Eleven-year-old Jonah and his friends build a log cabin in North Carolina from scratch, felling trees, cutting notches with hatchets, and hauling logs up steep hills. They finish it with a 400-pound wood stove and stone countertop, and Jonah reflects on the pride of creating shelter with his own hands.
Me and Josiah and the Holler Boys— come here— and we're building a cabin. We didn't start filming yet, but now we are. It's about another one of what we've built. Let's go cut down the rest of our trees. My name is Jonah, and I'm from North Carolina. You can see we've built this cabin. I got permission from Mama and Papa to go build a cabin. I came out here, cut down some trees, and started We gotta build. Now, Britt, hold the log and he'll record you doing it. Okay? Get shots of him doing it.
How did you build this cabin?
I dug 2 logs into the ground and then I cut notches, put the first logs across, cut notches, put the second logs across.
So this is what it looks like when you start?
Yeah, but it would be a little bigger. But these would be down in the ground and then you just cut 2 notches.
You cut these notches with your hatchet? Yeah, that's just the regular old hatchet from Lowe's.
Yeah, it lasted.
All right, what other tools did you use?
We used loppers and we had a crosscut saw. That kind of didn't work, but it says that we made it out of a regular saw that's made for cutting that stuff. The hardest part is getting the trees. We went up in there, got them out, then we went up in there and got those out. And then we put it together. There's a stump, there's a stump, and there's a stump way back in there. So the hardest part is, is climbing this hill. And we cut all the logs way up in there, 'cause there's a lot of wood ones up there. And we cut them down and hauled them to this. So now we take the tree out of the woods. Everybody shoulder it! Ready, set, rock. Okay, there's the first log. And we would haul one at a time up and down it, and they started saying, well, this is hard, I don't want to do this no more. And it kept getting harder and harder to find the trees.
Did they quit on you?
Almost, yes, a few times.
Did you keep going?
Oh yes, some of the boys helped me.
Did you ever quit?
No, wait, maybe once? But then they, I thought, well, we don't have to go up here. We still have other parts of the place. And then went up in through there, cut down lots of trees. Lots of trees. It was much easier. 'Cause it was more flat.
How did you overcome the hardest part?
Gird up your loins and get going.
Look what these kids have built. All by themselves so far. What, 5 feet? Oh my gosh, what is this?
It's our cabin. So what we need you to do is— we're sick and tired of cutting these out with nothing. So what you'll do is you cut them out and we'll have a thing up here and you'll eye it and then we'll put a log in there.
They did pretty good to get this far. Now they want me to help them with the chainsaw to bring it a little further. So what's the first thing you want me to do with the chainsaw?
Just cut notches in and we'll put logs in. Don't cut them too deep or the logs they'll bounce around.
The boys have got it to the height they wanted. I sawed off the ends to make it look good. Let's go Looking pretty good, guys. Yeah, this is our idea for a door. Put braces up, screw into these logs, and then just cut the hole.
Yeah, so if we pull right here— yep.
How tall do you want the door? To here?
Uh, like, not anywhere— the bottom one, please.
Okay, then you have to hold it a little.
I'll dunk a little, so just cut it right there.
We have to keep the top one and then we'll keep the bottom one. We've got our most of our screws. We could get— do most of them on this side. I've got to go in the inside and tack up more supports on the inside.
Yeah.
Oh, you guys ready? But I think I should saw a door for myself. What do you guys think?
Yeah. Okay, not a random door, just a door.
Ready? Well, so I'm going to start up here and just go down.
I was scared of how much the cabin would collapse.
That's your door.
Hey Papa, the ones that aren't screwed in we can push. Like, see?
That's right, and then they're gonna be a lot easier to screw in.
See Papa, the braces out here, we're gonna have to push them in.
Oh yeah, you're right. Now we can do that. You're right, Josiah. So we don't need to put braces inside.
Yeah. There's this old piece of tin right over there. We got that. There are some metal screws in there, and I owned a drill, so we got those and we put it together.
You want to give me a tour of your place?
So I've been working on it a little bit, as you can see. I made me a little seat. I can sit down. I made a, uh, we brought a stove and I made a countertop thing out of a big stone I got. And then this is a refrigerator.
How does that work?
It's just into the ground.
Uh-huh. Is that because the ground's cooler?
Yeah, way cooler.
How did you and those boys haul this 400-pound wood stove down here?
We first carried it out of the basement, put it in my trailer, and pushed it down.
One last ticket before it's gone. One last summer before it's fall. Tune your strings and play your cards.
Feels amazing to accomplish something like this.
Yeah, tell me more about that. Why does it feel so amazing?
Because you have something to pay off for it. You have a roof.
Yeah, see, I do.
I could stay dry.
That's right, you've met a really basic human need. Good job, buddy. Come here. I'm not ever gonna have to worry about you, buddy. Come here. I'm proud of you. You did good. I'll never have to worry about you providing for yourself. Yep. Okay, so what's next? What are you going to do next on this cabin?
Put mud between the cracks. See how we've done this? The logs will be unshowable, so you'll be able to tell it's a log cabin, but it'll be pretty messy from it until at least it gets cleaned up.
Okay, and you're gonna put a door on?
Yeah.
What would you say to someone who wants to build something big but hasn't yet?
Start little.
On my drum, and you're beating, beating on my door, running faster, faster than my dreams, and I can't stop to breathe.
What do you think you'll be building in 5 years?
A better one.
If I had to start my Homestead all over again, it could only pick one animal… 
