- Joined
- Feb 8, 2009
- Messages
- 722
So my girlfriend and I started a Wigwam shelter this weekend while out at my grandparents land. It is ten feet in diameter, about 6 feet tall. We used choke cherry sapplings that were in a marshy area about 100 yards from the shelter site. They worked great as they were straight, and green enough to bend well. We had to gradually work a bend into each saping we used, similiar to tillering a bow I suppose. If I heard a split during bending, I would locate the split and cut out that portion so it did not continue splitting down the sapling.
This is about half of what we brought to the shelter site, and we had a few leftover that were either too thick or too short to be of use.
This was the best way I figured out to plant the main support beams in the ground. I used an E-tool, and dug into the dirt. About the way I can describe it is to dig in the front and then the back of the hole so it make the shape of an eye. Then I took a stick that I chopped to make a chisel point, and made a "drilling" action into the ground to mount the sapling deeper into the hole. So the hole and sapling would end up looking like this - (o)========= After it was placed into the hole we filled them with sand that was right next to the shelter site.
Note this split piece of wood was not a sapling for the supports, it was the stick for drilling the hole deeper
We placed 2 saplings in the holes located North, South, East, and West, and then bent them and connected them at the middle. So in theory, you should have 8 saplings in 8 holes, 2 for each corner, and connect the North and South poles and then the East and West poles. I figured on having at least 8 foot poles for these, preferably 10 foot in length. We had one of the poles too short so we had to lash in a connecting piece.
Then we wrapped sapplings around the whole structure, and lashed it together, leaving the entrance open to the east. We used nylon bailing twine, mainly because my grand parents had a huge pile of it, so we used plenty to lash it together.
It took us about 4 hours to constuct, a good portion of that was lashing it together. I plan to cover it with 2 tarps, with the tarps joining in down the center line of the shelter so the door has a flap. I was going to put a fire pit inside, but after hearing about venting problems from a few people I decided I am going to put a wood stove in it. Probably going to build one from a metal 5 gallon can, and stick the stove pipe out of the back of shelter. I will be back up to my grandparents land for deer season opener, so I will have an update on this in November.
Thanks for looking!
This is about half of what we brought to the shelter site, and we had a few leftover that were either too thick or too short to be of use.
This was the best way I figured out to plant the main support beams in the ground. I used an E-tool, and dug into the dirt. About the way I can describe it is to dig in the front and then the back of the hole so it make the shape of an eye. Then I took a stick that I chopped to make a chisel point, and made a "drilling" action into the ground to mount the sapling deeper into the hole. So the hole and sapling would end up looking like this - (o)========= After it was placed into the hole we filled them with sand that was right next to the shelter site.
Note this split piece of wood was not a sapling for the supports, it was the stick for drilling the hole deeper
We placed 2 saplings in the holes located North, South, East, and West, and then bent them and connected them at the middle. So in theory, you should have 8 saplings in 8 holes, 2 for each corner, and connect the North and South poles and then the East and West poles. I figured on having at least 8 foot poles for these, preferably 10 foot in length. We had one of the poles too short so we had to lash in a connecting piece.
Then we wrapped sapplings around the whole structure, and lashed it together, leaving the entrance open to the east. We used nylon bailing twine, mainly because my grand parents had a huge pile of it, so we used plenty to lash it together.
It took us about 4 hours to constuct, a good portion of that was lashing it together. I plan to cover it with 2 tarps, with the tarps joining in down the center line of the shelter so the door has a flap. I was going to put a fire pit inside, but after hearing about venting problems from a few people I decided I am going to put a wood stove in it. Probably going to build one from a metal 5 gallon can, and stick the stove pipe out of the back of shelter. I will be back up to my grandparents land for deer season opener, so I will have an update on this in November.
Thanks for looking!
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