A stretch calling someone insane who is making do better than most could.
Deer season one site I looked over a quite remote poplar pole cabin a hermit was found dead on his bunk in by trout fisherman one spring.
In the intervening year people were considerate enough to dump trash in the entrance.
Poplar is a softwood. Get it skinned and get it dry. Keep it off the ground. It also isn't big on tensile strength. So treat it accordingly.
(An old Indian suggested I skin them standing (uncut) in autumn after the leaves are off and return in the spring to cut them. All the poplar I've cut and worked with I never did do that.)
But the old hermit built a sound shelter. Poles he could manage was a sign he wasn't crazy. Whatever he chinked with had integrity. Until you try chinking there's a learning curve. And more rechinking eventually often enough.
But aside from the cabin was the where of the cabin.
Remote yes , but on the border of higher ground oak woods and the belt of more open ground before a great swamp.
And not in poplars , which tent to disturb sleepers with falling limbs or more.
The road to civilization was within reach of a decent walk. Trout pond below beaver dam.
Bear and deer and critters of good variety and value. flora and fauna like an Edan to the right eye and temperament.
Yet how many people deemed him mentally unstable?
I knew of a tiny cabin plastered with newspapers on the walls on federal land one place.
Years later I learned far more about the who of it. But that's another story.
