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Survival Shelters
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PIT SHELTERS :
A Pit Shelter with coal beds, here is the generic form: Dig a grave, long enough for your body, plus a foot or so extra, and deep enough so you can lay down, but can bend your knees without touching the ceiling (I like lots of roll-over room).
Then dig down another 6-8 inches for the hot coal bed. Digging takes about 2 hours with a stick. Start a fire in the pit and burn hot for 1-3 hours, depending on soil moisture (burn time not included in total construction time).
A hot coal bed on the surface will produce steam when the dirt is put back on it, but in a pit shelter you can cover the coals with the now-dried dirt from the pit walls. The dirt puts out the coals, what you want is the hot mass of the ground. This covered, put a roof of sticks/logs across most of the top, except for a narrow doorway at one end. Cover the roof with debris to fill the cracks between the sticks, then cover with earth. Properly constructed you can sleep in shorts and a tee-shirt, without ever closing the door, down to about 20 degrees F. A coat draped over the hole is sufficient for a door if necessary.
For successive nights, fill with debris (an underground debris hut), or make the pit extra wide and bring in a row of football sized hot rocks along one side.
There are unlimited variations on the pit shelter, hybrids with other shelters, some partially above ground, door at the end instead of straight up. Utilizing natural pits can significantly reduce the dig time.
My favorite is to move into a pit created where a tree has fallen over, pulling a plug of earth out with it's roots. (This can only be done in damp weather, otherwise the fire may enter the roots of the tree and emerge days or weeks later.)
Also herbs can be placed on the floor of a scout pit for a medicinal steaming.
A tip for debris-hutters with not enough debris: In dry soil build a hot coal bed in your hut site while you are gathering materials for the hut. In wet soil just bake the surface of the ground and sweep away the coals. I had a nice campout this last weekend with my daughter. We hiked up into the mountains and made a regular hot coal bed (with wool blankets) in the dry sand under an overhanging rock. The moonlight was beautiful.
These skills do leave impacts. Please think before you dig. Do not construct pit shelters in a green meadow. Instead use gravel bars along rivers (watch your water line!), or uncolonized soils below the forest canopy. You should not be able to tell you were ever there when you are done.
Also remember that forest fires cost $millions to extinguish. The bill goes to the person who starts them...
| HOME PAGE | SITE MAP | COMMENTS | HOT LINKS | FAVORITE LINKS | OUTDOORS | SURVIVAL |
| AWARDS | E-MAIL ME | My BELIEFS | HOLIDAY PAGES | WEB RINGS | UTILITIES | GUEST BOOK |
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