Comfortable Survival shelter

**ultraviperman** · 11-13-2007, 02:13 PM

Hi again, I was just wondering what your opinion's are on a shelter that is actually comfortable to use for a long term wilderness survival shelter in the dead of winter in central canada. By comfortable, I mean the temperature not falling below 50F. Debris huts and the like are really just very temporary/emergency shelters. If it's -40F outside, your body heat is not going to heat a debris hut up to 70F!

The only shelter I can think of is tiny cabin with a wood stove. Even a canvas tent with stove will not stay above 50F all night long because the fire will go out of the stove and the tent has no insulation so the fire will run for about 2 hours and then the temperature will plummet to around -30F within an hour. Also, those tents costs almost 2 grand for everything.
If I go to live off the land, I'm not sure it would be worth all the effort to build a cabin(I might get thrown off the land) and I certainly don't have the skill anyway to build a cabin!
Any thoughts on a shelter than can be made from materials available in the woods that will stay very warm like a cabin? Suggestions? Any log cabin "like" shelters that you can put a wood stove in? Also, I'd want to have some living space, not a cacoon!! At least the size of a small wall tent.

Thanks a lot.

**trax** · 11-13-2007, 02:34 PM

You can survive nicely in the tent you described, I've done it, although you're right the temperature drops fast when the stove goes out. Heavy duty canvas can be banked with snow and it makes great insulation/wind protection.

**Beo** · 11-13-2007, 08:10 PM

Lean-to or hammock in summer and debris hut in winter, sometimes a nice diamond shelter, hmmm yeah a diamond shelter with 2-3 inches of leafy cushioning, or maybe a nice downy mattress

**FVR** · 11-13-2007, 08:29 PM

Actually, a tepee would do the trick. You would need to use the inside liner and the waterproof flooring, easy to do as it's just positioning canvas. The tepee with the inside liner allows air to circ. up from outside, between the liner and the inside of the tepee. This is what causes the draft to take the smoke up from the fire in the middle of the tepee.

This liner also acts as insulation, now the liner is only 4' high. You can def. feel a temp change above the 4' mark.

Only drawback with a tepee are the poles, they are so darn long.

Hunted down S. Ga many years back during a really cold hog hunt. Temps got to 0 degrees. That is when I discovered that only one wool blanket and a mil. poncho can save your butt. Well, this one guy set up his tepee. The second morning, he invited us in for a quick snack, now it was about 5 degrees, nobody wanted to get out of his tepee. Warm, not the word. He used a small wood stove, stack about 6' up, it was a big tepee and comfy.

**sh4d0wm4573ri7** · 11-14-2007, 07:47 AM

Have spent deer season in MN in a lean to totally enclosed with a fire pit which had large rocks for retaining the heat. walls and ceiling were over 4' thick as was door we survived , thrived more or less. debris hut , lean to if done right is quite adequate shelter

**Beo** · 11-14-2007, 11:01 AM

What you described sounds more like a debris hut than a lean-to as a lean-to is almost always one sided.

**trax** · 11-14-2007, 11:45 AM

Originally Posted by Beowulf65

What you described sounds more like a debris hut than a lean-to as a lean-to is almost always one sided.

Hence the name "lean-to"

**MCBushbaby** · 11-14-2007, 12:09 PM

If you have a felling axe you can build a nice little cabin (not anything special like in White Fang or the aloneinthewilderness guy, but quaint) in a few days.

Day 1 - fell and limb trees
Day 2 - divide and notch logs
Day 3 - construct slanted roof using bark singles from said trees
Day 4 - patch walls/ceiling/ground for draft, create "door"

After that just modify as you see fit.. add a chimney or roof hole for your indoor fire, create a raised bed platform, carve some bowls and spoons, etc etc.

**ultraviperman** · 11-14-2007, 07:52 PM

Originally Posted by mitch.chesney

If you have a felling axe you can build a nice little cabin (not anything special like in White Fang or the aloneinthewilderness guy, but quaint) in a few days.

Day 1 - fell and limb trees
Day 2 - divide and notch logs
Day 3 - construct slanted roof using bark singles from said trees
Day 4 - patch walls/ceiling/ground for draft, create "door"

After that just modify as you see fit.. add a chimney or roof hole for your indoor fire, create a raised bed platform, carve some bowls and spoons, etc etc.

Thanks a lot for all the responses. I think I'm most interested in what you discussed mitch. A small little shanty cabin seems like it is really the only comfortable way to live in a northern forest during the winter.

Yeah, I wouldn't need anything fancy like in alone in the wilderness(that guy was insanely skilled

) Just the basics. Do you know of any good links that would describe how to do what your saying(with pictures or video)?.

What would you patch the walls with?

What would you insulate the cabin with?

I'm thinking I just cut some small tree's, notch em up and stack em' a little over 6 feet tall. Could you then just notch some logs and lay them on top making a flat roof? I was thinking something 10x10. So 10 foot logs would work?

**owl_girl** · 11-14-2007, 08:01 PM

Originally Posted by ultraviperman

What would you patch the walls with?

What would you insulate the cabin with?

I think I seen people do that with some home made mud and moss. Maybe I’m wrong.

**MCBushbaby** · 11-14-2007, 09:11 PM

Originally Posted by ultraviperman

What would you patch the walls with?

What would you insulate the cabin with?

I'm thinking I just cut some small tree's, notch em up and stack em' a little over 6 feet tall. Could you then just notch some logs and lay them on top making a flat roof? I was thinking something 10x10. So 10 foot logs would work?

EDIT: cut out my long post 'cause I found a holy grail: http://www.logbuilding.org/

**ultraviperman** · 11-17-2007, 07:23 PM

Thanks for the link. Not too much free info there though. I wish someone made a video of how to build a field expedient(under 3 days) wood cabin shelter. It seems most guides to log cabin building are not for survival shelters, but extravegant homes!

**Nativedude** · 11-17-2007, 07:44 PM

While I was building my cabin I lived in a Yurt. I still use it for my friends that come to hunt. My cabin has a set of bunk beds and there are usually 4 or 5 guys that come up to hunt, so they sleep in the yurt. It has a wood drum stove, 10' table, and 6 log beds in it.

The nice thing about a yurt is that it is transportable. It can be set-up in about 3.5 hours by 2 people or about 5 hours by 1 person. They were originally used by Mongolian sheep herders.

This one is very similar to the one I have, but this one is bigger.

**HOP** · 11-17-2007, 08:23 PM

Calvin Rustum's The Wilderness Cabin it is a fairly old but good book with a lot of information from adobe to log he did what he wrote about.
I really think the Yurt is a great idea a wood stove is a plus it saves fuel in the long run , I have read about runing a long stove pipe diagnolly across your shelter to get some of the heat that goes up the pipe.

**FVR** · 11-17-2007, 10:03 PM

I saw a tv show a few months back where a woman set up a yurt in Az and has been living in it for years. It was very large, had running water, heater, hot water, all that one would need. She built it on a wood platform.

Years ago I also saw a tv show where a guy did the same thing with a tepee. It was a monster, he had two floors in it, hot water, bathroom, and electric coming up from the floor.

Imaginations are wonderful.