My dear friends, I would love it if you could come to the premier of my newest YouTube adventure video: "10ﾺF Snow Shelter Camping." The "Live Chat" will be buzzing so I'll be able to mingle with everyone. We'll have a great time watching me work my butt off preparing for a cold night in a winter wilderness wonderland. I've always wanted to build and sleep in a snow shelter. Since I was a kid, I've been fascinated by the concept that you could use something so cold to stay warm...snow provides insulation and regulates temperatures well above the alternative. Shelter...or...Fire? I wonder which is more primal? I think it would be Shelter, but Fire seems close. As a father I see it in my kids' natural interests and tendencies. I guess it doesn't take a brain surgeon to realize shelter skills are valuable. It's a skill that brings a strong sense of fulfillment. A key understanding in the arsenal needed to feel like you can take care of yourself. I called it a "skill" at first but I think you need more than that. I think an "understanding" is needed for something this critical. Understanding is something that comes with experience so I'm going to do more of this: Work my butt off to gain understanding. I'm on a new kick of embracing the idea of living a strenuous life. To revel in the strain, to appreciate and focus on the silver lining. To seek out deeper understandings. Special thanks to the commenter that quoted Teddy Roosevelt on one of my videos. He helped me realize to appreciate rather than resent "the hard times" physically, mentally, emotionally, embrace the suck knowing you and your relationships will come out stronger on the other side. Look forward to and seek out your next challenge. You've got this, now go out and get some! Lol! Good times! Thank you everyone! You have become a big important part of my life and I appreciate you dearly, Steve I'm an inventor who loves the outdoors and camping. I design products based on my life experiences then use them on my own adventures to be sure they hold up and function as intended.
I got waxed canvas.
The forecast was calling for 10 degrees Fahrenheit.
I definitely don't want to...
Okay, now that I'm going to be grilling...
I'm going to try to isolate my fire to this area, and then I'm going to cook here and here.
I got asparagus and steak.
The slow cooking technique where you have your food around the flame rather than over the flame.
This steak should be cooked enough to be released from the grill.
Mostly, just a little stuck that time.
While that steak is in slow cooking mode, I'm gonna fill in some of these holes.
That looks so nice.
It's called Hakata spice.
That looks perfect.
Have a good meal.
Oh boy, that's so nice and tender.
Wow, that's good.
I'm gonna try to get some more of this steak.
- I'm not going to.
Oh, so tender, look at that.
It's good fuel to keep me warm tonight.
I'm afraid I'm going to need it.
I built my sleep system up here, and then I'll carefully carry it down.
But what I have is a nice, thick, really big wool blanket.
And then inside that, this is the Wilderness Innovations Osnu Cloak.
I have all the seams offset from each other.
Under the Osnu Cloak, I have my 800 fill down sleeping bag.
Let's see if we can get this down there without getting too much snow on it.
- What?
My beloved scarf that my daughter Isla made for me.
Thank you, Isla.
Oh yes, this is going to be perfect, Isla.
Oh, yeah. I'm going to go.
It's a little warmer already.
I think I'm gonna put my jacket on first.
The trick is that I'll keep my boots on until I'm ready to get into bed.
And then I'll put on my down boots.
I guess this is it.
This will do the trick.
Home sweet home.
You can see that my feet don't have much headroom.
My head end has a lot more head space.
It's kind of like being in a log cabin and a snow shelter at the same time.
The thermometer has already started to come up.
I'm sure it's about 15 degrees outside, so that's really cool.
This has been a very nice handle.
Very handy.
This is my window that I can't see through.
But it does let in a lot of light.
I got my boots off.
I got my boots on.
It's actually pretty damn cozy in here.
I got my pillow.
I got my down boots.
What else could a guy need?
Let's see how dark it is.
- Good morning, you.
It's about 7:30.
I'm happy to report that I stayed warm.
Very warm, in fact.
Let's look at the thermometer and see how things went.
Okay, it pretty much held right there at 20 degrees.
I'm gonna get up and move that thermometer outside.
Let's see how cold it is outside.
It's coffee time.
- I'm not going anywhere.
I like it just a little brown like that.
That's hot.
Ah, so good.
It's got a little smoky flavor.
I think I ruined the bacon break.
Slow cooked bacon.
You should try it.
Everybody goes for crispy, but they end up with dry.
If you slowly cook it, you can get that crystallized kind of texture, but it's not dry.
- Very good. - Thank you.
Much better than burnt bacon.
The last piece of bacon.
I felt like a little rabbit sleeping in there.
Looks like I have everything.
Let's see how my eggs did.
Oh, this one's still raw.
Haha, this one's raw too.
So the eggs were a flop.
Yeah, this one's raw too.
So I guess eggs by the fire need quite a bit of time.
Well, now I know.
