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[pct-l] One Man's Wilderness



Just watched an amazing documentary called One Man's Wilderness on PBS. It 
was about man who went into the Alaskan wilderness and built a cabin to live in 
when he was 47 years old. It showed in great detail how he built his log cabin 
on the shore of a lake using only hand tools. His diary was the narrative. He 
cut and skinned the logs and notched them to a perfect fit. The man was a 
master wood carver making everything from spoons to bowls to tables to chairs to 
a sled to snowshoes. Even the hinges on the door were carved of wood. It was 
fascinating to watch the cabin take shape over the course of a summer. He 
planted and harvested a garden, made a refrigerator in the permafrost, made a 
beautiful fireplace, fished and collected berries, chopped up cords of firewood, 
went climbing and hiking in his "spare" time. Every moment of the year 
documented was filled with something meaningful, something useful to do. He even 
harvested a caribou that wolves had wantonly killed for sport and left behind to 
rot. The story ended by stating he lived there for the next 35 years until he was 
82, when the -50 winters became a bit too much. The cabin then became a 
national historic structure, with the NPS stating that he could use it whenever he 
saw fit. The last scene showed him ascending a ladder to the platform he built 
to keep food away from the animals in the winter. I was amazed at his 
industrious, creative nature and the view he had from his cabin window as the seasons 
changed. Just gotta read the book
 I switched the channel and a story was on about heroin addiction in small 
town America.