uh nice to get all the nose poop out of here god why don't you just stand right in the 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 okay that is in there we'll do the same thing on this side right about there.

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 nothing even happened man nice and easy you know.

He makes it real easy to be out here and do what i'm doing i do keep bringing them though all right i don't want to lift it too much if at all there okay all right i feel good about that.

I'm getting hungry so before i go any further let me get a fire going so that i can cook up some good food half of this is punk half of its super good wood went for a little walk with the dogs got some birch bark some twigs get this fire going here.

Fifth time's the charm 25th time's the charm now he's going to run around like a fool for a while i need to make it out this way a bit more yeah maybe bring a couple more rocks from home a couple more this one.

No big deal 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  oh tripper this is garbage bring out that out of here and i leave this time there's a big guy just move this for a minute so i can rake out all this stuff i like having.

The barrier there for sure appreciate it  all right this is my idea making the bed with the four logs on the ground right like like these 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 go 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 i'll have to even everything out too we're 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 thickness this 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 what i mean it's just been bonus extra and 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 all those are grown right into there.

Okay got two different widths because i'm sure this is not going to be the same height on both ends i got the thicker thicker one should go here i think one there okay.

It 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 whoo so good pretty good do another one here okay.

It's not bad actually at all that side the other side can do the same in the back i've got um this log here is jammed lengthways across that sidewall on that sidewall 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 yeah.

Clementine for dessert too so we're going to 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 uh 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 go go i'll give you some after you know that go on crazy dog i have to call her all day long can't find her she's off doing whatever being a dog then i get the food out look how close.

She is to it i ain't no dummy i ain't no dummy leaking's good that other stuff's getting there i'm gonna throw it all in we're gonna throw it all in maybe okay.

That's a good amount of grease in there  get this potatoes and onion and garlic going just look at my clementine over there oil or butter is imperative if not eggs stick like koi.

Get some water in the bottom of that and get that on the fire as well okay tripper everybody hears you everybody what beauty all right potatoes and onions and stuff are basically done and the bacon is pretty much done too so.

I'm 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 then 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 i'll just set it here next to the next to the fire still stays hot you want to get this with some twigs underneath it to get it boiling pretty quickly now so i can eat all my food together.

There we go some flamage under that whole bacony my crisps like bacon crisps yeah right hell that's really good all right guys you think you can uh eat a piece now we've been waiting long enough.

For your trip good boy hey beauty good girl kind of hot how many more do i have i can i can spare one more i could spare one more for you that will leave me with four good boy oh my god he's pouring out of his mouth good girl.

Okay not over my food all right back back back we are calling go on recalling this done and i am excited excited to eat it so we're going to make a tea up with the water that we used.

To boil our eggs okay that worked well dirt off my gloves before i grab the loader okay got that perfect perfect amount of water.

Beauty leave it all right falling what are you doing finding truffles stick his nose in watch you're weird you're a weird dog bro oh don't knock the t bud there we go oh i gotta show you guys this i gotta.

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 bacony ketchup would be nice and some salt.

Oh man i should have brought some kind of bread make a little sandwich with this egg oh it's hot 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 well i'm gonna eat this i have coyotes whichever does too anyways i'm going to eat this and we'll get up onto the ceiling or the roof rather and check that out.

I feel pretty comp pretty happy with the progress for today cleaned up fix it completely it's fixed i've 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 we'll see 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 you know all right.

I'll be back what are you doing back there hey she can't be cold i know that i had her out much colder than this she never ever got cold so crazy okay i soaked up the fire again food was good tea is 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 it's not even a hater just get away from me beauty you get away from me beauty i can't stand you you should good girl.

I like the open space so we're gonna get rid of this for now just argue no big deal it just goes over here all right this is garbage so i do want to keep this it's using this wood here for now.

That's probably gonna have to get moved soon but what we do i'll probably store this underneath the bed  cordage that was super handy to find this one.

It's a big little root note or no i worked 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 uh.

I don't know i want to make it even so i can probably should probably use a saw well we'll try it we'll try and see what happens i might have to use a silky for this we'll see oh it's super soft.

Hopefully it's not too wide no tripper must be thick yeah this is where our silky would be better this is dead anyways cool that's why it's so easy to chop.

Okay watch a big guy i know here go get it all right oh that's not so bad better than it was it's starting to rain a little bit oh yeah solid roof okay.

So we got a good airflow here  when you look at it really does come to the end there's almost an over there's almost an overhang so i'm cool with that gap.

I want to stretch this tarp out get rid of some of this standing water on here too hopefully  oh  oh tripper.

Beauty's in there drinking my tea oh my goodness these drugs self-inflicted you know 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 kind of loose but it's not a big deal there's going to be snow falling on it i kind of want it to be loose looks fine from the inside no beauty in there.

You see here what are you doing beauty  what are you doing beauty move truck man i was wrong she's not shaking my teeth she's licking the.

Skillet okay cool sit down back and you missed it after all that oh yeah 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 that's where my my tape job was last year can get rid of those boards and that garbage out there beauty yeah cool this is looking great lots of room these are all really hard wood really.

Dense hard dry hardwood for fire the old floor back in action well i think that's it for today you got a lot done feels much more spacious flat protected this this thing is not a straight angle at all this is not a 90 degree this is as wampus as you can get but.

That says uh that's true joe fashion you know i did not create a 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 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 calm 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 to fall i get all these comments like joel the.

Ford is is uh worthy of more two more than two episodes a year all this stuff so i start going to the fort more that in this time of year last year and i just started doing tons of port videos then i get these comments saying like all you do is go to the fort you never go on adventures anymore 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 the 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 it 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 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 do 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 going to do this until i don't get any views anymore no you guys don't want to watch at all anymore i still want to 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 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 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 back soon see you later