{"id":327,"date":"2014-05-26T06:39:56","date_gmt":"2014-05-26T06:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sustainablelife.spiderstudio.co.uk\/?p=327"},"modified":"2014-05-26T06:39:56","modified_gmt":"2014-05-26T06:39:56","slug":"fun-with-shelters-or-a-brief-history-of-suffering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablelifebirmingham.co.uk\/index.php\/bushcraft\/fun-with-shelters-or-a-brief-history-of-suffering\/","title":{"rendered":"Fun with Shelters! (Or A Brief History of Suffering)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of all the most basic and fundamental of survival skills, there are three that are absolutely vital.\u00a0 If you can build a shelter, establish a fire, and find some drinkable water, you will very likely die of starvation rather than dehydration or hypothermia.\u00a0 This may seem of questionable benefit, but of course, you add weeks to the time in which you can be rescued.\u00a0 In a bushcraft situation, these skills combined with the foraging you can learn elsewhere on this site would allow you to go and enjoy yourself with minimal equipment and maximum confidence.<\/p>\n

Shelter is the first of all the skills to master.\u00a0 In bushcraft books and survival guides, you will find all kinds of techniques and references.\u00a0 But in practice, this, like most such skills, is surprisingly tricksy.\u00a0 So rather than discuss what others have written about with far more competence and eloquence elsewhere, I thought I would write about my brief history of shelter building.\u00a0 This is in the hope that my laughable bad experiences, and my developing knowledge, will bolster you on your own journey to master the art of knocking up a temporary home in the woods.<\/p>\n

Shelter 1:<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"our<\/a>
our hypothermic home!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This was our first ever attempt at a shelter, built on Exmoor in April about five years ago.\u00a0 We used honeysuckle and natural forks to put a crossbeam between two birch trees.\u00a0 Then we we leaned sticks against it.\u00a0 This process, particularly finding the sticks, took a couple of hours.\u00a0 Eventually we realised that the roof sticks would never be thick enough, so we used some live willow and weaved it in between.\u00a0 We three fern on top of that lattice.\u00a0 We did the same up the sides and stuffed it with moss.\u00a0 The fire was outside the shelter with a wall to reflect the heat.<\/p>\n

The most important initial lesson here is to pay attention to the resources at your disposal.\u00a0 We had a plan before we landed, before we had ever seen this site.\u00a0 We stuck to it with very little adaptation, despite the resources being extremely inadequate.\u00a0 The consequence was about six hours of struggling to gather enough material, and still having nothing like a strong enough shelter.\u00a0 Firewood was also woefully short.\u00a0 This was a bad spot, and nowadays both Owen and I would have walked away from it.\u00a0 I was determined to be in the woods, rather than in the caves, and we were both determined to follow the guide in the Marines book, which was only one of about ten options available, and definitely not the best one.<\/p>\n

We made the decision to start the fire later in the day, to save wood, and we settled in for the night having not gone for a pee first.\u00a0 Both of these decisions were stupid.\u00a0 In the morning,\u00a0 Owen and I found we had a new shared experience: the horror of waking up in the night absolutely frozen, half naked in the bag, and desperate to urinate.\u00a0 The thirty or so minutes of wondering whether you can hold it in, and the final, hideously cold walk out of the camp to do your business before getting back into the bag.\u00a0 And in the morning there was an hour between waking up and psyching ourselves up to move.\u00a0 Another hour to get the fire started, make a hot drink, defrost our boots (our sleeping bags were literally stiff with frost, it was that cold), and eating the last of our meagre supplies before limping brokenly back across the moor.\u00a0 We only really spoke at all to agree we should never take anyone along with us unless they have expressed a strong interest in hypothermia.<\/p>\n

The fire went out because we had not banked the heat for long enough – the wet and cold ground killed it off quite quickly once it was left unattended.\u00a0 The shelter was not adequate to insulate our heat, and the open front, which should have let the heat from the fire in, acted as a giant barn door.\u00a0 We slept in summer bags, but the temperature went into the minuses.\u00a0 Coldest night in ages, apparently.\u00a0 We were lucky, in all honesty, to have been able to get up at all.<\/p>\n

Shelter 2:<\/h2>\n
\"snug<\/a>
snug little hut<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our second shelter was a very different affair.\u00a0 We are not especially stupid people and our weekend in Exmoor had really reinforced some lessons.\u00a0 This time, we gave it a lot more thought.\u00a0 When we arrived at the Wyre, we spent hours looking for exactly the right spot, where we were isolated and had an abundance of wood, forest debris and fern.\u00a0 We planned our shelter in a conversation that was constructive and argumentative without ever getting heated – Owen is a pretty rare sort of guy, really – if he puts an idea forward and I find flaws with it, he is able to take that on and adapt.\u00a0 He doesn’t get annoyed, and he puts up patiently with me not doing the same, waiting patiently for me to grow the f*ck up and realise my plan will freeze\/starve\/soak us both.\u00a0 So with him in the role of mature adult (and seriously, this is a real skill – most people will argue in a way that basically sounds like “My idea is the best!” “No mine!” “No! Mine is the best!” all day long), we were able to come up with a workable plan in under an hour.\u00a0 The design was basically three big forked sticks leaning in a tripod and tied together, dug into the ground.\u00a0 crossbeams halfway up, forked and tied in.\u00a0 Sticks leaned against this until there were no big gaps.\u00a0 Then we covered it in at least four inches of forest debris and bracken.\u00a0 We poked a beam to hang a cookpot on through the middle, and we dug a firepit in the centre (the top was open as a chimney) We used birch branches for a mattress, pegged into place clear of the pit.\u00a0 We shot a pigeon for dinner.<\/p>\n

How nice was it?\u00a0 It was top class.\u00a0 With a teeny weeny fire we were so warm you would not have believed it.\u00a0 I went back on my own in six inches of snow and slept comfortably.\u00a0 It was snug.\u00a0 It kept the rain off.\u00a0 The one problem was the draught – when you use a fire inside the hut, make sure no wind can get in at the bottom, or you will choke to death on the fumes. For a door, we hung our tarp\/poncho over the entrance and weighted it down.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shelter 3:<\/h2>\n

I’m waiting for a picture of this – Owen is the photographer and frankly, he’s a lazy bastard.\u00a0 Basically it was the same as the second but bigger, and instead of a tripod we used four sticks in a square, dug them in firmly, tied cross beams, and dug in a pole at each corner.\u00a0 This was a bigger, stronger shelter, which took a bit more time but could comfortably accommodate our full body length, our bags, and some firewood.\u00a0 We could more easily adjust the stuff we hung over the fire, because the structure made it easier.\u00a0 This hut took about 50% more material and longer to build, but it was worth it.\u00a0 We made three trips to this shelter and in all weathers were cosy and happy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shelter 4:<\/h2>\n

This time we took a rather different approach.\u00a0 We went to Cannock an picked a pine plantation.\u00a0 Finding a fallen tree leaning against it’s stump, we cleared a space under it.\u00a0 After that, we started thinning the pines (which is normal forestry practice and not harmful to the forest), taking out the trees that are weak, dying, and out-competed, as well any “wolf” misshapen trees.\u00a0 The stems we collected; the branches we used to roof the shelter.\u00a0 We did this for about four hours, by which time we had enough pine to have a thick roof and enough lengths to make two raised beds.<\/p>\n

It was difficult to use pine branches to insulate the shelter, and I do not think it would have been warm enough or dry enough if conditions had been worse.\u00a0 Nonetheless, it was big and spacious, and with plenty of room for a fire, warm enough.\u00a0 The beds were classy.
\nCannock is a big dogging site though, so, err… well, don’t go there to camp. All I’m saying.<\/p>\n

Shelter 5:\u00a0 It’s been a while since I went camping and built a shelter.\u00a0 I kind of feel I have the basics sorted now, and want to experiment with other options.\u00a0 So this time I looked again to develop a natural location, but using a tarp to roof it, thus building it quickly and without fuss.<\/p>\n

I found a fallen tree and faffed about with a tarp to produce this:<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0159\"<\/a>
nifty and rapid to build.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

As you can see, it was pretty basic, but on a warm April evening, was not unpleasant to sleep in. This design (if you can call it that), took under an hour.\u00a0 I dragged a pretty big log over a reflector for the fire, and added some branches on the right (as you look at it) because the wind was coming from behind and slightly from that side of me.<\/p>\n

This left me with loads of time – despite my arriving at like, 2pm.\u00a0 So I rustled up some ingredients. Dandelion for coffee<\/a>, Burdock Root<\/a> (but just for roasting\/eating), Nettles, <\/a>Jack-by-the-hedge, Ramsons and Goosegrass<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"dandelion\"<\/a>
Dandelion root for coffee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"IMG_0156\"<\/a>
Burdock for some calories<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"IMG_0155\"<\/a>
And a few greens. This is nettle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"IMG_0154\"<\/a>
Jack-by-the-hege<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"IMG_0153\"<\/a>
ramsons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"IMG_0152\"<\/a>
goosegrass<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And I made a little stew and relaxed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So there have been some highs, some lows, and some steep learning curves.\u00a0 There have been some adventures on the way, too.\u00a0 But I now feel that whatever happens, I can knock up a shelter, a fire, and a meal, when I find myself in a British forest.\u00a0 Now just Scandanavia and North America to go…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of all the most basic and fundamental of survival skills, there are three that are absolutely vital.\u00a0 If you can build a shelter, establish a fire, and find some drinkable water, you will very likely die of starvation rather than dehydration or hypothermia.\u00a0 This may seem of questionable benefit, but of course, you add weeks … Continue reading Fun with Shelters! (Or A Brief History of Suffering)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[81],"tags":[82,83,84],"class_list":["post-327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bushcraft","tag-bushcraft-2","tag-shelters","tag-survival"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablelifebirmingham.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablelifebirmingham.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablelifebirmingham.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablelifebirmingham.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablelifebirmingham.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablelifebirmingham.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablelifebirmingham.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablelifebirmingham.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablelifebirmingham.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}