Ethan's May Challenge

[Moosez45]

Ah, Springtime. Time for flowers, green grass, trees budding, wild weather, and outdoor contests.

This months contest will be tough, we wanna test your skills, so, think about it before you post "I Accept the Challenge".

I give you, Ethan's Shelter Challenge

This challenge is 2 parts, Part one, build 2 shelters. Part two, stay in one of them for a night.

Shelter 1 The Debris Hut
Simple shelter, takes less than an hour to prepare, works well, if built right, and is the main staple of the wilderness shelter. A must know skill that anyone that heads to the woods should know how to construct, quickly, and correctly.

You must make a debris hut. It must have a ridge pole, side slats, 3' of insulation outside, and at least 6" of insulation inside. Rule of thumb on inner insulation, 6:1 ratio of fluffed to compressed. Add insulation, compress it, add more. The ground will suck the heat from your body in minutes, and make for a crappy night, should you choose the debris hut for your sleep shelter. (I recommend that you do, just once to test it out)

Shelter Two
The Advanced Shelter

Debris huts are the way to make it when you have nothing, they can be built without tools, in less than an hour, and work quite well.

These aren't debris huts.
The Teepee

The Wigwam (my favorite)

You wanna win? Well, you gotta make one of these, along with your debris hut.

The basic construction of all of these will include natural material (you can use paracord if you wish, or natural), and must be collected from the area you are in. Don't go over to Aunt May's house, and start swiping palm fronds, you gotta get the material in the area where you are building the shelter.

ALL PICS MUST HAVE A TIME/DATE STAMP ON IT, OR HAVE SOMETHING WITH THE DAYS DATE ON IT IN THE PIC
Sorry guys and gals, but there have been a few shelter building contest on BFC, we don't want rehashed or old photos, we want new projects.

You must use a BKT knife, and post pics with the knife, preferably in every photo.

You must stay in one of your shelters for a night. Preferably, with a camera and some pics, along with a recap of your night. How was it? Did it work? Would you use it again? That kind of stuff.

Be creative and original. If you have another shelter in mind, make it instead, but it must be an advanced or complex shelter. Feel free to embellish your advanced shelters, add stuff to make it a better shelter, stuff like that. Pretty wins points, but German construction with a good application, garners attention.

You must be 18yrs old to enter. Neither BKT/Kabar/BFC is responsible for you or your actions. Abide by the laws of your area, and don't get hurt.

Prizes
1st Place BK9 and BK11
2nd Place BK7 and BK13
3rd Place BK14

NO CHATTING IN THIS THREAD. IF YOU POST ANYTHING OTHER THAN "I ACCEPT" OR YOUR ENTRY, YOU WILL BE DISQUALIFIED

This is a Beckerhead contest ONLY, you must post "BH#***, I accept the Challenge". Post your entry in your I Accept post, as usual. Post your entries as soon as you wish, no more than 12 pics per shelter, and vids must be no longer than 10mins.

There may be some changes made to the original post, but, there will be announcements if anything changes, or I forgot something.

Here is your chance to hit the woods, have some fun, and practice your skills for the chance at some prizes.

Have fun, be safe, and make'em well.

Moose

 

[zaleski]

Withdrawn

 

[SaturatedShadow]

Beckerhead #091 accepts the challenge.

 

[FAL'ER]

This challenge, I accept #22

Debris Shelter


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Mud caked BK9


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[slapper]

Beckerhead #70, I rescind my acceptance.

 

[Captain Airyca]

I accept this challenge.


Okay, here we go!
I think most of my pics will have the time date stamp, I used my cell phone and another camera for the pics, I don't think my cell phone pics will have the date. I brought with me my medium sized pack, with a few extra things added in it, as well as a bag of food, cause I like to eat! and water.. and a tarp. My BK9 and a pair of gloves were the tools I used the most for the actual building process. man I love my BK9.

The first shelter I decided to try and sleep in was the debris shelter. I have to say, I didn't realize how much labor it took to do this, I spent 3 or 4 solid hours working on this thing. The weather was not really on my side for the building process, it was doing the typical Oregon thing where it rains for a few minutes, then the sun comes out, and then it's cold and windy, and then it rains, and then it hails and then the sun comes out.... you get the picture. so most everything was wet.

I tried out some micarta grips OREGON FAL'ER made, and I loved them. they were nice and grippy since I was working in the wet.

I started with 2 Y shaped sticks and a ridge pole and choose a spot that hopefully was out of the wind a little but not down in a place where rainwater would collect. I just interlocked the Y sticks and set the ridgepole on top and pushed on everything until it dug into the ground and wouldn't move. it was actually pretty sturdy!

I had no problem finding sticks for the "ribs" of the shelter, they were laying around everywhere. I didn't take a pic, but my first layer of debris was some really big pieces of bark that came from a huge log laying not too far away. to keep the rain out I was hoping.

I decided to use ferns for most of my debris because where we were at there really wasn't much stuff as far as undergrowth. lots of oregon grape and ferns and moss mostly. So I harvested every fern in the entire forest it felt like. During one of the short sunny periods I tried to dry off my pile of ferns as best I could before I used them.

here's maybe halfway done

about as good as it's gonna get. man I was starting to get tired of walking back and forth with armfuls of ferns haha!

My little campsite, complete with hotdogs and buns!

So I slept in the shelter with a tarp underneath me and a wool blanket. I have to say it was pretty warm down by my feet, but man as soon as my fire died down my head and shoulders froze to death because I left too much open space in my doorway. I had to get out a couple of times to play with my fire, and you can kinda see where all the ferns are messed up on the left side of the pic because I was sitting up, leaning on my shelter and dozed off. I also may have burned a couple of the poles on that side because I ran out of firewood haha.

It was very pretty up where I was, here's a blurry pic of a wild orchid and some wild irises, the irises were everywere along the edge of the road up there it was beautiful.

I learned that the more air pockets you leave in the shelter, the colder its going to be. Fire is what saved my booty, and I'm going to make sure I always always always have some way to make fire with me everywhere all the time no exceptions. I am going to try and get out and make another shelter after work monday if I can, but I don't know if I'll have. I think I want to just do a small lean to or teepee with a really good fire spot with a reflector wall. The debris hut would be really great for a situation where maybe you didn't have fire because you can bury yourself, but I think that if I had the choice to rely more on fire for heat, I'd wanna make a more open, less labor intensive lean to or teepee that is as waterproof as possible and then keep a fire going all night.

 

[BRab]

BH #92, I accept this challenge

Debris Shelter

I found an old limb that was leaning over and it seemed like a good place for a debris shelter. The grass is a lot higher than it looks, which means it already has a lot of interior insulation.

Advanced Shelter

I needed 2 days to finish this one

...I wanted some extra cover on the front

finished the back...

...smoking out the shelter to get rid of bugs...

view from inside

This shelter is surprisingly comfortable. It's plenty long, and wide enough for 2, and the ceiling is high enough for me to sit up without hitting my head.

Unfortunately, I did not spend a night in my shelter. I thought I would be able to last night but I got a call to be at work early in the morning so it was a no go. I still had fun building the shelters and I will most assuredly be spending some nights in my shelter when I have time off of work.

 

[maethor]

BH#89, I accept the challenge.

 

[Cobra281]

I accept this challenge


The debris hut:

Couldn't get the date to come through on the pics when I down loaded them.
So used the cell phone. Background gets a little blurry - but you can make it out.

Kind of a timed exercise with the phone marking the time too. Didn't mean too, but ...
Did it in about an hour and a half ... ish

Started about 10:30 - frame in background

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Frame and first layer of bedding - some old hay bale string for cordage. (free left overs)

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Second layer of pine brough bedding

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9 devours this green poplar

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Frame 10:55

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Chopped a few pine broughs

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Getting there

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Packed on some leaves - rain poncho sped things up a little - made a great way to carrry them.

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Done by lunch (lol)

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The Advanced shelter

Went with a raised platform bed type shelter. There's a stream at the back of our property, making a summer campsite next to it.


The finished product

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How I got there. Started last week. Worked on it after work during the week and over the weekend. Rained the first day. Hot and humid the rest of the time. More like July weather not May.

Used Y top poles for the fame for more strength. (front, middle and back)

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Rain, mud and good old Virginia clay

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Making the raised bed. And frame. Used a bow saw for the platform and logs.

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Had to use the cell phone for date again

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Dogs chewed a few of my roof rafters (lol)

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Roof and sides are layered pine broughs

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If it does get cold, you can take some hot rocks from the fire, put them under the platform for heat. Plus, it makes good storage for wood, etc.

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Spent the night last night.

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Even broke out the Hawaiian shirt (lol) Had a couple beverages. Relaxed and enjoyed the place.



Night was hot and sticky. Didn't need a fire, but kept the deer away.

Obviously a nice sleeping pad would have been better, but got through the night with some pine broughs and an Army blanket.

Dogs barked at every noise. Kept me up most of the night. But made it through.

 

[Md 25v]

BH#39- I accept

Part 1- the A-frame
There will be no man made materials used in construction except for the knife, no rope/cordage or anything else that wasn't taken right from the woods.

Let me first start by saying that I was very fortunate to get both my location and availability of trees to cut and would like to thank BF member Acutus for providing the space.
Now, on to the good stuff. I choose the BK9 for this contest because I don't have a machaxe (yet) and its the only knife I own that can be a machete/cleaver/hand axe/and plane all in one. I have never done shelter work with a single tool and was really pleased with how well the BK9 did everything I needed almost as well as the dedicated tools. To start I got the BK9 shaving sharp with a 9 micron belt. I am blown away because after all this chopping it still slices paper, not cleanly but it slices without tearing!!!!!

Here is the frame.

Here is me making sure the poplar bark I used to tie it together was up to the task (it easily holds my 230#s)

Here is the obligatory date photo

This is the poplar bark wrap that holds the frame

The basic frame

Oh Crap, forgot to show the BK9....... Lets fix that. We're getting a sweet stain on the carbon blade. She'll be real "pretty" by the end.

Four layers of pine baughs and this one is ready.

I am not using this one to sleep in for the challenge. If I were I would have added a LOT of loft to the floor. The reason I didn't is because I was not given access to deciduous trees to cut for loft and I know better than to use pine boughs this time of year while they are all sticky with resin. Because of that I decided to make my next shelter with a fire reflector wall out front to make up for the mere three inches of ground covering the next shelter will have.

Shelter 2- the Wiki

I needed lots of cordage for this one so I stripped some small saplings of their bark after cutting them down to be my vertical supports.

I then tied my three supports together and snapped the start date photo.

Raise the tripod and check stability

Start adding crossbars for support and places to tie in the covering of boughs later.

I needed a lot more bark than I expected but I got the frame up

Here is the first stage of adding boughs. You MUST start from the bottom and layer up to the top so the rain can run down and out instead of down and in.

Here is a shot from the back after 5 layers of boughs were added.

More to come tomorrow!!!

I made the fire reflector today. I mentioned before that I didn't have access to cut and deciduous trees for bedding so I figured that a fire was the only way to be comfy if the night is chilly. I had originally planned to have a very small fire inside but the amount of resin on the pine boughs would have made that to irresponsible. I decided instead, to have a slightly larger fire outside and use a wet, green log to make a reflective wall. I used the bark from the log to line the ground in front of the wall so the small fire will not be directly on the ground.

The BK9 is a chopping monster!!!

The bark peeled easily, using the blade sideways to "wedge" up under it.

This is the reflector wall set up. The reason I used wet "green" wood is that it is much safer next to the fire.

For size reference

Had to check it out

I will do inside pics when I have the over night in a week and a half (leaving 5am tomorrow for anniversary trip). There is one half inch gap of light that I could see from the inside about 2/3 up on the left side. It is important to have no 'light gaps" because that is a potential place for water to come in if it rains. I will be back on the 23rd and will do the overnight trip then with pics and if I can find the charger I'll do a vid too.


OVERNIGHT

I posted some updates throughout the night from my cell in this thread http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/851921-May-challenge-In-shelter-Posting-from-cell

Anyway, Here is some of what happened:
I forgot my dinner at home. I was gonna cook steak over the camp fire.
Update 1- My fire got a little to big and it got really hot in here for a few minutes but I let it die down and it's comfortable now.
Update 2- I got tore up by the mosquitoes earlier but the fire took care of them.
Update 3- I'm very comfortable in here but for some reason I'm just not tired. My dog is dreaming. He is fast asleep but his legs look like he is running. I think he's dreaming about chasing squirrels. That was his afternoon past time today.
Update 4- Grey tree frogs started calling. They are really loud. My dog woke up and wants to go check out whatever is making the sound. I'm tempted to catch one and show him but I'm afraid he would think it was food.
Update 5- Caught a grey tree frog and got pics.
Update 6- Frogs died down now and I'm gonna try to get some sleep. Its nice and warm in the shelter and no bugs so this is gonna be a nice night.
Update 7- Cuddling with the dog. He makes a good pillow.
Update 8- I had a great night. The dog slept like a rock and I used him as a pillow all night. Here is a shot of the shelter last night and a pic of the tree frog that was keeping me awake for a while.

And of course we need a shot of the BK2!

I woke up to smoldering hot ashes and no more bug bites than before I had started the fire the night before. The dog had breakfast and chilled with me while I dumped water on the ashes and then we hiked out to the car. It was a great experience. I brought a long sleeve shirt in case it got cold but the fire reflector wall made it a very warm shelter. I can't wait to see what we get to do next month!

Challenge Complete!!!

 

[Widerstand]

I am withdrawing from the contest.

 

[dingobubba]

BH#12.... I accept the challenge.

 

[tradewater]

No chatting in this thread

 

[Flexxx]

I accept the challenge. Beckerhead 034


Debris hut with the BK6

Some Bk2 help

Side Shot

Distance shot

Just chillin with the BK2 and a smoke

Security Guard

My Gear for the Night

The Inside

The next day, would have taken more pics but I was ready to get the hell out of there, I had a rough night with a little bit of rain
and crazy sounds in the dark....

The Advanced Shelter

Family Photo

Put a shirt on man...

 

[Moosez45]

Lookin' good ya'll, lookin' real good. It would seem that the end of the month and the end of the contest is upon us. I'll close this down tonight. Great work all.

Moose

 

[Moosez45]

Ok guys and gals, we are calling this one done. Nice work, everyone. I hope thay ya'll enjoyed the contest, and learned a few things to boot. Judging will commence. Thanks for your hardwork, and effort.

Moose

 

[Ethan Becker]

WOW.....

I gotta say it again....WOW.....

The Captain and Flexx get the very honorable mentions........

Cobra 281 gets the Bk9 and the Bk11 for his very fine house (shelter don't quite cover such a magnificent edifice does it ?) and my hat is off to that work !!!!

Brab is the winner of the BK7 and the BK14.....Another impressive effort.......When will we see pics of the extra bedroom and den additions or does the full bath com first!!!???

MD 25V gets a BK14 for a fine effort........

I am really impressed with all the entries....You all really worked hard at this.....Thanks for the hard work and creative effort.....Thanks too for sharing the little stuff that went awry.....Sharing those little details is what is gonna save somebody some pain..........

Thanks you all ......

All Best...........

ethan

Email names and addresses to scope2000@aol.com.....Please put may contest in the header/////

I will get the goods out after I get back from Argentina..in about two weeks.......

 

[Cobra281]

Ethan - thank you very much. Appreciate the compliments. And the opportunity.

Have a safe trip to Argentina.

Will forward my info.

 

[Guyon]

Congratulations to the winners! Great challenge!
I've PM'ed the other two winners, Brab and MD 25V, to make sure they see the announcement.
Since this one is a done duck, I'm going to unsticky it at this point.