IMPROVEMENTS AND BASIC FURNISHING

Many of the shelters covered above are just that: shelters. To actually live in them and increase comfort, you’ll want to spend some time improving them and creating “furniture.” Many such items do not take much time at all to make and will add a lot of value to your shelter experience.

Improved Fireplace

A few of the shelters discussed above allow you to have a fire inside. The stacked debris wall shelter even includes a fireplace in its design, while the bent sapling shelter can easily be adjusted to feature a smoke hole.

You will find, though, that having a non-smoky fire inside an enclosed space is trickier than doing so out in the open air. I’ve always noticed that closing the doorways of these bigger shelters soon lowers the fire and increases smoke production. This is because the heat of the fire pushes large volumes of air outside the shelter through the smoke hole while lesser amounts of fresh air are being drawn in. One way to address this is to create tunnels for fresh air to flow through.

1.Dig a trench. Using a shovel, sharp stone or stick, dig a trench about half a foot deep from the outside of your shelter all the way into the side of your fireplace.

2.Form the tunnel. Cover the trench with small sticks, creating a tunnel. Make sure the tunnel opens from the inside of the fireplace to the outside of your shelter. Cover the sticks with soil. Ideally, this tunnel faces in the direction of the prevailing wind. Some people elect to dig four tunnels, one in each wind direction.

3.Create a funnel. Outside your shelter, you can attempt to create some sort of funnel, which will allow the wind to push more air through. Using a strategically placed stone where the tunnel meets the fireplace, you can regulate the amount of air blowing into your fire. You will find that the fire should burn much more merrily and not be nearly as smoky. On gusty days, though, it’s best to nearly close the tunnel over as gusts can cause the fire to spark or hot embers to land outside the fire pit.

Firewood Storage

I like to store firewood close to the fire to pre-warm it or dry it out if the wood is damp.

You may consider making two storage places, one far from the fire and one close to it. Dried wood can be stacked farther away. When retiring to bed, any wood remaining close to the fire can also be moved farther away for added safety. When using fire inside a shelter, you’ll want to ensure that the sticks you’re using are not collected off the ground by collecting dead branches still hanging in the trees only. Dead wood lying on the ground for any length of time will likely be full of moisture (causing smoke). You also want to stay away from resinous wood such as fir, pine and spruce, opting instead for broadleaf branches. Wood containing a lot of resin tends to pop and spark a lot. Keeping in mind that you’ll be operating a fire in an enclosed space, it’s useful to break all firewood into handy 1-foot lengths before storing it inside the shelter. Using thinner branches no more than 2 inches thick will create more heat and light and allow you to control the fire better with less smoke; the downside is that you’ll go through your wood fast and will need to pay regular attention to the state of the fire. Thicker “bulk” wood, on the other hand, will last longer, allowing you a slumber here and there, but is harder to keep smoke-free and generally requires the fire to be a bit bigger. I usually keep a mixture available and also ensure a large supply of kindling. Then, when I wake up in the middle of the night with only embers remaining, it is easy to throw some kindling over the top and get things going again.

If you are staying with family/friends and are the person responsible for watching the fire, you could consider wearing one layer less than the others during fireguard duty. This should ensure you wake first when the fire dies down too much, as you’ll notice the absence of heat more than the others.

The easiest way to store wood is to create a structure to hold the firewood in place.

1.Create support. Simply hammer two 2-foot long stakes into the ground, about 2 feet apart (or more if you have the space).

2.Create a drying platform. Place two 2-foot long branches parallel on the ground between the two stakes so the wood can sit off the ground.

3.Stack the wood. Place the first layer of wood in a neat row on top of the two parallel sticks between the two upright ones. Stack more wood in the pile until full. Don’t store the wood closer than 2 feet from the fire, though, and keep a good eye on it to ensure it doesn’t start smoldering.

Bedding

As became clear with the smaller shelters, providing insulation from the ground itself is very important. When you can afford the time and energy, investing in a good bed is most certainly worthwhile as the more comfortable your sleep, the better rested you are to deal with the challenges of day-to-day life in the wilderness. In small shelters, you will have already built-in a mattress to insulate you from the ground. In larger shelters, you will have to create a more permanent bed. In temperate conditions, you can create a simple bed by forming a rectangular space using a few thick logs held in place with strategically spaced pegs. Fill the rectangle formed by the logs with crisscross branches before heaping dry, fluffy debris on top to the level of the log sides. This is usually more than enough and very comfortable. Every once in a while, you can replace the debris with fresh material. Using a few fresh fern leaves and beech leaves will keep your bed smelling fresh and insect-free.

In colder climates, I prefer creating the bed by placing logs side by side to the required width. I then like to use narrow sticks to fill the gaps between the logs, and mosses or debris to level the remaining hollows and bumps. A layer of clothes or debris provide adequate padding.

Alternatively, two logs with 4-foot-long, tightly packed branches placed across them can produce a comfortable sleeping place, especially if the sticks are springy.

Shelving

It is very easy to create a shelf or two inside your larger shelter. This will keep stored items off the ground, where they are less likely to get knocked over. Shelves also prevent items from getting lost in the debris on the ground or in the bedding.

1.To create some simple shelving, jam Y-shaped branches into the ground so that the Y-shape is parallel to the wall. The crooks of the Ys for each branch should be level with each other. In the crooks of the fork, lay a strong branch to connect the two Ys.

2.Jam sticks into the wall at the correct height so that one end of the stick is supported inside the wall and the other end is supported on the branch resting on the forked poles.