Had an instructor back in my community college days who was in the 101st airborne in Europe in WW2. He said they often burrowed and slept in farmers haystacks out in the fields in the winter. He said they were very warm, but the downside was they always lost gear like grenades, 1911's, bayonets, rations, etc., in the piles.
32 is a lot warmer than single digits. I survived homeless living in single digits outdoors for years, like you said, keep the outside air from getting in is key
I've made debri huts in midwest iowa. Slept warm and comfy in fall and winter temps down to -10. The secret is to make sure its at least 36 in thick and close the door good so there is no gaps. Only make it big enough to squeeze into. Less air to warm.
USAF Arctic Survival course teaches the same shelter frame, tarp on the outside, 10+” of snow over that, spruce boughs inside. Relatively warm shelter for sure
back in the days in poland we were doing it many times every winter. grass house with snow on it for extraisolation. the door plug was almost the same. It keeps you warm even by -25C for the whole winter. We were kids then around 12 to 14 yo and we never got sick or cold. Great sleeping option and great fun for kids
I imagine having to breathe in the little hay pieces. Better than freezing to death though. You need about 4-5 feet of hay if it's loose. Bundled it offers better protection, like you did for your door
your body is roughly equivalent to a 60W heat source. from there it is a heat transfer energy balance of volume, insulation, and outside air temp. you can only expect to heat things up so much. but 55F when it's below freezing out is Huge improvement if trying to survive. My house is only 64F all winter long and it's comfortable.
@@JoeOutdoors irrelevant to the topic at hand. And a matter of personal preference. Most people where I live can stand 64F. But I force my self to acclimate to it. But 64F is the lowest I've been to acclimate to. but survival is totally different.
@@SoloRenegadeYOU made the comment about home temp. I replied to YOUR COMMENT, not the topic. So my comment is very relevant TO YOUR COMMENT. The comfort level in my corner of the USA depends on temp and humidity. Dry air doesn't hold heat as well as damp air.
Was taught to make these kinds of shelters in the scouts but we never slept in them over night, always wondered how they held up if I needed one in a bad situation lol
Did the same here in the Puget Sound area, but it was fern fronds and branches; as part of the Wilderness Survival badge, we had to spend the night in them (it was at summer camp). Frankly, it sucked and was really wet, and everyone threw tarps over their structures to actually get them to work.
Many years ago had to spend the night in an improvised survival shelter a bit like this (two of us got separated from my brother who had the tent and sleeping bags). I had some paracord and boot laces to lash the frame together and laid a pancho on the frame that kept the grass and pine branches from falling in (and since I thought it would rain which thankfully it didn't). Had a pretty thick layer built up to stay off the ground which is important. It was effective and relatively comfortable (although it did not get nearly as cold as in this video). I always carry an emergency blanket, lighter, and a lot more paracord when I hike after that (along with a way to call for help).
A small ditch packed with grass leaves and debris is exceedingly warm. With a cheap sleeping bag or blanket it can be a fairly comfortable night sleep in 20 degree weather. First hand experience.
I found when I lost a tonne of weight that got cold more easily specially at work. I started doing sauna and finishing with a cold shower until I could feel my toes made me no longer have an issue ar work. The layers I had on before made me sweat 😓. I learned that its just as much training your body to deal with the cold than just layers of insulation. Very underestimated way to burn calories continuously throughout the day. Great video.
Can confirm.I fly fish a lot during the winter months and have for decades.Usually one of the first on the river n last to leave,nothing to do with toughness,you just develop a tolerance…Or maybe it’s just DNA from my Norwegian grandmother lol
You should do more debris shelter videos. There is a lot of room for improvements and mitigations. Mitigation like building a fire away from the shelter and heating some rocks to place under you with another layer of grass right before bed. Improving on the dust situation: You have pine and fur boughs available. You should do your framework with live saplings, not dead wood. I speak from experience on this point. Live saplings and boughs are easy to stick in the ground and weave between each other. If you make this thick enough it acts like a barrier to keeping all the grass out. What would be really cool is if someone came up with a design to safely build a small rocket stove inside their debris shelter. I have no idea how one might accomplish that without a serious probability of burning the place down. I like your videos because you're including a lot of things other videos don't, such as discussing the short comings of the shelter and then experimenting with ways to improve upon those. Keep it up.
Also, sitting hay bales are naturally composting inside and are warmer if you burrow in to packed vs something you create. But what you made is definitely better than nothing and survivable. My Greatgrandfathers talked about sleeping in hay bales during the war or traveling across the countryside in the US.
Thank god this video popped on my recomended page. Watched one of your videos a while back, liked it but forgot to subscribe and now i finally came across your channel again
Why wouldn't it be warm when you use 30 bales of hay. LOL Slept over a month in dirt holes, root burn outs, root ball upturns and a few others in Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Utah and many other States, when the temperatures dipped and I had ice in my water container on my hip come morning. No coat, no sleeping bag just dirt as we were fight forest and wildland fires.
I trying to probe myself I nearly fell off my chair . My uncle has a farm uncle 1960 going in the barn surrounded by hay , the smell the taste and falling asleep after playing all day childhood memories 😊
This reminds me of the scene in Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece film, "Dersu Uzala", where the hunter saves the Captain's life by assembling one of these while they're lost out on the ice as the sun was setting. Very cool.
Love the vid. It does take a couple of foot of thatch all around to get the insulation. Much depends on what type of grasses, hay, reed, or brush, you have about, and never underestimate the quantity that is needed to be collected. When you think you have enough then double that and then you might just. If you can bundle and lay a thatch with straw you can get a waterproof roof, has to be tight and deep though. They can improve a dry leaf mound too. Do pay attention to the frame, as they do have to support quite a weight by the time enough is piled on. I prefer a green springy sapling hooped bivi tunnel, but that is if there is plenty about, and they need cutting too. Split they can be woven length ways so adding more stability and strength. A survival candle in such a small space will rocket up the temperature. Fire risk is minimal with a little care. A hot water bottle/canteen can also be a boost. Lastly, having a knife long enough to cut grasses in the quantities that are required makes all the difference. Most bushcraft sized knives just take forever being too short. Which is why I carry a golok or Skrama which are ideal for cutting grasses and reed; the thin wood poles too. Gathering grasses and cutting turf fast blunts a knife and reason to have a DMT sharpening stone in your kit. Used to build these when a kid. It is loads of fun.
It'd be interesting seeing you do this with two tarps. One on top of the sticks/frame and another on the outside of the grass. It'd make it waterproof, but all of that grass would probably be really solid insulation.
This dude and I when we were with 3/8, were on a training operation and stuffed our tent with pine needles. While everyone else the commanding officer checked in on were sitting in their tents miserable with warming layers on we were in t shirts and shorts. So yes I can confirm for you that's viable.
when it rains, that pile is going to get soaked, heavy rotting, I'll just carry a couple of membranes, stuff dry debris between the and seal the edges. that works really well and you dont have to worry about rain. You dont need more than a few bushels of debris, either. Once it snows, you can make snow blocks to pack around your shelter like bricks. dig a large, shallow pit (drirt being frozen) you might have to first soften the earth with a fire, Melt snow in the pit, and use the water to make 'dry powder' snow that WILL "pack' After you've made the snow block shelter, fill in the cracks with loose snow and youll have excellent insulation /wind-block.
the ambient temperature definitely helped a lot, but so did adding more grass! i am glad there are at least some people that measure the results and try to keep the conditions as real as possible like your self! i do enjoy watching some fancy bushcraft or some one just chilling out in the woods in ideal conditions, but it is good to see proper survival tip videos that prove them selves
@EricDundee somewhat, but you would have to seal crack, and stripping bark is a harder process than most realize as long as you get enough grass on and around it, unless you get a serious gust, it will break the wind fairly well
You should show how you would construct one of these if you were carrying one or two of those emergency blankets since those are pretty common for people to carry since they are so small and light. I think that would make for an interesting video of how to effectively best incorporate them since they are somewhat fragile yet if you place too far away their effectiveness for reflecting your bodyheat is reduced. I can see how they would be super helpful for the top just to reduce airflow so you need less material.
I’m wondering if you put the same pattern of sticks on the outside of the finished shelter as you did the inside, it would help with the heat retention. Maybe the weight of the sticks will help compact the straw better than it all being loose.
debris can get wet with rain, snow melt or your body moisture. Then it weighs a ton, can smother you, and the moisture will mean that the debris wont insulate you from the cold very well. By putting an impermeable membrane atop your debris, you get rid of those issues and you'll need much less debris to stay just as warm. Ditto underneath you. A sheet of plastic on the ground and then a layer of tyvek between you and the debris. Sealing out the moisture that's in the dirt is always a good idea.
How about using a large size garbage bag as a sleeping bag inside the grass shelter? It will block the heat around the body, stop straws getting inside the pockets, and block the dust. One bag weights nothing and is easy to carry.
Should probably consider fashioning some kind of dust mask to cover your face at night if possible to prevent inhaling so much dust. Would help keep your face warmer too.
Another tip. Building a debris hut. Works better if you first plie a big layer of leaves first then the grass straw that will cut down on the dust you mentioned. But you would need more sticks to support the leaves and then the grass straw over the leaves Works really well. Alot of straw for bedding then a layer of leaves,straw,leaves it will help alot with keeping the cold ground from leaching out your body heat. The hatch you made will suffice
Seems like if you could find some denser material to create a shell over top of the grass, it would boost the insulation factor. I know a person wouldn't have a tarp with them necessarily, but I am curious to know if you did throw a tarp over the nest, would it make a big difference in retaining heat within the grass. Or maybe a pile of damp leaves or whatever. Some kind of outer shell so the heat doesn't dissipate through the grass so readily. Just a thought. Maybe a bad thought, LOL.
for extrem cold, head both sides of 4 head sized rocks with a couple of Siberian fire lays (yt) move the rocks into a row of pits under your bedding, surround each stone with a 2" thick layer of wood ashes. bury some coals and charcoal in the outside fire's ashes, and snuff the flames with ashes or dirt. Reheat the stones for half an hour, once every 5 hours or so
I used to build straw and hay bale 'forts' in our storage barns. Dust was a never-ending problem. I used a sleeping bag which helped a bit up until chest level. THAT was a teenage adventure. For survival in the longer-term, I would hope for a more dust-free solution.
Even if you covered entrance with the hay bale, you obviously didn’t block it off completely, in order to let some fresh air in, so just wondering if rattle snakes are smart enough to enter through a tiny gap. Even if there weren’t, I’d still be scared to be honest.
Maybe cover your frame with a tarp or mylar blanket and then cover everything with the hay, bonus vapor barier and will help keep dust down and possibly even hold heat better
Thank you for taking time to make this video. It was an excellent video. I wonder if it would be a good idea to have 2 small plastic tubes bringing small amount of fresh air inside at floor level so hot air is still there in the upper area. The second thing is if you have a few cheap mylar blankets, you can use it as inner lining just so temperature can be warmer. Just my 2 cents. I am not an expert. Thank you once again for sharing this video.
heavy duty sheat plastic wills suffice for the outside membraine, but the inside membrane has to be able to "breathe at least a bit, or you'll get condensation dripping onto you.
cover your stick "Roof" with tyvek, prgerably refleftive tyek, but i dont know of a source? Then cover the tyvek with about a foot thick layer of dry grass and covee the grass with a cheap tarp. Seal the bottom edges with dirt and have at least 18" of dry grass under you. have a very compressed grass "plug and a crawlway entrance. A pinkie sized breathing hole at the top normally suffices. When you go so sleep, make another vent hole near the bottom. Then rain wont ruin you, collepse smother you. and you need much less grass.
When I first saw that thumbnail I laughed my ass off. When we were young we would sneak off and drink on our buddies parents farm. After a couple hrs of aristocrat someone would be out. We would cover them up with hay and they would stay nice and warm through the night 😂
i think it's best to make a enclosure with sticks or rocks or logs to contain the grass or debris from spilling outwards you get better cover with less material cause its a better shape to keep the warmth in. all it has to be is 3 or 4 foot sticks driven in the ground once every foot in the shape of your body this gives form and better protection. also you can trow all kinds of sticks and ferns or pine cones anything on the now flat top to compress what is on top of you without it rolling of to the sides. This makes it warmer because of less airspace between the mat of debris on top of you also crawling in and out you don't mess up your nest. I grew up in Europe where the winters were very cold we never had modern mattresses we slept on a strosock a haysock a large sack filled with straw or wood shavings that was thick enough to 6 inches when compressed. I never got cold from the bottom, and with a wood stove once the fire went out the house got very cold.
I can tell you whats warmer than that.. go the stables or a farm in the winter and see what’s not frozen.. has straw/hay mixed in usually! Not the nicest but definitely warm
Another thing. I see you hardly have any grass on the floor. I saw a video where the most important part was to build up a thick floor of compressed grass before you do anything else. I think that will be key to getting it a little toasty inside.
So ive slepped in chicago super deep freeze outdoors...... wind and all. In just few layers and overalls....... best find a wind block. If not its better to keep moving until sun up. They make usb powered drink warmers discs things..... work great with power banks......just shove them in yur jacket.
I think you could increase warmth with a bundled grass blanket / mattress and to cut off the corners - think of the zelda triforce symbol to get what I mean. The material should be 6 ft. Thick for minus 50.
I feel like if I were to do this I would add a wool blanket on the grass(under me) as well as above the makeshift skeleton of wood so the straw (and most fo the dust hopefully) doesn't fall on me
55 is pretty war considering. i live in rv no hear 40 outside about 65 in here iam pretty war. but i also cant feel my legs from a injury. i can move them fine just no hot cold or pain
Slept in the middle of a pile of hay when I was 16. Was not warm at all and I woke up needing to bath and wash my clothes. Not the best way to do it. However if you had a tarp to wrap up in
I mean, it will probably do a good job keeping you warm... but the itching, the bugs, and the moisture that will seep in... those are big issues. On top of that you are essentially in a very flammable pile of tinder, so starting a fire anywhere nearby would be a big problem. I also don't know how good this design will be at wicking away rain or snow rather than letting in work is way in.
Als kind haben mein Zwillingsbruder und ich nach Weihnachten in alten Weihnachtsbaum gespielt. Im Januar bei Schnee werden die in Deutschland gesammelt. Darin war es wunderbar😊 Meine erste Behausung mit 7 jahren war ein Heuhaufen. Heute spielt keiner mehr mit 😢 wir sind "groß"geworden 😒 Wo schlafen die Obdachlosen oder Hobos? Wo schlafen Tiere im freien? Dann wirrd die wahl leichter😊
Isn’t wool the wrong type of clothing to wear for this? Yes it’s warm but if you sweat, the wool absorbs it and it says wet, so when it’s freezing temperatures it’ll actually make you colder.
all day bub all day , made urself a warm palace with great Camouflage , really cool idea , you could definetly do alright for a bit. wonder how a rain storm would be, being chilly isnt that bad its freezing your ass off your trying to completely avoid right lol I give you a A you would get the plus if we could see it in the rain
Thats nice and all... but right behind you is a rock overhang if you would have dug a a small area next to the rock now you have a natural wind break and a mini dugout... then you fill it in with straw. Now your body heat will keep you more comfortable with something solid at your back.. now were cookin.😮
you need MUCH less debris if you'll pack it in between a couple of sheets of fabric. Use tyvek next to your body and plastic for the outside membrane. Tyvek lets out your body moisture and the plastic keeps out the wind and rain. The problem with debris is 2-fold. you dont have enough of it, (or it's too scattered-, same thing) or it's all wet-rotten.. It's very dangerous to trust your life to finding dry debris when you need it. This is especially true when temps drop below 0F or if there's no fuel to burn and heat yourself with. Me, I carry 10 lbs of packs, net hammock, bivy, extra clothing, etc, to see to it that I dont need a fire or debris for sleeping down to 20F, which is about as cold as it gets around here. I can use hot rocks or hot water bottles to gain another 10 F degrees and do so discreately. The miliitary says that hostilities nearly cease at 10F, especially at night, mainly because such temps are so hard on batteries. There goes your night vision, radio, even the electronic sight on your rifle. So at 10F or less, at NIGHT at least, you can have an open fire. I can wear my sleep/shelter gear as clothing, so I'm saved the weight of the clothing and brisk activity can gain you nearly 20F degrees..By 11 am, I can gain 20F degree (as vs what it was at dawn) by "aiming" the PEVA door flap at the end of my reflective tyvek bivy at the sun as it rises. If hostilities are why you can't have a fire in daytime, you should do your moving at night and hide in the daylight anyway. That means dont be moving.
i know you Yanks like your freedom units and i grew up at a time Australia was crossing out of inches so i do understand metric and feet. one thing i just dont understand is why you still stick to fahrenheit over celsius. might be just me but celsius just makes more sense. 0 freezing, 100 water boiling. other than that nice video, one question though how would the shelter do in freezing rain? we do get a lot of places that get snow here in Australia but most cold states here in winter the moisture content of the air wont allow it. so we just end up with slushy rain. i know a trap or even some of our gum trees here like the paper bark can be used as shingles but was just wondering how much your shelter might leak in the rain.
Beats me, metric makes way more sense! That’s another reason to make the shelter as thick as possible, rain will hit a piece of grass and travel to the one below it, then the shelter and grass angle will eventually migrate to the ground before making its way inside. Bark on the ridge at least would help or if possible cover the whole structure. Freezing rain is brutal, every thing in survival is about the best use of time, energy, and materials, so it’s what’s available, grass would not be my first choice in that situation. Grass would be a great insulator to have anywhere, in the clothes or shelter if collected dry beforehand though. It will take a long time for the water to saturate everything and leak, even if saturated, the correct pitch or angle of the shelter is important so water can run off each piece down to the ground. The flatter ridge portion is the most susceptible to not being able to do that and leak.
i can really imagine our paleolithic ancestors living like this as they migrated into colder climates, probably several people per shelter and with an outer layer of thorns and bramble to ward off bears, lions, wolves and hyenas.
If you take plastic bags slide over your socks then put on your boots then wear a full rain suit on top of your clothes you don’t even need a shelter you’re body heat keeps you warm try it out. I also wear a scarf with a ski mask so air doesn’t blow down my shirt it seems crazy but works
I would try to get the Grass more dense it should provide more insulation. And also you can dig 12 inches little longer then your body because the ground is a really good insulation make the hut over the hole. And a other thing if you can get a fire heat up some rocks and put them in a corner and they will act like big hand warmers. Me I would have tried to make the shelter bi a tree to act like a better wind barrier.
A charcoal handwarmer would definitely keep you toasty warm all night you can light one end or both ends its a charcoal stick about 5 -6 inches long comes with a metal case and that gets placed in a red flannel bag ....if you wanted to you could break it in two and light 4 ends ....biythat would be overkill in this great cacoon you built....
Dig a trench 18 in. Deep x 6ft long, start a fire in it, then put out fire, replace dirt. Put grass over it to lay on, build hut over it. Walla 90 degrees hut
i have the temp in my car at 21c and that's just perfect for me which was where you were at at 4am...that straw dust though is gonna get in your lungs i wouldn't want to be breathing that in for any length of time...i worked with a guy that was a lorry driver who picked up hay/straw bales from farms and it made him very ill the dust gets into your lungs and damages them.
Had an instructor back in my community college days who was in the 101st airborne in Europe in WW2. He said they often burrowed and slept in farmers haystacks out in the fields in the winter. He said they were very warm, but the downside was they always lost gear like grenades, 1911's, bayonets, rations, etc., in the piles.
A Vietnam vet told me they slept in a haystack to get out of the rain for the night. When they woke in the more scorpions had the same idea.
Wonder if he was apart of e company
@@kraemerdustin defo
HANDS ACROSS GERMANY!
Or, maybe someone was 're-appropriating' them
My sinuses are freaking out just watching this man stack dry grass.
I can feel all those little dust particles going straight into my nose
Haha
I would be miserable all night trying to breath.
@@animaljam4385 still better than the tons of tire rubber in the city air
@@newbleppmore7855Spoken like someone with no allergies😂
32 is a lot warmer than single digits. I survived homeless living in single digits outdoors for years, like you said, keep the outside air from getting in is key
Where
Damn you're a trooper
@@TrentMcNary420Barrow, Alaska
How?
@@Texas-boys damn dude u sleep inside a caribou corpse ?
Then some farmer poke your shelter with the trident fork to see if some wild animal is inside.
Hey Bubba, set the archery target up against that pile of straw with the 2 boots sticking out. Lol
😂
You mean a pitchfork?
Or someone flicks a cigarette into it. That will certainly keep you warm!
Trident Fork? Lmao
I've made debri huts in midwest iowa. Slept warm and comfy in fall and winter temps down to -10. The secret is to make sure its at least 36 in thick and close the door good so there is no gaps. Only make it big enough to squeeze into. Less air to warm.
Good to know thank you! It’s cold out there
USAF Arctic Survival course teaches the same shelter frame, tarp on the outside, 10+” of snow over that, spruce boughs inside. Relatively warm shelter for sure
back in the days in poland we were doing it many times every winter. grass house with snow on it for extraisolation. the door plug was almost the same. It keeps you warm even by -25C for the whole winter. We were kids then around 12 to 14 yo and we never got sick or cold. Great sleeping option and great fun for kids
The grass would be great insulation but normally comes with a host of criters. (insects)
If it's cold enough for you to die they're probably all dead or will be when you move the grass and expose them to the elements.
Mices and other small rodents more likely during winter.
sharing is caring ❤
@@toddberkely6791 ^ ^
It definitely depends where you live, of course.
I wouldn't try this anywhere south of Kentucky.
I imagine having to breathe in the little hay pieces. Better than freezing to death though. You need about 4-5 feet of hay if it's loose. Bundled it offers better protection, like you did for your door
I'm not even allergic to hay or grass and this still makes my lungs and nose hurt thinking about it
being a young bloke who had both lungs collapsed watching this was visually painful to the chest
I was thinking the same
a mask of some kind around the face area
Not to mention the ticks......😮
your body is roughly equivalent to a 60W heat source. from there it is a heat transfer energy balance of volume, insulation, and outside air temp. you can only expect to heat things up so much. but 55F when it's below freezing out is Huge improvement if trying to survive. My house is only 64F all winter long and it's comfortable.
Depends on where the humidity is at for air temp comfort. Dry 68, Humid 64 for winter time comfort.
@@JoeOutdoors irrelevant to the topic at hand. And a matter of personal preference. Most people where I live can stand 64F. But I force my self to acclimate to it. But 64F is the lowest I've been to acclimate to. but survival is totally different.
@@SoloRenegadeYOU made the comment about home temp.
I replied to YOUR COMMENT, not the topic.
So my comment is very relevant TO YOUR COMMENT.
The comfort level in my corner of the USA depends on temp and humidity. Dry air doesn't hold heat as well as damp air.
@@JoeOutdoors you took my comment out of context. You selectively read and responded to it. Learn to read.
@@SoloRenegade Learn to comprehend what you read and what it refers to.
Was taught to make these kinds of shelters in the scouts but we never slept in them over night, always wondered how they held up if I needed one in a bad situation lol
Did the same here in the Puget Sound area, but it was fern fronds and branches; as part of the Wilderness Survival badge, we had to spend the night in them (it was at summer camp). Frankly, it sucked and was really wet, and everyone threw tarps over their structures to actually get them to work.
Use broad leaves then hay on the outer, it does a lot better for the dust
Many years ago had to spend the night in an improvised survival shelter a bit like this (two of us got separated from my brother who had the tent and sleeping bags). I had some paracord and boot laces to lash the frame together and laid a pancho on the frame that kept the grass and pine branches from falling in (and since I thought it would rain which thankfully it didn't). Had a pretty thick layer built up to stay off the ground which is important. It was effective and relatively comfortable (although it did not get nearly as cold as in this video). I always carry an emergency blanket, lighter, and a lot more paracord when I hike after that (along with a way to call for help).
A small ditch packed with grass leaves and debris is exceedingly warm. With a cheap sleeping bag or blanket it can be a fairly comfortable night sleep in 20 degree weather. First hand experience.
Problem with ditches is that they usually have water in them or about to have water in them.
Might be a good idea to take an antihistimine before crawling in there. That hay dust will irritate your lungs.
if only someone made dustmask . . .
you could also pack the inside with leaves, pine needles, dirt, moss or something similar and hypoallergic
Up here in NY we are having the worst tick infestation I've ever seen... Waking up in that lately would leave me covered in grey beans
I found when I lost a tonne of weight that got cold more easily specially at work. I started doing sauna and finishing with a cold shower until I could feel my toes made me no longer have an issue ar work. The layers I had on before made me sweat 😓. I learned that its just as much training your body to deal with the cold than just layers of insulation. Very underestimated way to burn calories continuously throughout the day. Great video.
Can confirm.I fly fish a lot during the winter months and have for decades.Usually one of the first on the river n last to leave,nothing to do with toughness,you just develop a tolerance…Or maybe it’s just DNA from my Norwegian grandmother lol
You should do more debris shelter videos. There is a lot of room for improvements and mitigations. Mitigation like building a fire away from the shelter and heating some rocks to place under you with another layer of grass right before bed.
Improving on the dust situation:
You have pine and fur boughs available. You should do your framework with live saplings, not dead wood. I speak from experience on this point. Live saplings and boughs are easy to stick in the ground and weave between each other. If you make this thick enough it acts like a barrier to keeping all the grass out.
What would be really cool is if someone came up with a design to safely build a small rocket stove inside their debris shelter.
I have no idea how one might accomplish that without a serious probability of burning the place down.
I like your videos because you're including a lot of things other videos don't, such as discussing the short comings of the shelter and then experimenting with ways to improve upon those. Keep it up.
This is really super essential survival knowledge in that environment. Cheers.
Thanks so much Susan!
Also, sitting hay bales are naturally composting inside and are warmer if you burrow in to packed vs something you create. But what you made is definitely better than nothing and survivable. My Greatgrandfathers talked about sleeping in hay bales during the war or traveling across the countryside in the US.
Thank god this video popped on my recomended page. Watched one of your videos a while back, liked it but forgot to subscribe and now i finally came across your channel again
Why wouldn't it be warm when you use 30 bales of hay. LOL Slept over a month in dirt holes, root burn outs, root ball upturns and a few others in Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Utah and many other States, when the temperatures dipped and I had ice in my water container on my hip come morning. No coat, no sleeping bag just dirt as we were fight forest and wildland fires.
What a true hero
I trying to probe myself I nearly fell off my chair . My uncle has a farm uncle 1960 going in the barn surrounded by hay , the smell the taste and falling asleep after playing all day childhood memories 😊
This reminds me of the scene in Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece film, "Dersu Uzala", where the hunter saves the Captain's life by assembling one of these while they're lost out on the ice as the sun was setting. Very cool.
Love the vid.
It does take a couple of foot of thatch all around to get the insulation. Much depends on what type of grasses, hay, reed, or brush, you have about, and never underestimate the quantity that is needed to be collected. When you think you have enough then double that and then you might just.
If you can bundle and lay a thatch with straw you can get a waterproof roof, has to be tight and deep though. They can improve a dry leaf mound too.
Do pay attention to the frame, as they do have to support quite a weight by the time enough is piled on. I prefer a green springy sapling hooped bivi tunnel, but that is if there is plenty about, and they need cutting too. Split they can be woven length ways so adding more stability and strength.
A survival candle in such a small space will rocket up the temperature. Fire risk is minimal with a little care. A hot water bottle/canteen can also be a boost.
Lastly, having a knife long enough to cut grasses in the quantities that are required makes all the difference. Most bushcraft sized knives just take forever being too short. Which is why I carry a golok or Skrama which are ideal for cutting grasses and reed; the thin wood poles too. Gathering grasses and cutting turf fast blunts a knife and reason to have a DMT sharpening stone in your kit.
Used to build these when a kid. It is loads of fun.
a few hundred feet of round bales of hay covered with tarp in a field with the farmers dogs barking all night
It'd be interesting seeing you do this with two tarps. One on top of the sticks/frame and another on the outside of the grass. It'd make it waterproof, but all of that grass would probably be really solid insulation.
This dude and I when we were with 3/8, were on a training operation and stuffed our tent with pine needles. While everyone else the commanding officer checked in on were sitting in their tents miserable with warming layers on we were in t shirts and shorts. So yes I can confirm for you that's viable.
@@TrippinBusa Stuffed it or covered it? Or between the tent and the cover?
when it rains, that pile is going to get soaked, heavy rotting, I'll just carry a couple of membranes, stuff dry debris between the and seal the edges. that works really well and you dont have to worry about rain. You dont need more than a few bushels of debris, either. Once it snows, you can make snow blocks to pack around your shelter like bricks. dig a large, shallow pit (drirt being frozen) you might have to first soften the earth with a fire, Melt snow in the pit, and use the water to make 'dry powder' snow that WILL "pack' After you've made the snow block shelter, fill in the cracks with loose snow and youll have excellent insulation /wind-block.
the ambient temperature definitely helped a lot, but so did adding more grass!
i am glad there are at least some people that measure the results and try to keep the conditions as real as possible like your self! i do enjoy watching some fancy bushcraft or some one just chilling out in the woods in ideal conditions, but it is good to see proper survival tip videos that prove them selves
@EricDundee somewhat, but you would have to seal crack, and stripping bark is a harder process than most realize
as long as you get enough grass on and around it, unless you get a serious gust, it will break the wind fairly well
You should show how you would construct one of these if you were carrying one or two of those emergency blankets since those are pretty common for people to carry since they are so small and light. I think that would make for an interesting video of how to effectively best incorporate them since they are somewhat fragile yet if you place too far away their effectiveness for reflecting your bodyheat is reduced. I can see how they would be super helpful for the top just to reduce airflow so you need less material.
Survival 101 is fire and you do videos for the people who can't make one and that's admirable man
this kind of shelter saved the lives of the main characters of akira kurosawa's great movie 'dersu uzala'.
Very memorable scene in the blizzard
You need to completely fill the inside of your shelter, then burrow into it
I’m wondering if you put the same pattern of sticks on the outside of the finished shelter as you did the inside, it would help with the heat retention. Maybe the weight of the sticks will help compact the straw better than it all being loose.
Everything gets better with experience. I'm glad you tried again. Thanks for this episode.
debris can get wet with rain, snow melt or your body moisture. Then it weighs a ton, can smother you, and the moisture will mean that the debris wont insulate you from the cold very well. By putting an impermeable membrane atop your debris, you get rid of those issues and you'll need much less debris to stay just as warm. Ditto underneath you. A sheet of plastic on the ground and then a layer of tyvek between you and the debris. Sealing out the moisture that's in the dirt is always a good idea.
LOL, I love the fact that you completely missed the sound of the deer you startled with your 4:00 AM exit
How about using a large size garbage bag as a sleeping bag inside the grass shelter? It will block the heat around the body, stop straws getting inside the pockets, and block the dust. One bag weights nothing and is easy to carry.
Lol don't suffocate.
Condensation would likely be a big issue.
Fire pit on the back wall would be better. If you are gonna off yourself do it quickly
Should probably consider fashioning some kind of dust mask to cover your face at night if possible to prevent inhaling so much dust. Would help keep your face warmer too.
Another tip. Building a debris hut. Works better if you first plie a big layer of leaves first then the grass straw that will cut down on the dust you mentioned. But you would need more sticks to support the leaves and then the grass straw over the leaves Works really well. Alot of straw for bedding then a layer of leaves,straw,leaves it will help alot with keeping the cold ground from leaching out your body heat. The hatch you made will suffice
Seems like if you could find some denser material to create a shell over top of the grass, it would boost the insulation factor. I know a person wouldn't have a tarp with them necessarily, but I am curious to know if you did throw a tarp over the nest, would it make a big difference in retaining heat within the grass. Or maybe a pile of damp leaves or whatever. Some kind of outer shell so the heat doesn't dissipate through the grass so readily. Just a thought. Maybe a bad thought, LOL.
for extrem cold, head both sides of 4 head sized rocks with a couple of Siberian fire lays (yt) move the rocks into a row of pits under your bedding, surround each stone with a 2" thick layer of wood ashes. bury some coals and charcoal in the outside fire's ashes, and snuff the flames with ashes or dirt. Reheat the stones for half an hour, once every 5 hours or so
I used to build straw and hay bale 'forts' in our storage barns. Dust was a never-ending problem. I used a sleeping bag which helped a bit up until chest level. THAT was a teenage adventure. For survival in the longer-term, I would hope for a more dust-free solution.
Even if you covered entrance with the hay bale, you obviously didn’t block it off completely, in order to let some fresh air in, so just wondering if rattle snakes are smart enough to enter through a tiny gap. Even if there weren’t, I’d still be scared to be honest.
They can be but at that time of year they are grouped in winter den areas not moving much at all
@@SurvivalSchoolHouse true..didn’t think of that, haha. Looking fwd to watching more videos.
Maybe cover your frame with a tarp or mylar blanket and then cover everything with the hay, bonus vapor barier and will help keep dust down and possibly even hold heat better
Thank you for taking time to make this video. It was an excellent video. I wonder if it would be a good idea to have 2 small plastic tubes bringing small amount of fresh air inside at floor level so hot air is still there in the upper area. The second thing is if you have a few cheap mylar blankets, you can use it as inner lining just so temperature can be warmer. Just my 2 cents. I am not an expert. Thank you once again for sharing this video.
Is air flow not a concern?
heavy duty sheat plastic wills suffice for the outside membraine, but the inside membrane has to be able to "breathe at least a bit, or you'll get condensation dripping onto you.
cover your stick "Roof" with tyvek, prgerably refleftive tyek, but i dont know of a source? Then cover the tyvek with about a foot thick layer of dry grass and covee the grass with a cheap tarp. Seal the bottom edges with dirt and have at least 18" of dry grass under you. have a very compressed grass "plug and a crawlway entrance. A pinkie sized breathing hole at the top normally suffices. When you go so sleep, make another vent hole near the bottom. Then rain wont ruin you, collepse smother you. and you need much less grass.
When I first saw that thumbnail I laughed my ass off. When we were young we would sneak off and drink on our buddies parents farm. After a couple hrs of aristocrat someone would be out. We would cover them up with hay and they would stay nice and warm through the night 😂
You should try it with a reflective style blanket under/over you.
Voilà un bel exercice de survivance dans la nature avec peu de moyens, beau travail, bravo !
i think it's best to make a enclosure with sticks or rocks or logs to contain the grass or debris from spilling outwards you get better cover with less material cause its a better shape to keep the warmth in. all it has to be is 3 or 4 foot sticks driven in the ground once every foot in the shape of your body this gives form and better protection. also you can trow all kinds of sticks and ferns or pine cones anything on the now flat top to compress what is on top of you without it rolling of to the sides. This makes it warmer because of less airspace between the mat of debris on top of you also crawling in and out you don't mess up your nest. I grew up in Europe where the winters were very cold we never had modern mattresses we slept on a strosock a haysock a large sack filled with straw or wood shavings that was thick enough to 6 inches when compressed. I never got cold from the bottom, and with a wood stove once the fire went out the house got very cold.
I've always wondered about wood chips. They radiate steam in the cold morning.
Kept the ticks fed
I can tell you whats warmer than that.. go the stables or a farm in the winter and see what’s not frozen.. has straw/hay mixed in usually! Not the nicest but definitely warm
Thanks for the tips!
Another thing. I see you hardly have any grass on the floor. I saw a video where the most important part was to build up a thick floor of compressed grass before you do anything else. I think that will be key to getting it a little toasty inside.
So ive slepped in chicago super deep freeze outdoors...... wind and all. In just few layers and overalls....... best find a wind block. If not its better to keep moving until sun up.
They make usb powered drink warmers discs things..... work great with power banks......just shove them in yur jacket.
I think you could increase warmth with a bundled grass blanket / mattress and to cut off the corners - think of the zelda triforce symbol to get what I mean. The material should be 6 ft. Thick for minus 50.
What about the oxygen? Is there enough air getting through the hay to breath properly?
The grass works great if you have it. But what do you do with out it. ???
I like videos where they actually make their shelters mosquito and bug proof, like you could actually live in this thing forever
I find if you pile enough debris on the shelter eventually you will get it to stay warm.valume and mass is the key
Well this OK if you have 6 hours to gather grass !! What happens if he lights a match to check his watch ??
I feel like if I were to do this I would add a wool blanket on the grass(under me) as well as above the makeshift skeleton of wood so the straw (and most fo the dust hopefully) doesn't fall on me
Reminds me of the hut they build in the movie Dersu Uzala to survive a wind storm in the steppe! Amazing!
55 is pretty war considering. i live in rv no hear 40 outside about 65 in here iam pretty war. but i also cant feel my legs from a injury. i can move them fine just no hot cold or pain
All nice and cosy in bed...a nice relaxing smoke to end the day.
Slept in the middle of a pile of hay when I was 16. Was not warm at all and I woke up needing to bath and wash my clothes. Not the best way to do it. However if you had a tarp to wrap up in
Apologies in advance for not know the region but wouldnt you be a bit worried for ticks in the tall grass?
I mean, it will probably do a good job keeping you warm... but the itching, the bugs, and the moisture that will seep in... those are big issues. On top of that you are essentially in a very flammable pile of tinder, so starting a fire anywhere nearby would be a big problem. I also don't know how good this design will be at wicking away rain or snow rather than letting in work is way in.
Plot twist.
He’s allergic to straw.
Als kind haben mein Zwillingsbruder und ich nach Weihnachten in alten Weihnachtsbaum gespielt. Im Januar bei Schnee werden die in Deutschland gesammelt.
Darin war es wunderbar😊
Meine erste Behausung mit 7 jahren war ein Heuhaufen.
Heute spielt keiner mehr mit 😢 wir sind "groß"geworden 😒
Wo schlafen die Obdachlosen oder Hobos?
Wo schlafen Tiere im freien?
Dann wirrd die wahl leichter😊
Okay so how would you improve sleeping in there if you had a crapped out sleeping bag or just a tarp? Or even just a big old wool blanket?
Isn’t wool the wrong type of clothing to wear for this? Yes it’s warm but if you sweat, the wool absorbs it and it says wet, so when it’s freezing temperatures it’ll actually make you colder.
No it’s the best and keeps you warmer when wet, some synthetics can but wool is the best natural material
Did you collect the grass or unroll a round bale?
My concern with this would be Lyme disease. That looks like tick central!! Otherwise that’s a very valid method to keep warm in an emergency.
What to do to prevent dyst, dirt, and grass pollen from getting into mouth/lungs if have allergies and/or asthma (including allwrgy-triggered asthma)?
all day bub all day , made urself a warm palace with great Camouflage , really cool idea , you could definetly do alright for a bit. wonder how a rain storm would be, being chilly isnt that bad its freezing your ass off your trying to completely avoid right lol I give you a A you would get the plus if we could see it in the rain
Thats nice and all... but right behind you is a rock overhang if you would have dug a a small area next to the rock now you have a natural wind break and a mini dugout... then you fill it in with straw. Now your body heat will keep you more comfortable with something solid at your back.. now were cookin.😮
As children we hid in gaps underneath the beams in the hay barn.
Very dusty and itchy, I remember black snort.
When it’s dark inside, that’s what I look for. I make sure that I don’t see any any light through my walls, and then it’s gonna be nice and warm.
I like your sense of humour, subscribed!
you need MUCH less debris if you'll pack it in between a couple of sheets of fabric. Use tyvek next to your body and plastic for the outside membrane. Tyvek lets out your body moisture and the plastic keeps out the wind and rain. The problem with debris is 2-fold. you dont have enough of it, (or it's too scattered-, same thing) or it's all wet-rotten.. It's very dangerous to trust your life to finding dry debris when you need it. This is especially true when temps drop below 0F or if there's no fuel to burn and heat yourself with.
Me, I carry 10 lbs of packs, net hammock, bivy, extra clothing, etc, to see to it that I dont need a fire or debris for sleeping down to 20F, which is about as cold as it gets around here. I can use hot rocks or hot water bottles to gain another 10 F degrees and do so discreately. The miliitary says that hostilities nearly cease at 10F, especially at night, mainly because such temps are so hard on batteries. There goes your night vision, radio, even the electronic sight on your rifle.
So at 10F or less, at NIGHT at least, you can have an open fire. I can wear my sleep/shelter gear as clothing, so I'm saved the weight of the clothing and brisk activity can gain you nearly 20F degrees..By 11 am, I can gain 20F degree (as vs what it was at dawn) by "aiming" the PEVA door flap at the end of my reflective tyvek bivy at the sun as it rises. If hostilities are why you can't have a fire in daytime, you should do your moving at night and hide in the daylight anyway. That means dont be moving.
i know you Yanks like your freedom units and i grew up at a time Australia was crossing out of inches so i do understand metric and feet. one thing i just dont understand is why you still stick to fahrenheit over celsius. might be just me but celsius just makes more sense. 0 freezing, 100 water boiling.
other than that nice video, one question though how would the shelter do in freezing rain? we do get a lot of places that get snow here in Australia but most cold states here in winter the moisture content of the air wont allow it. so we just end up with slushy rain.
i know a trap or even some of our gum trees here like the paper bark can be used as shingles but was just wondering how much your shelter might leak in the rain.
Beats me, metric makes way more sense! That’s another reason to make the shelter as thick as possible, rain will hit a piece of grass and travel to the one below it, then the shelter and grass angle will eventually migrate to the ground before making its way inside. Bark on the ridge at least would help or if possible cover the whole structure. Freezing rain is brutal, every thing in survival is about the best use of time, energy, and materials, so it’s what’s available, grass would not be my first choice in that situation. Grass would be a great insulator to have anywhere, in the clothes or shelter if collected dry beforehand though. It will take a long time for the water to saturate everything and leak, even if saturated, the correct pitch or angle of the shelter is important so water can run off each piece down to the ground. The flatter ridge portion is the most susceptible to not being able to do that and leak.
i can really imagine our paleolithic ancestors living like this as they migrated into colder climates, probably several people per shelter and with an outer layer of thorns and bramble to ward off bears, lions, wolves and hyenas.
Would like to have seen a live inside/outside temperature measurement.
In the middle of the night he began to really panick because he had just realized he had HAY FEVER!!!
If you take plastic bags slide over your socks then put on your boots then wear a full rain suit on top of your clothes you don’t even need a shelter you’re body heat keeps you warm try it out. I also wear a scarf with a ski mask so air doesn’t blow down my shirt it seems crazy but works
I would try to get the Grass more dense it should provide more insulation. And also you can dig 12 inches little longer then your body because the ground is a really good insulation make the hut over the hole. And a other thing if you can get a fire heat up some rocks and put them in a corner and they will act like big hand warmers.
Me I would have tried to make the shelter bi a tree to act like a better wind barrier.
Only thing I would be worried about is breathing all of those particles. A gainer or face covering would probably help.
How many bales of straw did you use
Nice one bud I bet it was lovely and warm
Real, no nonsense, valuable information. Thank you.
I mad a small craw in shelter with straw bales, stayed all night and stayed warm with outside temp at 4 deg. F
Dude just went full Assassin’s Creed
A charcoal handwarmer would definitely keep you toasty warm all night you can light one end or both ends its a charcoal stick about 5 -6 inches long comes with a metal case and that gets placed in a red flannel bag ....if you wanted to you could break it in two and light 4 ends ....biythat would be overkill in this great cacoon you built....
Dig a trench 18 in. Deep x 6ft long, start a fire in it, then put out fire, replace dirt. Put grass over it to lay on, build hut over it. Walla 90 degrees hut
Warm some medium to large rocks next to a fire, take care as rocks can explode. Put them reasonably close to you.
i have the temp in my car at 21c and that's just perfect for me which was where you were at at 4am...that straw dust though is gonna get in your lungs i wouldn't want to be breathing that in for any length of time...i worked with a guy that was a lorry driver who picked up hay/straw bales from farms and it made him very ill the dust gets into your lungs and damages them.
How much in international system ?