Slow Cabin Framing, Muddy Firewood Hauls & Netflix Docu-Series
Affiliate Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products and services that I personally use or believe will benefit my audience. Thank you for supporting this site!
In Episode 866 of The LOTS Project Morning Show, I talk through a slow but important start on cabin framing, hauling firewood the hard way through Tennessee mud, dealing with gloomy winter weather, and unwinding with some wild Netflix docu-series. I also recap the weekly Bitcoin price guessing game and how to stack even more sats with Fold and the Blockstream Jade holiday sale.
🎧 Listen to the full episode using the embedded player above. This blog post is a companion to the show and breaks the conversation into easy-to-scan sections for future reference and search.
Coffee of the Day: Survivors Blend 8’s (Now a Collector’s Item?)
This episode kicked off with a special — and now discontinued — coffee: Survivors Blend 8’s from Food Forest Farms.
If you’re in the Telegram group or follow Food Forest Farms, you probably know the backstory:
- Brian from Food Forest Farms survived a plane crash earlier this year.
- To mark his recovery, he created Survivors Blend (Aces and 8’s) and promised it would only be available until he could walk again.
- He recovered faster than expected, started hobbling around, and kept his word: the blend is discontinued.
If you’ve still got a bag or two of Survivors Blend Aces or 8’s in the pantry, you might legitimately be sitting on collector-grade coffee. I’ve got a couple bags left — and yes, I’m drinking them. Life’s too short not to enjoy great coffee.
If you missed that blend, don’t worry: Food Forest Farms still has plenty of fantastic coffee:
- 🌐 Food Forest Farms Coffee: https://foodforestfarms.com
- 🧾 Use code LOTS10 for 10% off and always-free shipping.
Cabin Build Update: Slow Start on Framing, But a Real Start
After getting back from New York and handling everything surrounding my dad’s passing, it was finally time to start framing the cabin interior.
Getting Materials Staged
Before we left for New York, we had:
- All the 2x6s for framing
- Some 2x4s for interior work
- Windows and doors on site and stored
We stacked everything in the shed to keep it dry, and then… life happened. Weather, travel, and mental bandwidth all slowed progress.
The Reality of a “Slow Start”
This weekend was the “official” start of framing:
- We’re framing pockets between pole-barn posts:
- Some with windows
- Some with doors
- Some just solid wall sections
- None of this framing is load-bearing — it’s all infill between posts.
We started with what should have been the easiest:
- A rectangular wall section with no window or door
- Straight studs, anchored to the posts and the floor
That one went fine and is installed and looks solid.
The Window Math and Rough Openings
Where it got tricky:
- I was about 99% sure of the rough opening size for the windows…
- …but with no internet on site, 99% wasn’t good enough.
- Rather than build all the rough openings and risk being wrong, we:
- Framed around one window area (leaving the actual opening for later)
- Fully framed a section with no window
- Stopped short on the rest until I could double-check the window specs.
Lesson there: even when you think you “know,” if it’s a pain to redo, double-check.
The Gable-End Headache: Odd Shapes & Window Heights
Once we had a basic wall section in, it was time to take on the gable ends — and this is where the brain melt kicked in.
On the long walls:
- The top is straight and simple.
On the gable ends:
- The rafters mean the upper framing space is angled, not flat.
- That impacts how high we can mount windows in those end walls.
The Window Height Dilemma
We had to decide:
- Do we let the end-wall windows sit lower than the rest of the windows?
- Or do we put in the extra work to get the heights uniform around the whole building?
Visually, you might not notice unless you look closely — but once you know, you know. After going back and forth, we decided:
- Try to get all windows at the same height off the floor.
- That means the framing on the ends has to be carefully laid out around the rafters.
I spent a big chunk of Sunday:
- Measuring
- Sketching
- Breaking the sections down on paper
- Cutting pieces that almost worked
- Re-measuring and rethinking
By the end, I had a solid plan for the first gable-end wall:
- I can assemble it on the ground this week
- Once Kori is out there with me again, we’ll lift it into place together
- The remaining gable sections will mirror that layout
It’s slow and mentally heavy, but that first “weird” wall is always the worst. Once it’s solved, the rest is repeatable.
Firewood the Hard Way: Hauling Rounds Through Mud
The other big project this weekend had nothing to do with 2x6s and everything to do with heat.
No Road, No Truck, No Easy Firewood
The easement road to the property has been torn up for about 7 weeks:
- Heavy clay
- Big hills
- Every time it rains, it becomes slick and impassable for the truck
- Getting stuck is not an option when you only have one vehicle
But the wood stove in the camper doesn’t care about road conditions — it just wants firewood.
We were down to just a couple of days’ worth of wood, so the only option was:
- Cut rounds from a nice deadfall at the cabin site
- Load them into the garden cart
- Haul them about half a mile out to where the truck is parked
- Over hills, through slick Tennessee clay
How It Went (Short Version: It Hurt)
- We loaded six rounds into the cart each trip — probably around 100 lbs of wood plus the cart weight.
- Uphill: pure leg and lung burn.
- Downhill: trying not to get run over by your own load.
- The clay? Like walking on snot.
We made two trips over the weekend:
- About 12 rounds total
- That should cover roughly a week of heat, depending on temps and how much we’re burning.
It’s not glamorous, and it definitely wasn’t easy, but it’s well-earned heat. Every fire now comes with the memory of dragging that cart up and down clay hills.
Weather & Mood: Gloomy Tennessee Winter Already?
This winter in Tennessee has felt different.
In previous years:
- The worst of the cold and gloom usually hit in January and February.
- December was chilly, but not this bleak.
This year:
- It’s been cold, wet, and gloomy for a couple of weeks already.
- Overnight temps below freezing, daytime highs in the 30s and low 40s.
- Constant gray skies, drizzle, and no real chance for the ground to dry.
Combine that with:
- Walking half a mile in and out of the property in the mud
- Dealing with grief and all the processing after losing my dad
- Reduced productivity while you’re trying to push the cabin build forward
And it starts to weigh heavy on your mental state.
I talked openly in the episode about:
- Feeling down and drained
- How the lack of sun ramps that up
- Considering things like Vitamin D, sun lamps, and just more intentional self-care through the winter
If you’re someone who gets hit hard by winter gloom, you’re not alone.
Bitcoin Price Guessing Game: New Champion Crowned
We also checked in on the weekly Bitcoin price guessing game we run in the Telegram group.
- Every Monday, a pinned message goes up:
- You guess what the price of Bitcoin will be during the next week’s show.
- This week’s live show price: $91,894 at 6:06 AM on December 8th, 2025.
Recent guesses included:
- 101,000
- 98,765
- 90,500 (often close enough to win most weeks)
But this week’s winner was:
- Canadian Farmstead with a guess of 91,000 — only $894 off the live price.
What did he win?
- Absolutely nothing… except bragging rights and a better Monday.
If you want to join the fun:
- 💬 LOTS Project Telegram Chat: https://t.me/LOTSChat
I’m leaving my own guess at 97,979 for next week and letting it ride.
Blockstream Jade Sale, Fold, and Stacking Sats Smarter
We also spent some time talking about stacking Bitcoin smarter with:
Blockstream Jade & JadePlus – Big December Discount
Until the end of December:
- Blockstream Jade and JadePlus are 21% off
- You can stack an extra 10% off using code TheLOTSProject or by using my link.
That makes it a perfect time to:
- Upgrade or add another hardware wallet
- Grab a JadePlus bundle at a nice discount
- Gift a wallet to:
- A Bitcoiner in your life
- A kid, niece, nephew, or friend you want to onboard to Bitcoin
- Teach them:
- How to use a hardware wallet
- How to send and receive sats
- How to wipe and reinitialize a wallet so you don’t hold their keys forever
🔐 Blockstream Store:
https://store.blockstream.com/?code=TheLOTSProject
Fold Card: Stacking Bitcoin on Everyday Spending
On top of that, Fold is still one of my favorite tools for earning Bitcoin back on:
- Everyday purchases
- Gift cards (like Lowe’s, Amazon, etc.)
In December, Fold was doing:
- Boosted spins
- Extra spin bonuses for things like gift card purchases
Recent example:
- I bought a $200 Lowe’s gift card with my Fold debit card.
- Got 20 bonus spins and extra sats back on top.
If you want to stack sats while you do normal life stuff:
- 💳 Fold Referral Link:
https://use.foldapp.com/r/FANEWETX
The best combo:
- Use Fold to buy a Blockstream gift card.
- Use that to buy a Jade or JadePlus during the sale.
- Stack sats on the purchase and get the hardware discount.
Netflix Weekend: Pepsi, Body Parts, Elvis Tributes & Diddy
We wrapped up a long, muddy, emotional week by falling down some Netflix docu-series rabbit holes.
Pepsi, Where’s My Jet?
If you grew up in the 90s and remember the Pepsi Points promo, this one hits hard.
Basic premise:
- Pepsi runs a promotion where you collect points from Pepsi products.
- They air a commercial showing a Harrier jet for 7 million Pepsi Points.
- No fine print. No “just kidding.” Just “Harrier Jet – 7,000,000 points.”
A 19–20-year-old kid:
- Does the math
- Writes a business plan
- Finds an investor
- Figures out that thanks to a catalog loophole, he can just buy the points for 10 cents each
- Sends Pepsi a check for $700,000 and a claim for the jet
Pepsi:
- Laughs it off as a joke
- Offers him some Pepsi and a coupon instead
- He sues them
The documentary covers:
- The ad agency’s side
- Pepsi’s executives
- The kid, the investor, and the whole legal mess
- How marketing, contracts, and “everyone knows it’s a joke” collide in real life
If you like stories where corporate assumptions get tested in court, this one’s worth the watch.
Kings of Tupelo
This one is… strange.
Mix together:
- Elvis tribute artists
- Body parts in hospital morgue cabinets
- Conspiracy spirals
- Politicians
- Murder, attempted murder, poisoning
- And Tupelo, Mississippi — Elvis’s birthplace
The story follows a talented younger Elvis tribute artist who:
- Starts a cleaning business
- Gets a contract at a hospital
- Discovers labeled body parts in the morgue
- Gets sucked into an obsession about body-part trafficking and conspiracy networks
From there, it escalates hard into:
- Conspiracy boards
- Dark corners of the early internet
- Violence
- Political connections
It’s one of those “you couldn’t make this up” stories that turns out to be very real and very messy.
The Diddy (Sean Combs) Documentary
We also watched the documentary about Sean “Diddy” Combs, produced in part by 50 Cent, who is not his biggest fan.
Even accounting for bias, the documentary:
- Walks through Diddy’s life from childhood to present
- Digs into:
- The East Coast/West Coast rap wars
- Biggie & Tupac
- Business deals, accusations, and lawsuits
- Abuse allegations
- Shows actual footage, including:
- Diddy kicking and dragging a woman down a hotel hallway
Whatever nuance may exist, that footage alone is enough for me to categorize him as a dangerous, abusive person. The rest of the documentary only reinforces that impression.
If you follow hip-hop history, industry power games, and the darker side of music business, it’s a heavy but compelling watch.
Sponsors & Ways to Support The LOTS Project
If you want to support what I’m doing — the cabin build, the show, and all the content — using these links helps more than you’d think.
🌞 Signature Solar
If you’re building your own off-grid or resilient power setup, check out:
- ⚡ Signature Solar: https://signaturesolar.com/?ref=LOTS
They’ve got inverters, batteries, panels, wiring, and a lot of the gear I talk about when I dive into my solar plans.
🔐 Blockstream Jade & JadePlus (Hardware Wallets)
Secure your Bitcoin with a well-regarded hardware wallet:
- 🛒 Blockstream Store: https://store.blockstream.com/?code=TheLOTSProject
Use my code TheLOTSProject for an extra 10% off, stacked on top of the 21% December sale (where applicable).
💳 Fold – Earn Bitcoin Back
Turn your regular spending into sats:
- 💳 Fold Card Referral: https://use.foldapp.com/r/FANEWETX
Gift cards, daily spins, and Bitcoin rewards on everyday purchases.
🌿 ComfreyRoots.com
For comfrey cuttings, crowns, and help turning comfrey into cash:
- 🌱 Comfrey Roots: https://comfreyroots.com
Great for soil building, fodder, and a serious side hustle.
☕ Food Forest Farms Coffee
Premium, small-batch coffee roasted by hand:
- ☕ Food Forest Farms: https://foodforestfarms.com
- Use code LOTS10 for 10% off and free shipping.
If you made it this far in the blog, thanks for reading. You can always catch the full conversation in the episode player above or on your favorite podcast app.
Here’s hoping the sun comes out, the road gets rocked, and framing progress picks up before the next episode.
