Several questions on one thread

[scouser4life]

I have just been out for a couple of hours 10.30pm - 12.50am and was attempting to build shelter + a fire. For the fire i had a lighter and news paper, but with everything been wet this time of year, this was not very easy although on a secound attempt i got it going fine. The shelter was the tricky bit. With nothing but leaveless trees around, i thought to myself, i will cut some trees dwn and lean the agains a brach i had fixed higher up between two trunks and its branch. After cutting several down i thought " this isn't going to keep me dry if it rains, nor is it much good for the enviroment cutting so many trees down. So now i have set the scene i'll move on to the questions.

1. Where is the best place to find dry wood?
2. How can i make a good shelter?
3 . ... thats it for now, i will ask them as they come into my head.

Please help me with this.

 

[Goose]

1)Best place to find dry wood is dead wood that is hanging in trees
2) There are plenty of posts about making shelters, if you use the search function. But by far the best advice is not to cut down trees to make the shelters or fires with.
Don't know where you were( if it is your own land I apologise) but chopping down trees to make shelters is going to give us all a bad name, and get us moved on, I have made several shelters using just what is already lying around, it would have to be pretty extreme circumstances(need rather than practice) to chop "several trees down" to make a shelter. It is several man hours work to make a waterproof shelter, not really something to start doing at pub kicking out time.
here is one link to shelter building
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/community/showthread.php?p=230041#post230041

 

[Longstrider]

Hi Scouser, Lets start with quetsion 2... try using a tarp instead of cutting so much wood! I know we've all seen R.M. with a lovely solid shelter built of about half a ton of pine trunks, and we've sen the design in all the books... Trouble is we just don't live in the sort of landscape that will support this sort of destruction in the name of Bushcraft. If you want to build a shelter with minimal gear, try getting hold of something like one of the ex-army tarps (basha) or treat yourself to a Tatonka tarp. Even one of those cheap green plastics sheets they sell at B+Q with eyelets round the edge. These will take up little space in a pack (if packed well), weight is minimal, and yet they will allow you to build a waterproof shelter almost anywhere in a very short time. Team the tarp (or plastic sheet) up with a handful of paracord and you'll be amazed at just how many designs you can come up with for your shelter that involve cutting little if any wood.
Building a decent shelter in this country at this time of year using only "natural" materials can be a real pain in the you-know-what. We have very few plants that have leaves big enough to make the job easy at the best of times, but in Winter the options are almost nil. As you have found, cutting enough wood to effectively build a log cabin roof is just a waste of energy and a waste of trees. It will probably end up leaking like a sieve anyway....

As to the best place to find dry firewood, almost anywhere you find wet logs will do IF you look at those wet logs differently. Split a wet log down the centre and you will as often as not find that the wood in the middle is still dry. Split off the wood from all around a big fat dead wet log and you'll often be surprised at how much good solid dry wood there is in the middle.
Even in our lovely British climate you can often find nice dry kindling twigs if you look under a dense evergreen like a yew tree or a pine. You can find dry tinder inside the split trunks of old trees too. Wood that has been hung out to dry for you by nature is always useful. Keep an eye out for dead wood still in the trees. Firewood gathered from on the ground will almost always be damp, but dead wood snapped from a living tree does it no harm and the wood is usually much drier. Dead branches that have already snapped off by the wind etc but have got hung up in the tree are ideal to use.

PLEASE don't go felling trees willy-nilly to make big solid shelters without the express permission of the landowners to do so. The ideal scenario for a bushcrafter is that he/she can camp somewhere for a couple of nights then move on leaving virtually no sign at all that they were ever there.A few days for vegetation to spring back into place and a shower of rain should cover all signs that you were ever there at all. A trail of felled trees and what others would see as mini log-cabins will only lead to bushcrafters in general being seen as desructive woodland hooligans by those that manage our forests and own the land.
Keep your fire small and scatter the well wetted ashes too. This will not only prevent accidental fires but prevents there being a series of fire scars being left along your trails in your wake.

 

[rik_uk3]

At last years bushmoot, Mors Kochanski recommended we take polythene sheets out with us in the bush to aid shelter building, its lightweight, waterproof, cheap and you can use it again; if its good enough for that man, it would do for me

See Fenlander's post in
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/community/showthread.php?t=17182

 

[WhichDoctor]

I would very strongly agree with everything said above about cutting trees and the leave no trace philosophy.

But I would also like to say thanks to Goose for the shelter link, I've searched numerous times on this site for shelter building info and couldn't get anything more definite than passing mentions. I don't know what it is but I never have much luck with the search tool on this site .

 

[moduser]

Scouser,

This time of year the easiest shelter to build is a debris shelter, basically a low tent shape that you can easily crawl in to, covered with sticks then at least a foot of fallen leaves (thicker the better). Takes about 1 hr to build will keep you warm and dry, remember to pile as many leaves etc inside for bedding.

No cutting of wood or cordage needed with a bit of thought and planning.

I've built many variations of these over the last 20+ years and have always stayed comfy.

As for fire wood, dead standing or branches hanging in tress are best and remember they are probably only wet on the outside so split the logs with your knife and a batton (lump of solid wood) and fine nice dry woord inside. feather them a bit and they'll burn a treat.

David

 

[scouser4life]

Ok thanks for the advice everybody.

 

[bambodoggy]

Scouser,

This time of year the easiest shelter to build is a debris shelter, basically a low tent shape that you can easily crawl in to, covered with sticks then at least a foot of fallen leaves (thicker the better). Takes about 1 hr to build will keep you warm and dry, remember to pile as many leaves etc inside for bedding.

No cutting of wood or cordage needed with a bit of thought and planning.

I've built many variations of these over the last 20+ years and have always stayed comfy.

As for fire wood, dead standing or branches hanging in tress are best and remember they are probably only wet on the outside so split the logs with your knife and a batton (lump of solid wood) and fine nice dry woord inside. feather them a bit and they'll burn a treat.

David

Spot on Mate, as you say this is the best time of year to build leafhuts (bedris shelters) and you don't need to cut anything down at all

Bam.