My Tarp Trench Shelter

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Video Transcription

so to create an anchor points it's fairly simple you can take any piece of wood just put in the ground cover it let it set a little bit that's gonna be strong

okay so my tarp is because of this configuration excuse me the back end is anchored the two sides are not anchored yet because I wanted to know my height and I done this on purpose obviously I got plenty of trees here I didn't need to do that but I just wanted to show you in case you're in an area where you don't have many trees and you need to lift up your end or whatever configuration you're using in a winter time you can just get yourself a pole plant it close by tie it up and then go anchor it down like I showed you okay this time I didn't have to anchor it down because I have another tree there but it's just for showing you just in case you run out of trees so I'm already here at the top it's easy access what I want to do know that snow insulates because of air right sometimes I see videos and it's not to talk bad about anybody but they come and they take all all the air off of the out of the snow so it's best to put more but you don't need to flatten it it'll really insulate

all right so now that my tarp is secured it's anchored is that the position I want it all the size there's no air is gonna pass there the real work begins shoveling

whoo little tip especially when you're out here when you're shoveling snow have a hard time talking shoveling snow is one of the hardest demanding exercises that you can give your heart it makes the heart go fast quickly and doesn't stop so you have to be careful it's very demanding go ahead a certain paste take a lot of breaks you know I know we're we're always in a rush to get things done but this is something you have to take your time when you're shoveling the snow you want to use the advantage of having the snow and I'll just throw it anywhere like the front of the trench here I used it to lift up my reflecting wall now all this part that didn't dig him out I'm going to try and make myself another wall here to extend from my tarp on work okay a couple of explanations here as you can see I didn't go I didn't dig as far as the tarp because this is gonna be the sleeping area and you want to keep this as tight as you can so that the heat bounces off and stays on you from the fire as much as possible and as quick as possible

also if you notice I didn't go right to the ground because it snows before the ground freezes the bottom stays wet and believe it or not snow will be less cold than the wetland because it's a it insulates well anyway it's best to leave it on snow but we're going to talk a little bit more about ground cover a little later on okay so why this shelter I mean it's just an option but for the wintertime like any season you use what nature can naturally provide you know what to make your life a little easier out here so and in the winter well snow is one of them especially when you have minimum gear

another reason is you don't need much equipment just a tarp you know some ropes obviously of course I had to shovel makes a little easier but if you had to you could use your snowshoes would be a little harder I've done it plenty of times but it's very doable but when you're doing that with the snowshoes you have to keep in mind to be very careful because if you damage them remember that's your right out also you're easily out of the wind I've got three or four foot walls in front I don't feel hardly any wind here and from the elements another thing as you dig you're creating yourself natural heat reflector for your fire now the trench is there and very important because your fire is gonna need oxygen you need to go right to the ground you don't need to dig 20 feet I always mean it's between 1012 feet plenty so the oxygen can come and keep your fire burning and it's important to do this because if you don't your fires in the sink in the snow it will not burn properly and will not give you the heat that it's supposed to so that way it's very very important to dig this trench okay so let's take a minute and chat about ground cover now ground cover is as important or maybe more important than your top cover from experience I have been cold at night because I was too lazy to make a proper ground cover even though I had a beautiful blazing fire I was still cold now in theory you need to be a minimum of 4 inches high off the ground so if you live in a place like I do and there's lots of boughs and let's say I'd be spending the night I'm not because I don't have the time but let's say I would you could use some boughs you get yourself about a foot and a half of owls put here and once you lay down on it it will give you about 3 or 4 inches depending on the size of your bowels obviously but for me that would not be enough I would find myself some logs about four inches and I would cut them and I would install them on the ground I would cut them longer in the opening so I can drive one through and then drive the other one put it down and leave it there and I put a distance of about six inches between and it's best that you start from the point coming so you don't have to walk on that you know it's painful after that's done and then you take your foot and a half of boughs and put it on top and that should be great you'll be more than four inches and that'll suffice pretty much okay so now they have taken a little break you know it's still cold out it's still winter and my hands are freezing gotta put them back in my frozen gloves and we need to get some wood for the fire that's gonna feel really good now what I usually do when I probably won't put that on video because I have to put those snowshoes again and I think about this deep but what I usually do I'll go out and cut myself to trees not too big and dragged the whole two trees here and process them here that way I got everything for my fire and the time I'm spending here obviously if I'd be spending longer time I need more wood for sure but that's my next thing who this snow is deep and getting firewood is a challenge as well but anyway should have enough for the time I want to spend here there I got to some other trees there something else I wanted to point out when you make a trench it's important not both ends you don't just cut square like the front first it'll be easier for you know the flow of air of course you want to as much as possible if the wind is going this way you want to put a parallel to your fire I know it can shift there but as much as possible and this allows the oxygen to go and little easier and also it's a lot more easy to get in and out of your shelter when you need some wood or anything else for that matter alright so I can't say it enough and this is not in wintertime but always important to prepare properly especially in my condition right here if I ran out of wood my fire is going down well putting these things real quick and trying to get some wood is going to be tough so I've got plenty of wood different sizes different species to keep me going here for the time that I'm gonna be here there's one more thing I must do before I started up something else that digging will do to make everything easier for you is a partier you need to play around with it this should be not so bad that's simple so I picked up some let's Bart and my way up here just try and get that cut up okay so you guys remember in my last video when I was out remember that while this was on the fire the pot came off from the bail and there was a mystery and of course you smart people told me what happened a lot of you told me the same thing

steel expands so what I've done is I put this pot back on the fire to reheat my coffee so there there wasn't anything really cold on that and this became really hot so hot that this here expanded plus the weight it went that way that the that the bail came off now the bail is usually straight what I've done is I've bent both sides to make sure it doesn't happen again anyway thumbs up thanks guys okay so a few more things I want to point out here right now I'm very blessed the wind hasn't shifted on me at all and you know the fires going that way it's perfect but the wind is going to probably settle and if I stay here all night and want to talk a little bit about the heat reflector in the back now the heat reflector doesn't just reflect heat towards me but what it does it creates a chimney effect it creates a dead air space between the wall and the fire so when there's no wind the smoke will automatically want to go in the dead air space like a vacuum so that's another plus for a heat reflector right now the wind is going the right way okay so something else that I wanted to point out before I forget if I would spend the night in this thing how would I lay down now man this fire just feels good okay how I would sleep in here would be my head towards the fire now I know that may be but that's how I would do it of course you always have to be safe

concerning the fire you can put a big you can put something safe so it doesn't there's no danger the reason is I like to feel the heat and of course my upper body is going to receive more heat than the end and plus it gives me more shoulder space if I need to turn around and if for some reason during the night the wind shifts and brings a lot of smoke in my shelter I won't choke to death with my head being at the end there I cannot wait for that coffee right there

okay so let me give you another reason why it's important when you're planning on staying a longer time in the woods in the winter to take time to dig because as you start your fire obviously we always started in the middle so the first heat that touches the snow is the middle so right away as the heat is in the middle

obviously it melts in the middle I'm saying in the middle a lot so as it does that it's always going to be deeper even if the fire spreads which you want which is gonna do but it's always gonna be deeper here because we start a fire somewhere right so you're gonna have some major problems when you want to stick some big logs because there's gonna be too much of a distance between your log and your fire and it's gonna stop burning and your logs going to be like this like a V and then the snow underneath here hardens up it becomes almost ice it's a pain it's almost impossible to restart well to produce a fire hot enough to keep you warm anyway yeah that's the little tip okay that looks ready folks it looks ready

oh this is just well Wow Wow Wow Wow put you back oh yeah well deserved well right now it's time to relax enjoy my fire I'll be here for a while I cut a lot of wood so I'm in no rush just about time to close that camera I appreciate you watching I appreciate everything you do for me I don't say it enough I know I should but trust me I do see you next time