One-person shelter between three trees

Site

• Three healthy trees standing roughly in a right angle, about 3.2 m and 2.3 m apart, centre to centre. The front of the shelter faces south between two of them.
• Trees with high crowns and no dead limbs over the shelter. Branches must be at least 2 m above the chimney top.
• Level ground about 25 m back from the lake and well above its high-water line, near where a creek runs into the lake, with young spruce and willow nearby for hares.
• The shore gives sand, stones and water for mixing. Dig clay from the banks of a stream running into the lake. Keep stones from the water away from the fire. Use them for the drain and the paths.

Size

The stove in this shelter

The stove stands by the post, in the corner farthest from the trees. The bench runs along the back wall and turns along the west wall. The flue leaves through the west wall to a chimney between the two west trees, clear of the roof. Open the stove simulator

Keeping the heat in

Rough estimates from heat.js, with 10°C inside and −30°C outside. The roof leaks the most as first built, so layering it saves the most. Digging the floor down saves little and moves the most soil. The steps are Insulate the roof, Bank earth around the foot of the walls and Bank snow against the walls and roof.

Building it in stages

The stove goes in in two stages: stage one, a working stove whose channel runs as a covered stone duct, and stage two, the bench packed over it. The season schedule shows when each falls.

Cooking and water

• The cooktop is the flat stone on top of the dome. Flame from the riser strikes its underside, so it is hottest over the riser and cooler toward the edges. Boil or fry in the middle and slide a pot to the edge to simmer.
• The counter is a split log laid flat side up on stakes driven into the floor, 80 cm high. One leg runs along the east wall for food prep. The other runs along the front wall and holds the water basin.
• The basin is a length of log hollowed by laying hot coals on it and scraping out the char, over and over. Fill it from the lake and keep a pot of water at the edge of the cooktop for hot water.
• Throw used water out well away from the lake, not into the drain.

Camp for fishing and snares

• Smoke rack: a frame of poles 1.5 m high above the shore, with a slow fire of green wood under it and a bark roof over the fish. The stove makes no smoke, so fish is smoked here.
• Cleaning rock: a flat rock at the water, well along the shore from camp, so blood and guts wash away and draw no bears to the shelter.
• Fish weir: a fence of stakes across the creek just above its mouth, in a V pointing upstream, that leads fish through a gap into a round pen of stakes. Check the pen morning and evening and lift the fish out.
• Gill net: set straight out from the creek mouth, to catch fish moving along the shore toward the creek.
• Net poles: a crossbar on two poles at the shore for drying and mending the net.
• Food cache: a pole lashed between two trees, with food hung from its middle, out of reach from the ground and from both trunks.
• Winter cache: once everything stays frozen, fish and hares keep under a pile of stones on a log platform closer to camp.
• Snare line: a marked trail through young spruce and willow on the hare runs, with a stump near the shelter for skinning. Hides make mitten and hat liners.
• Ice gear: a long pole to carry across the ice and thread the net under it, a slotted wooden ladle for slush, and a gaff hook, all carved and kept by the door.
• Inside: pegs on the wall for the net, lines and snare wire, a drying line high under the rafters away from the cooktop for mittens and socks, and a flat stone by the door for boots.
• Paths: cleared paths to the shore, the snare line and the cache. Pack them when the snow comes.

Cleaning out

See Clean out the stove: where ash settles, how often, and the plugs to lift.

Build order

Each step is an instruction that lists its tools, materials and skills and links to the jobs it calls.

1. Choose the site, including the clay test holes.
2. Build the frame: clearing and drain, posts and props, beam and plate, rafters, then cut the tarp in two and cover the roof.
3. Insulate the roof once the moss is dry.
4. Build the log walls, with the flue passage, air inlet and vent.
5. Build the stove: stage one, then the first firing.
6. Fit it out: door, counter, basin, step, pegs and drying line.
7. Build the bench.
8. In October, before the ground freezes, bank earth around the foot of the walls.
9. Once the bench is dry and snow has come to stay, bank snow against the walls and roof.

Safety

See Stove and carbon monoxide safety and Inspect the shelter, which covers the lashings, dead branches, the tarp near the chimney, and branches above it.