The birth of a fishin´cabin

[matsoberg]

Here´s the story of how I fell in love with a place and bought a piece of property without no road to it and how I travelled a few times a year in eight years to build what I´ve been wanting for a long time. A logged fishing cabin on a river in the high country up north.

I first came to the area in the early eighties with my childhood friend who already had a cabin up there as he wanted to show it to me as well as the nice surroundings. It´s really a nice place with fishing pretty much all over the place and if you just get off the main road you´ll be able to hit some good fishing spots that haven´t seen too much people.

[matsoberg]

This was over twenty-five years ago but I already knew back then I was hooked on the place. About ten years ago, which would be fifteen years later, I got the opportunity to buy a piece of land just by this river I knew and this was when the work begun.

First thing was to check out the river just at the supposed location for the cabin. I mean, if the fishing weren´t any good right there, why should I bother? Well, it seems like the great river spirit liked my company and I was able to hook a brown within just a few minutes and from that moment the spot had my attention. I had the trout for dinner on the river bank and went the 850 kilometers back home and gave the landlord a call.



This brownie is not the fish I caught back then, but it´s from the very same spot and about the same size.

[matsoberg]

The next winter I headed up there again to sign the contract and make the arrangements for being the owner of the property. The landlord suggested we should take the snowmobile and head up to the spot to make the handshake, which is pretty much the old way of making a deal and I found that to be the only way to do it. So, we went up there, made a fire and got the coffe pot going. On a raindeer hide in the snow by the fire we shook hands with a firm look in the eye and that was it. I was now the official owner of the place. Afterwards we headed back to his place and signed the papers, but that felt just like a formality...









Next summer over a dinner he asked me how I planned to proceed with the project and I said I didn´t have any specific plans yet, more than it was time to check on a good craftsman who could log a cabin for me.
-Well, he said, I think you should get yourself a little shack to keep your stuff in meanwhile, as this was a several year project and to be able to keep some stuff under a roof.
-That´s probably a good idea I answered, but I need to give it some consideration first. Do you have any suggestions?
-Well, I actually have an old little hay barn not far from your place that I want to give to you. It goes with the property and you don´t have to pay me anything for it. But it´s in bad shape withouth any roof, so it´s a bit of work to get it ok.
- Done deal, I said without thinking too much about the work....

We went to the spot for the old hay barn and that´s when I realized what I had got myself into. The misarable thing looked more like a pile of firewood than a barn. Roof had fallen in, it had sunk down into the ground at least two logs deep and I was only a second or two from saying I had to pass on it.

[matsoberg]

But somehow I saw the potential in the poor pile of logs. So that next fall I was on the spot again, marking the logs for taking it down as you do when you are moving a thing like this and it was actually in pretty good shape for it´s age and how it first looked.
















After half a day of work it was all down and stacked for transport with the snowmobile the next easter (no roads, remember?)

[matsoberg]

Easter came and the logs was transported up to the spot with the old Yamaha Viking. These are the two first logs as I wanted to get the feel for how the rig handled. It took a good day to finish the job. Good thing my buddy came along with a camera as I didn´t have one myself.

[matsoberg]

Next summer it was time to set up the little shack. This would make for a good combined outhouse and firewood shed when the whole project was done. But at this time, I just though it was a lot of extra work than my intentions had been.

So, here I had a new pile of logs and I was eager to get started.

I soon realized I had to get me a new good Husky chainsaw as I had to reject about 30 percent of the wall logs and replace them with new wood and also get all the lumber and logs for the roof. The good thing was that the spot needed a clear cut and I managed to gather all that stuff on the property.

[matsoberg]

I started out with impregnated telepone poles as bottom turns for making it all safer for rotting from moisture as the north side was not too high above the ground. It became really fun to throw around them spruce logs and after some time I had got some structure on the thing, logging fresh timber for the logs I had rejected.








Several cut down spruce trees later the area for the coming main cabin and the space around it was clear from trees and it felt like I was heading in the right direction with this.







It felt good to get the steel roof in place to keep tools and stuff dry from rain.

[matsoberg]

Next summer I brought the kids with me to see the logging and I think they thought it was quite cool. We put in some rugged flooring from aspen, a simple door and made a "single seater" in the far coner with a screen wall and it was all set. Now we had us the best outhouse we could ask for.  

[matsoberg]

By this time I had got in contact with a guy in town who was a skilled logger and I ordered a logging for the cabin from him. Not some big fancy stuff, just a cabin with four walls measuring 5X5 meters inside. Problem is to keep a large cabin warm in the winter and especially in springtime when you want to spend time there so we kept the ceiling quite low also, all to keep some "economy" with the firewood.

Here´s the logging in process in his shop that winter. In springtime he took it down and set it up outside to make the remaining logging with the beams.
















The kids thougt it was pretty fun to see their cabin to be and here they are with Peder, the logger.

[matsoberg]

Now, it´s really bugging me I don´t have any images from when we towed all the logs for the cabin to the property. I simply forgot the camera that trip.

Well anyway, the logging stood for 2 years to get it to "calm down" and settle before we took it down in March and drove it on a logging truck up to the high country where it was unloaded by the road.  Me and my buddy towed the logs with the snowmobile the last distance. It took two days to do it and it was really easy with a big Yamaha four stroke Viking. That´s some neat machinery.

That summer of 2007 we headed up there and started to put the logging together. This is Peder again, the guy who made the logging, waving away mosquitos that was quite numerous that summer. Anders is checking so that everything is ok...  







This is in the evening a day later and the morning after we started to make the roofing with insulation and all. This time of year there is no dark or even dusk up there so we worked late hours to get the job done as quickly as possible. We had an evil overcast with some light rain from time to time which made us speed up the work as we knew the heavy rain was around the corner.






We started out on Monday by noon with the whole build-up and Peder left us on Thursday afternoon when Anders and I only had the steel roofing left to do. Friday by noon the roof was sealed and it started to rain. It rained for four days in a row and we were just plain lucky it didn´t come over us earlier, insulation and all....

[matsoberg]

The following summer of 2008 the flooring and the windows were in place.








These last images are from the summer of 2009 and now the beloved cabin has all the windows, door, staircase, porch and the stove in place. So, we can now consider it ready for use although some kitchen stuff, a propane stove and some beds are to be added.

It´s been a long journey from that handshake to this piont, not to mention the long distance and all the planning to get everything to work out and not forgetting anything. I logged all the lumber for the place and sawed it on my saw-mill at the farmplace and drove it the 350 Kilometers on the truck up there, so it has been a few trips during these eight years. And I had 1700 Kilometer back and forth from Stockholm each trip.  But it sure feels good now when it´s done!

[matsoberg]

[Magnus Berg]

I'm very impressed and inspired. That is a dream of mine as I consider myself a exile laponian. Just right down and dirty, no TV, Internet and big-city crap. Just good fishing and fighting off bears!

/M

[matsoberg]

Thanks Magnus.

Yes, I´ve been dreaming about a place like this for very long. Longer than I can remember. This is da shit... There´s a little brook on the property also, coming from the mountains and there is no water that tastes better.

Mats

[Mikko]

Looks fantastic and the spot is just perfect.
I guess you aren't gonna sell the place anytime soon...

Thanks for showing us.

[matsoberg]

Well...selling is not in my vocabulary, if I put it that way. You´ll have to talk to my kids after I´m gone then. But I have a feeling you won´t be that sucessful I´m afarid. The cowboy has found a good grayling spot down the river...

[Magnus Berg]

And I suppose that a marriage proposal is out of the question

 

Just showed the pics to my girlfriend, she thought it was beautiful. I just had to put a grain of sand in the pearl oyster 

/M

[matsoberg]

Just showed the pics to my girlfriend, she thought it was beautiful. I just had to put a grain of sand in the pearl oyster 

Good thinking. Keep it up. Sooner or later...

As you can see, I left your first comment out on purpose....