When Survival Isn’t Enough... Chapter 7

By mid-afternoon, John had the rest of the walls of his tiny cabin notched and a foot above his head. Taking time to drink some water and eat the fish he had caught the night before, he sat and leaned back against the cabin wall to reflect on his progress and his next step. Rafters were next on the agenda and he knew where there was a stand of White Spruce of the right diameter and height not too far from his location. For a ridge pole, he would use another of the Alder logs that he had left over from his walls.

His lunch over, he carefully dumped the remains of the fish into his pot and filled it with water to boil. Previously, he had been burning the leftovers after the bear encounter, but the thought had occurred to him that he could make a kind of fish stew if he boiled it for several hours. It would help supply him with another meal and get much needed nutrients into his body. He had already lost several pounds and knew that he had to increase his food intake if he were to be here much longer.

Wrapping his hands once again with the rags he had torn from his shirt tail, he took up his hatchet and headed North from his camp to the stand of White Spruce. As he wanted this cabin to be sturdy and he didn’t know how long it would be until his rescue, he planned on placing the rafters every two feet just in case it had to handle a heavy snow load. Also, he liked building things strong in case some other traveler might need the cabin some day. He knew it could last quite a few years if he built it right.

By the time he had finished cutting down the trees and de-limbing them, it was fairly late in the day and so he dragged as many of them back to camp as he could and piled them carefully a few feet away from the cabin walls. Sitting down, he ate the fish stew that had been cooking on his fire and then, dumping the bones and what little else remained in the fire, he went to the lake, rinsed out the pot, re-filled it with water and put it back on the fire to boil. Keeping hydrated and fed with only one pot was a real challenge and making more cookware or some type of a pot was going to be very important. He resolved to tackle that problem when the cabin was finished. At least the ends from the dead logs he had been using for his cabin had left him with a lot of firewood so that made cooking and keeping warm a little easier.

Going back to the White Spruce, he spent the next couple of hours dragging the rest of the logs for his rafters back to camp as well as enough of the branches to make a fine springy browse bed inside the cabin. As he hadn’t cut a doorway yet, he still had to climb over the walls to get to the interior, so he just flung the branches over the top and then climbed in and arranged it all until the mattress was about two feet deep. The sky looked clear and he was tired of sleeping in the debris hut so he decided to take a chance and sleep without a roof over him in the safety of the cabin walls.

Before going to bed, however, he went and re-baited his hooks and drank some more water. Then, he put a few more logs on the fire and more water to boil. After the water hit a rolling boil, he lifted it off the fire with the pliers from his mult-tool and set it over against the cabin wall to cool overnight. Then, climbing up and over the log wall once again, he sank down onto the fragrant bed that he had made. It felt amazing! His body ached from the hard labor and lack of food and he was very weary. And so, breathing a prayer of gratitude for safety and also that it wouldn’t rain on him, he drifted off to sleep.

He awakened to the sound of birds chirping and the early morning sun shining on him as it peeked over the mountains to the east and shone through the cracks in his un-chinked walls. He hurt all over but he forced himself out of bed and over the wall. He drank some water and while he slowly sipped he stirred the ashes of his fire until he found enough embers to re-kindle it. After adding a handful of dry, dead spruce twigs, he watched it until it began to smoke and then burn with a tiny flame. He continued to build it up until it was burning strongly and then went about his morning routine of checking his lines, cleaning the fish, boiling water, cooking and then eating the fish and so on. He felt very blessed that he had been so successful in fishing. It seemed that his lake had not been fished before and so it was very easy to catch them as well as the fact that it was just chock full of fish. Still, putting out some snares was on his mind as he was getting tired of only eating fish and what wild edibles he could dig up.

Today was the day he would put up the ridge pole and attach the rafters so he went over to the wrecked plane and began stripping out all of the wires and cables that weren’t thoroughly burnt. He found the best supply of them toward the tail end of the plane where the fire had not been so hot. When he was done, he hoped it was enough and indeed there was a decent pile of them.

One each end of the cabin and using the wire, he lashed a single upright pole in the middle of the wall, reaching to a height of about four feet above the top log. Each one had a “Y” at the top. Then, he took one of the twelve foot alder logs about six inches in diameter and carefully hoisted it onto one end and then the other, using the log wall as a ladder. Then, he lashed the log securely in place on each end. After that, it was a simple matter to lift each one of the White Spruce poles into place, cut small notches in them where they overlaid the wall and topped the ridge pole and then lash them into place.

Standing back, he admired his work. It was all starting to take shape and really looked like a house! He worked throughout the rest of the day installing and lashing the purlins in place. Then, he ate his supper and went to bed on his Spruce boughs. For the first time since the terrible accident, his heart felt light and he really believed that he was going to make it. His prayer that night was full of praise to his Maker for how he had been kept safe and for the strength and the knowledge to build his cabin.

In Psalms 71 and verse 3 we read, “Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my fortress.” John has been successfully surviving for some time and he realizes that his strength and his security comes from his faith in God. So often, it seems, we find ourselves in a similar predicament. Not surviving on a remote lake in Alaska after a plane crash, but just trying to get through another day. The world we live in is so uncertain and we never know what the future may bring. All we can really do is our best and then trust God to take us up wherever and whenever our strength fails. If you find yourself struggling, remind yourself that God is in control, that His love is everlasting and underneath you are the Everlasting Arms. Close your eyes and sleep tonight, remembering that He will watch over you all night long and when you awake, He’ll still be there to guide you through the next day and every day. Survival isn’t enough, we need faith too!

Thanks for reading!

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James B