When I got kicked out of the
house (as a youngster, this happened frequently) I used to head for a
particular patch of woods filled with young poplar. There, I would find a
patch of saplings that looked about right and (if I forgot string or rope)
start stripping some 2-3 foot lengths of bark. Then I would bend two
saplings until the crowns crossed, about 5-6' off the ground, and tie them
off. This was the initial dividing line of a circle (about 8-10' across) of
saplings. I usually went with a circular design, but sometimes the placement
of young trees dictated a rectangular design. (Which was actually easier to
build, but for some reason I preferred a circle)
After the first two saplings were secured, I would go about the
circumference bending and attaching more to the original two as well as to
successive additions. This may have been overkill, but the strain gets to be
pretty intense if you are using healthy (springy) saplings, and I didn't
want them catapulting in the middle of a rain. So I overdid it. I was young.
Now I use as little Para cord as I can get away with. You don't want to bend
them down too far, or you risk tearing them out by their roots - but this
rarely happened and usually indicated an unhealthy tree with shallow root
development. Poplars grow like aspen - lots of "suckers" developed from the
root structure of other trees. It tends to lock them in place, when healthy.
Eventually I would have a continuous wall of bent (live) trees filled with
gaps. I was careful to leave a hole in the center and tried to situate the
shelter so that one or more well leafed trees remained standing straight and
tall above this hole. Some of you may have guessed at the reason for this...
for the rest of you, you have to realize that, while I was in a wildly
forested area, it was NOT a "camping" area. Usually it was some farmer's
woodlot or state preserve - and camping was trespassing. The hole was to
allow a small fire to vent from within my shelter. The standing tree(s) was
to help any smoke that escaped to disperse among the leaves before being
spotted by the farmer, ranger or tree hugger and being investigated.
Once the walls were bent in and secured, I would look for deadfalls or
smaller saplings and begin filling in the gaps in a wattle fashion,
beginning around the center hole from inside the circle and working down.
Two reasons for this: First, by starting in the center from the interior, it
was easy to do the roof without having to work in the dark, haul stuff
through a doorway, or crawl on top of the structure (not advised); Second,
this gave me a roof from the elements that much sooner, in case of inclement
weather.
When the walls were completed, I would look for insulating material. In the
Wisconsin woods, it's not that hard. Early on, I learned the value of
grabbing the (entire) roll of Hefty or Glad trash can liners on the way out
of the house. These were used only on the roof to waterproof the shelter and
keep the drip, drip, drip from driving me crazy. Once in place, they were
covered with small stones and dirt (which would eventually wash away and
need to be replaced).
With the unavoidable rains would come mud. This is where I would get the
"daub" for the inside of the shelter. Once daubed, a small fire inside the
shelter would bake it into the wattle making for a fairly windproof and
insect resistant wall. A pair of trash bags (one on the inside, one on the
outside) served to cover the entry to my little shelter. I put a little dirt
in the bottom of the bags to keep them from flapping around, then tied the
open corners into the wattle.
This all seems like a lot of work, but the basic structure can be completed
with practically no tools in an hour or two - if motivated. Seems like I was
always patching, repairing, and improving the structure, but it served me
well. The structure allowed me to cook and heat the interior without
advertising my presence with light. The all natural materials and still
living branches and leaves served to make the structure all but invisible
from 20 yards off in the woods.
Pretty ingenious, I think, for a teenage kid. My folks always thought of it
as some sort of dire punishment - and there were some bad parts - but the
things is, looking back, those were some of the best times of my life.
Learning how dependent I was on family and society was a downer - overcoming
that dependence was immeasurably uplifting.
I recently came across a vague description of a similar shelter, but I don't
remember where. I was surprised that I'd never seen it before, as this seems
to be an obvious method of constructing a longer-than-short-term but
shorter-than-long-term shelter. Mine always lasted the full extent of my
exile, and were quite comfortable. BTW - I always "deconstructed" the
shelter when I knew it was safe to return home. It never seemed to hurt the
trees a bit.
Please Read The Website
Disclaimer!
Copyright 1986-2012, The Survival & Self-Reliance Studies Institute (SSRsi), All
Rights Reserved
Site conceptualized, designed, created & maintained by MEG Raven
Snail Mail: SSRsi, PO Box 2572 Dillon, CO. 80435-2572