Building a Viking House with Hand Tools: Stone Clay Pit | Bushcraft Project (PART 3)

[Music] [Applause] [Laughter] food is good not gonna lie the food is really good we just doesn't just cooked up some squid which he caught yesterday he caught last night some fresh yeah yeah it's seriously fresh squid squid really good if you want to see that video of the squid being caught and everything head on over to Dustin's YouTube channel bushcraft Hills I'll put a link here it's yeah it's coming along now this Viking shelter we've just made a little outdoor firepit here for cooking the main project this episode has been the the long pit the Viking long pit which you could probably just about see over the back there and just to put it into context so what we're doing with this Viking shelter is I appreciate from from other videos we think we've put up two episodes so far and I probably need to explain a little bit more in this episode about what's actually going on because there's a lot of new people on board which is great so I appreciate that but yeah I'll just give you a bit of context so this is this is a we're in a private woodland Dustin's woodland the woods already been pre-cut it's all cedar wood it's cedar trees so to answer some of the questions why didn't we strip the bark off the bottom of the logs the the reason is because those logs aren't actually taking any weight at all so cedar is very rock resistant as a tree they will take a while very long time to rot away it's the it's the actual frame itself the a-frame that's what's taking the weight of the shelter we haven't done the roof yet I think I said in the previous episode that I was gonna do the roof or we were gonna do the roof sorry we're not gonna do that now because we figured if we put the roof on it's gonna make it really restrictive inside to do things like the fire pits and the beds and everything like that so we figured maybe actually with the roof as it is now with you know with this the the frame there but not the roofing material then we can actually do a lot more work and move around a bit more and dig and stuff and just get things built in a shelter and then put the roof on I know it's just probably a strange way of doing things but it's a it's just kind of the way we've ended up doing it so we're digging down about I'd say but nearly with this fire pit we're going through the soil layer it's a bit pt we're going through the soil layer and into the clay and there is so much clay on this ground which is brilliant because we've got so many projects that we're gonna do with this clay so we're going down to this clay layer about a foot deep we found the stones that you see in the video the footage earlier we actually found those lying around in the woodland which was awesome we were quite surprised that we thought we'd actually have to either go and get these stones for elsewhere from somewhere else or you know just yeah try and try and source them from further afield but thankfully they are yeah they're here they're in this woodland we're running out there there's not many left so the plan for this episode is to try and finish the fire pit we are now four o'clock it's winter so we've got about 40 minutes of light left before the Sun sets and then we've got a little bit Twilight till about 5:00 and then it's going to be dark yes so I'm hoping that answered some questions that why we didn't peel the bark off the bottom logs I know that peeling the bark off preserves the wood for much much longer and if you're doing traditional cabin building or any kind of long-term strategy you should always peel the bark off but I thought I'd just explain that to you why we didn't peel the bark off it kind of looks a bit more rustic I guess with the bark on for the beds that we build in there we probably will strip the bark off those just so they look they do last a bit longer a few of you said about where we've put the saddle notches on the ends of the the corners to drill a plug basically a dowel into embedded into those two to stop those corners Rocking so we're probably going to do that at some point we did use the rest of those sticks in the previous episode to cut down level and just secure it all a bit more the other thing was which I learned in the other video was the bit and brace I was using I was using a flat bit you know we're not we're not experts here at all by any means we're we're complete amateurs of what we're doing so I appreciate for you serious woodworkers out there who are watching it it must be quite painful but I apologise for that we are just out here having a bit of fun trying to enjoy ourselves and we're learning along the way but the bit and brace bit I was using a flat bit in the drill bit and it was it was difficult it wasn't easy we did drill the holes with it eventually got a nice bruise on my chest from leaning on it so I've got actually got some tools I've gone out and purchased so I've got an auger coming in the barrel ice Scotch augers which is obviously gonna be a lot better for drilling holes in wood we're going to make other things around the camp as well what else did I get a draw knife I've got a draw knife to be able to strip some bark off things and just some other smaller tools because we've used really basic rudimentary tools it's a very basic structure if you guys have any suggestions on other tools maybe to to have to help build this structure I'd really appreciate it if you let us know that'd be great for those people who we had a few comments of people saying it's nothing like a Viking shelter and I do kind of understand what you mean because really it's not it's not a traditional Viking shelter by any means I I guess early when I speak of early Vikings I mean the very kind of original Vikings I think my kings I believe was a bit more of a word to describe people who traveled and raided and covered ground and made buildings it wasn't necessarily just a typical person it was just what they did it is almost the thing of what they did but early Vikings used any resources that they can that they found in the area anything they would use to help build their structures so for for Scandinavian type areas they used logs they had plenty of trees over there so they used lots of logs and they had much more log style log cabin style in a way big structures big long houses some some of them I think were up to over 250 feet so really long big structures almost like medieval halls they were massive but over in Iceland they have they didn't have all the trees like they did in Scandinavia so they used sod they used turf and their houses were kind of much lower than the pitch of the roof was much lower and they just used turf they used peat blocks and sod to create their shelters so they were really resourceful and they used to whatever they can so I appreciate that this isn't an official Vikings shelter if anything it's got a mixture of Anglo Saxon in it as well but we're just working with what we've got as the Vikings once did trying to build where we can and just learning we're constantly learning so thanks to the guys who are giving feedback that's constructive we appreciate it we're gonna carry on with this fire pit build now possibly eat some more food I'm going to run through the food quickly just what we've got doesn't come over here what we got well we've got amber with us as well explain what we've got here this is amazing this dish what we have is breadcrumbed calamari rings amazing and this was cold fresh yeah it's so fresh from yesterday not even a day out not even 24 hours old and Dustin's cooked this up and I can tell you know guys it's incredible got a sweet chili dip it's awesome this is my sort of food yeah have you gone this one tentacle what's a tentacle yeah this is the this is a Viking star long pit that we're going with some things in this structure are not strictly but Viking related but this definitely is so you can see the clay here it's there's really thick chunks what we're doing is we're keeping all this clay in buckets and we're carrying it just to the side of the shelter and keeping it in a pile because we're actually going to use the clay to in fill in some of these gaps and to backfill at the top of these slabs here these are the stones that we found out in the woods so we're gonna yet use all this clay it's all completely usable and where we've had a bit of rain lately it's really damp which is making it ideal to mold and we'll just bash this all down we're gonna clear this out a bit more we've still got some to put here and we're actually gonna have some stones kind of up here on the top of the pit buried down level so it's all level that way when you walk across here you're almost be walking across some stones and things like that across here I'm it it'll all be leveled off it's gonna take some time we might not be able to do all in this episode but just imagine and picture and lovely big long fire here to kind of benches this side and two raised beds this side a little bench work bench at the back where we think food prep and everything it's gonna be amazing we have a little opening in the top here so all the smoke and come out we've got dessert what's this a melon watermelon we're gonna add some more cooking to that to the episodes as well so if you're still watching we really appreciate it thanks guys stick around for the journey subscribe subscribe to ta and or subscribe to dusted we got loads of cool things plan [Applause] what I'll ask the basis of the firepit so far we still got kind of small pieces which we need to piece in the gaps and then we're gonna click almost in the gaps with clay and wedge them in somehow but that's gonna be a bit longer of a process bit slower yeah it's just a simple case of trying to measure a puzzle [Applause] well this is the firepit we've spent it's now on three o'clock we've got about an hour of light left we're gonna be cooking up one more bit of food before the rest of the day to end the day really this is taken all day to do this and yesterday so we've got this is all clay but when we dug down if you remember yesterday we dug right down here we were digging up loads of clay we stored that clay in a pile just to the side of the shelter and now we've used that play again so basically for pointing and to kind of cement down the outside stones here so essentially we're not sure we've not done loads of clay work before so I know you can mix it with like straw and things like that to make a kind of cob and you can mix it with ash from the fire but we haven't done that for this we're just kind of going with the flow here and trying to save a little bit of time where we can so we're not gonna have a fire in this today because we're gonna try and let it dry naturally and then perhaps in a week's time start some small fires in here a couple of small fires just to let that dry out over time and dry slowly so obviously clay does crack when it dries really fast but essentially this is the pit it's a pick it's a big pit we reckon it's about easily four foot by two feet and then the reason we put slabs on the side here as well is that these will eventually beat you'll be able to walk on the side of these and it also means if we've got hot pots and pans and things like that we can place them on the side anywhere around the shelter around the fire pit sorry we're gonna we've got one more big huge stone to put in the back here but yeah other than that it's finished but you can see why we've left that roof open now just because the the light that it allows in for the filming and also it just gives us more room to maneuver and carry things about having to crouch down so I hope you enjoy it so far guys we are let me show you close up so here we go in close up you can see we've done the pointing as best we can all around there and that's all wet at the moment so hopefully that will set over time but it's it's bang smack in the center of the shelter near the door just so that if any cold draft comes in through the entrance this fire will keep that cold rough away the idea is to have maybe a few benches here and the bench there and then at the back across there and along here to have some raised beds let us know your thoughts on that but this is as far as we've got today we're compressed it's taken a long time using clay very long time but we're it's a very rewarding job doing this there the idea we've got some stones here we're gonna put a big old slab stone there which we found in the woods earlier and that's going to be where we can put our pots and pans and things like that this would all be when it's dry we'll be able to walk on all these because obviously the eaves of the shelter come right now and we're gonna finish off the day with some fresh black bream which has been caught by my dad on over on ta fishing go and subscribe ta fishing if you want to know how to catch this species I'll put a few links in the description below it's a lovely tasting fish we're gonna cook it whole I'm not gonna cook it Dustin's gonna cook it and prep it on our little fire pit out here it's been a bit of a seafood special hasn't it yeah I said we don't only eat things that walk or things that fly we also eat things that swim we do yeah it's all about cooking and we'll try and add some more cooking into the episodes as well it looks like some of the skin are stuck to the dry grill maybe I should have oiled the grill or all the fish as well but doesn't really matter it's just a bit of skin but here we are bit lemon or sure that's going to add some lovely flavor to it and there we have it here's our charred grilled black bream I'm sure this is gonna taste absolutely fantastic I'm just flaking up a little bit so that when I squeeze those lemon over it oh yeah and a bit more lemon there and then add let's add a little bit of salt salt Bay disobey and a bit of pepper [Music] what's the verdict there it is well survey says lemony Oh lovely absolute love it's not as good ma'am and I spent lemon keeping it symbol than that just need it simple so good oh it's been a chargrilled lovely very good to finish off the day of our of our seafood special with the Viking pit which we can't wait to cook on next episode imagine a nice huge long fire in there in the winter be amazing we are gonna do the roof at some point don't worry it's a huge job it's a bigger it's gonna be maybe two episodes doing the roof so that's it for episode three of the Viking house build I hope you guys are enjoying this we appreciate it's not you know specific historically correct a viking house it's our adaptation of it but what we've loved doing the most I would say is basically doing what the Vikings did and use the resources that are around us absolutely they used anything someone was commenting earlier and I did a bit research on as well they used things like whale bones obviously peat sod tuff all that kind of things they were so resourceful and that's what we're trying to go for here it's a very rudimentary shelter a very rudimentary shelter but it would still last years and last absolutely years and we're again we're trying to use the resources around us the stones are from the same woodland the clay is from the pit that we dug yes it's so good to be able to use the resources the cedar trees it's all it's all trying to keep in touch with what the Vikings did so that's the kind of message we're trying to send here is not this is not a series on how to build a Viking shelter this is just a series on trying to inspire people to get out there and you know experience nature and use nature to your advantage to help you seeing resources and using those resources and making something out of those resources exactly that's what we try to get across in the videos anyway here and I appreciate it's not everyone's cup of tea but thanks so much to the people who are watching to the people who are enjoying it we do appreciate it and we'll catch up with you guys in Episode four which is we've got a lot to get we're gonna have to we're gonna have to beat this one which is gonna be tough but I hope you guys stick around and we'll see you [Music]

Channel: TA Outdoors

Views: 1,581,022

Rating: 4.886416 out of 5

Keywords: viking house, viking, bushcraft, bushcraft camp, viking bushcraft house, viking camp, hand tools, viking long pit, viking longhouse, log cabin, off grid, foundations, viking fire pit, stone, clay, stone fire pit, axe, saw, hammer, timber, timber frame, building, long house, winter, woodworking, cabin in the woods, forest, ta outdoors, ta outdoors viking house, no talking, wilderness, survival, off grid cabin, winter is coming, game of thrones, viking axe, fish, cooking

Id: ScJ0on-gkHE

Length: 32min 25sec (1945 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 01 2019