Shhhh! come, slip quietly with me into the hushed wintry woods.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch! goes the snow.
Never mind. Let's go anyway.
Welcome to what I am referring to base camp. This is my very first bushcraft shelter.
When I started out into the woods behind my house they were so thick old, dead, scruffy tree and branches I could barely get through them or find a small patch of ground to start on. This was the most open spot tucked back against some healthy trees I knew I would not need to mess with.
As I cleared away the dead fir trees and de-limbed them, they became uprights, a cross-beam, a short back wall, then scraps for the side walls. There were just a few scraps of greenery from trees that had fallen before all the green was off. I am not one to let things go to waste so those bits of green were stuffed into the spaces between the logs to help keep out the breeze.
A raised bed/sitting bench inside to keep me off the ground and a couple of tall log rounds to act as tables and voila, all comfy and homey.
I call it base camp because I basically worked outward from this point to clean up the one acre of woods that are both my responsibility and my playground. Also, because I intend to build a cozier place farther back on the property now that everything is cleaned up nicely and a suitable place can be found. As you can see I am still a bit closer to the house than I would like (although the outhouse is handy).
It'll do...for now....
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