Alone In The Wild - New Bushcraft YouTube Series

[davegray27]

Hi all,
I've just uploaded the first video onto my new Youtube channel, where I will be spending 30 days in a natural shelter that I have constructed. Check out the video here! I would appreciate any feedback you may have

[video=youtube;pc5Nu5H3_d8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc5Nu5H3_d8[/video]

 

[Tiley]

I'll be interested to see how your bark tiles stay in place in the event of a strong wind. I'm not too sure about the use of moss: it's a sensitive plant and it seems rather profligate to use it for your 'loft insulation' while denuding a section of the woodland floor. I would have thought that some young, green boughs from the numerous conifers might serve you better and have less of a damaging impact. That said, it's a tidy shelter and, from the back, looks quite like an Andy Goldsworthy installation.

Enjoy your month in its shelter!

 

[Janne]

The dry bark is good, but I would have laid it like a Mediterrean style tiled roof, one continuous overlapping line starting from bottom up, with the curvature up (u) and the rows side by side, then more rows with the curvature the other way.
More water tight that way. Then weigh the 'u' rows with straight thin stems placed inside the 'troughs' and the others with lots of branches spread over the roof.


Worth spending some extra time on the roof, if you plan a month there you want to be as dry as possible!

I think your shelter is strong enough for several months!
Well done.
I would not worry about any humidity if you are close to a stream.

I would get a small axe if I was you. You have an excellent source of firewood in the form of dried branches on the trunks, super easy to take with a light swipe with an axe.

Tiley, it is against good sense to take living boughts and branches from a tree.
The moss will get destroyed as soon as they start harvesting the timber anyway.

 

[Robson Valley]

Conifers tend to be self pruning = look at the forest he's in.
As soon as the canopy closes, the lower branches die because pine is not shade tolerant. Might as well take some.
The mossy understory will last in the shady humidity until the day after that patch is harvested
and sunlight kills every shade-tolerant plant that lives there for now.

The Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic took about 10 years to ravage 18,000,000 ha of pine forest in BC alone.
Dead, then needle drop and the forest floor was fully exposed to the sunshine. Most everything died.

 

[Janne]

Conifers tend to be self pruning = look at the forest he's in.
As soon as the canopy closes, the lower branches die because pine is not shade tolerant. Might as well take some.
The mossy understory will last in the shady humidity until the day after that patch is harvested
and sunlight kills every shade-tolerant plant that lives there for now.

The Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic took about 10 years to ravage 18,000,000 ha of pine forest in BC alone.
Dead, then needle drop and the forest floor was fully exposed to the sunshine. Most everything died.

Yes, hence my comment about a small axe. Dead branches still on tree - drier than dead branches on the deck.

 

[Dark Horse Dave]

Very impressive Dave. That looked like a lot of labour, especially using just a hand saw. Tidy job too, and I'll be interested to see how the shelter - and you - hold up. Oh, and nicely fixed and about the right length as well. Good job!!

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