The Ugly Stick – Labrador & Newfoundland 2009
Drive The Globe| Overland Adventures spent several days visiting Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland Canada. One night we were treated to a live music show by the park staff, featuring the ugly stick. The ugly stick is a traditional Newfoundland musical instrument fashioned out of household and tool shed items, typically a mop handle with bottle caps, tin cans, small bells and other noise makers. The instrument is played with a drum stick and has a distinctive sound. The instruments main body is a mop or broom handle cut to approximately four feet. An old rubber boot was attached to the bottom and a cymbal attached at the very top. At strategic intervals along the length of the shaft, nails affixed with bottle caps, felt tins and other noise makers would be nailed into the shaft. The instrument would then be decorated with items of colour and fluff to the artist’s taste.
Read Moreowner built log cabin
I know this log cabin is small, but it was more of an experiment in remote shelter building for me than anything else. It took about 3 months of weekends to build this log cabin, which was about 100 hours in total. All materials used were found on site or packed in on my back up a small winding foot trail. It took 5 fir trees and a handfull of sapplings plus a bag of screws, a few bags of morter, various concrete blocks and some thick poly for the window and a zinc strip on the roof ridge. The log cabin has had 6 feet of snow last year and the cedar roof held together nicely. This log cabin sits on 4 large rocks, one at each corner of the log cabin and the floor is made of dirt. The wood heater/stove doesn’t actually work all that well, but hey it was my first attempt. I think the notching is called a half notch, and it was chosen for it’s simplicity since this was my first attempt at this sort of thing. The notches require a hand saw an axe and a few sharp bangs from a mallet to make, they were very simple and quick compared with a saddle notch style, though the downside of this style is that they had to be spiked at each corner to keep them secure. Sorry for the lack of tunes, it’s my first vid or should I say slide show.
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