Winter Shelter

Winter Shelter

I decided to build my shelter in the woods near my house. Once I entered the woods I walked up a steep hill to find a nice flat area with two downed trees. On top of the downed trees was a lot of branches and sticks lied conveniently against the downed trees. I quickly thought of making a shelter using the sticks and branches already leaning on the downed trees, but the roof the fort would not be high enough for a person to fit inside. So then I looked in the area around me to look for other trees I could used to help make a good fort. I ended up using these two trees that were about four feet apart from each other. These trees worked out good for building my fort because one tree had a 'V' shape to it so I could set a big branch in the two trees to serve as a basis for the roof of the fort. After setting the branch in between the two trees I took more branches and sticks from the two downed trees and leaned them on both sides of the basis branch. I then laid my tarp on top of my fort the best I could and tucked it underneath the branches, so the wind would not blow the tarp off the fort.

This is the back part of the fort which most of the 10'
by 10' tarp was used to cover the openings in the walls
of the fort.

The picture above represents the front part of the fort.
The branches with the openings in between is the
shell of the front wall of the fort.

This is the front wall of my fort insulated by leaves to keep body heat 

Unfortunately the tarp did not cover most of the front of the fort because most of it was used to cover the back part of the fort. The pictures above represent the construction of the shell of the fort. After looking at the big opening in the front of my fort I knew I had to insulate it somehow for it to keep someone warm in winter conditions. I found a few pine branches on the ground near my fort and saw that a bunch of leaves were stuck to it. This gave me the idea of leaning pine branches against the front of my fort to seal the opening. Once I sealed the front wall of my fort, I knew that the back of the fort was sealed with the tarp and branches over it to keep it from blowing it off of the fort.

The top of my fort was completely sealed so nothing could get into it. I chose to build the for in an upside down 'V' shape so if it were to snow, none of the snow would build up on top of the roof and weigh down the roof of the fort. This 'V' shape also allows for rain to slide the sides of the fort without leaking in through the top of the fort getting the interior of the fort all wet. The entrance to my fort was the little opening to the left of the tree in the picture below. The tarp is slightly sagged at the entrance of the fort to provide as small door to insulate some heat in side the fort. There is also a cleared and flattened piece of ground right in front of the entrance. It serves as a place where someone can make a fire to keep themselves warm.

This is the top of my fort and the entrance to my fort.
The top of my fort is completely sealed from water.