Emergency Blanket Shelter--Overnight in a Snowy Winter

Oh, that's cold. This is awesome. I'm gonna try to get into the forest a bit here to cut down on the snow But she's coming down Happy to be out could have probably got away with no snowshoes But it would make a lot harder walking a lot wetter more wet feet and I want to use them as a tool I don't know. Snowshoes are definitely necessary in the open. She coming down. It's coming down man. Awesome It's been going most of the day got out here as early as I could I've got a relatively small backpack on there's a hidden woodsman one I don't remember the model it's old but the majority of it is taken up by my sleeping bag I got a chili, make a good shelter and be comfortable tonight. This is and Honestly, this is you know what I mean? I haven't last winter. I didn't get out much It was all recoup last winter this winter, but BAM son. So anyway, yeah, let's get out of the open Let's get into the forest into some conifers some evergreens and build us a shelter we're going to build a shelter quite a bit of snow i found a good spot in here right around in this area at least is where i want to set up what i have for shelter tonight is just an emergency mylar blanket one of those ones that you can never fold back up i thought that'd be a good little you know any cheap easy lightweight test as far as how far you can push it type thing obviously i have an axe and sleeping gear with me too just as far as a shelter we're going to be using just one mylar sheet I might use some natural materials from around to supplement that we shall see that's my plan at least big fire and chili and that'll be a night small small space to do this in so I don't have to heat up a bigger space than I want to okay this one's gone too broken off the top too and this all these dead trees give me an idea I'm going to switch up my plans get this thing off get some tools out and get to work this one's right here too right where around where I want to mess around so I want to take advantage smoke it's obviously broken right here this is gonna make it go this hit here cool more wood to work with measure for a ridge pull one two three and a bit to be generous up here got some solid wood nice and nice and seasoned flatten the area out get all the snow down make sure that there's no big divots or rocks on my way where i want to try to lay down at make my bed anywhere my snow that's me jerk ass james i don't need to stand up i could sit up in it even like that yeah get all the pieces first get it tied together joel is your uncle i want to get my space blanket out emergency blanket out to get see the dimensions potentially read them but if i have to open it up i will nice 52 by 82. all right i busted the emergency blanket out just to get a grasp on the measurements and i know i want to put it about this high right at this level here so i'm going to tie this one on so for this one can anybody guess what knot I might use for this you tie a knot about an inch away from the tail Then you tie a second knot just underneath it not towards the tail but towards the running end and leave it loose Then you go on a diagonal both your pieces of wood slide your running end tail Through it all through the through the loose Knot hopefully that knot had some snowsuit on oh my gosh. Okay. Well that was something anyways. She's on there good now Very good. It's a good thing my knot held up to that. It didn't even break where I'm chopping. A little rotten. A little punky. One there. Get one more and one for the bottom and we'll be ready to tire on and start making fire preparations. Chopping block? That is slick, having that little block there. It might even be for me, I just do not remember it. Out of all the blocks, you know. Cool. Deadwood switch directions a little bit That's okay. So to go out farther because I want to stretch it tight as I can go Doing it this way gives me a couple bonuses I don't have to do any snow anchors and I also am protected a little bit rather than just paracord There's a frame this next part. I can actually use gutted paracord so that I can stretch my stuff a lot longer Rather than using a piece of paracord for each tie out. It doesn't need it. It's not supporting anything It's just holding mylar back. So it'd be silly to use a piece of paracord for every piece every every tie out I got this. I think this is fire cord. Actually, maybe we can test that out after I got some normal strands And then this waxy one. Yeah, that's what it is. And I think this casing is 30-pound test So regardless we use this stuff and we'll make some buttons but Tom I'm grabbing snow this one has a leaf in it all the better making it as tight as I can I'm gonna use this as a button to tie up the space blanket so you put it in normally on the inside of it and wrap it around I ripped out the leaf because I was afraid the stem might poke through and I'm gonna give this one a little one half twist maybe a full twist live a little take one of my strands right wrap it tie it mark it with a J put it in the snow for old Joey all right let's tie it up so I already measured it up beforehand so that this can stay as tight as possible and I want this top part as close to the ridge pole as possible without really pushing on it too much because there's some pokies and I don't need it on there so I'm gonna tie it off to this side piece ha ha ha and reef her down, bud. Reef it down. I got some good news and some not great news. The not great news is this is a tiny, tiny space blanket. Good news is that's okay. I don't need to put the bottom log on for the rest of the shelter. I can just tie it up to the sides here. I've not done this type of shelter with a space blanket before, only ever done it with. I had a Rundac wind tarp shelter set up, which will be a 10 by 10 tarp, diagonal. But it's not needed for this. My dexterity's going, gonna have to put my gloves on soon, but kinda need your fingers for this type of stuff. So all I'm gonna do is tie this off here. I've got the majority of myself covered. My feet will be a little bit exposed, but that's okay. I got a bivvy and everything, it's no big deal. All I need to start worrying about a fire now. So that's what I'm gonna do. This is so handy though, having to put snow stakes into the ground and really this was not a lot of work like the uh the wood was already dead and just right here i had to take two steps to get it luxury bud breaking golden don't you put a little makeup that firewood won't be a problem the big one over here that would be a lot of work but it would also be a lot of wood let's check her out this guy here is dead but it's a balsam fir so it's not even like the wood would be all that great it tends to punk out and see it's all it's not great in there but if i can get it down relatively easy and chopping it into two or three pieces it will add to the long fire and stuff so i think i want to do it i got the energy frozen there it goes it actually feels like pretty good wood okay one piece down the camp is right next to here so i'll be able to come back for these twigs for kindling right there, I'm pretty happy with my firewood selection and collection as of yet. I still have more to get for sure But I'm gonna take this time to take my shoes off here for a minute and get my fire spot ready I don't want to just have the fire on top of the snow because It tends to burn that if you have a long fire tends to burn in the middle at first and melt the snow right in the middle creating a divot like a pot a hole and then not so much on the sides and then the rest of the smoke the rest of the wood just smokes like crazy and it doesn't burn out it takes a long time to get in there but if you can dig out your fire area a little bit it helps as long as the wood is gonna be so I got some long pieces I'm gonna use these snowshoes help me something I haven't done in a couple years probably so here's where the The outside, my thing is, I might not even, I might even use this wood for firewood, but I'm gonna take one big step. I'm gonna probably have my fire right about here. Quite a bit, not that much snow at all. This was one of the biggest snows of the year. We only had a few, and this one was big. They're calling for more, like I said, so happy to get in here, winter camp, and not have to deal with four feet of snow just yet, because that's gonna happen this year. It's a real winter, real winter, bud. This camp is starting to feel pretty homely. pretty happy with that but none of this is hardwood so it's all conifer evergreen that does not have a good coal base doesn't have strong BTUs doesn't last very long but all those things are okay there's a plentiful amount of it like i said mainly only has my sleeping bag in it a pot here with some chili to cook up in there big a big part of that pack a sleeping bag a little sleeping pad and that's it have some like wipes and stuff up there and i also have a bivvy here that's it it's got my bug screen on it i was able to break off a piece of some dry cedar here and uh i'll be able to i think i'll be able to make some shavings to spark them up there is some birch around if i can't get this to go but this is how i would like to start it feels more authentic to me birch you can almost just yell at and light up i'm gonna start my fire i'm getting a little chilled and uh i won't start the big one yet just start in the middle and let it grow out it's all good because of the snow being gone so what i want to do is fill in in the middle a little bit so there's not a big gap i'm going to use smaller pieces than than the big ones on the outside but not too thin where it's not going to do anything just to give it more to burn in the middle and then i'll build a fire on top of that platform whoa that way it'll burn down and burn up it will burn down and burn up at the same time and it'll be a good fire Canadian fireworks action for you guys no no more messing around this time she goes this time she goes but I don't have a lot of time to put these on I just grabbed some cedar twigs I'm hoping that they're dry enough we shall see it looks like they already felt dry enough that's why I did it it looked dry enough and go come on you know you want to you're gonna do it I have faith you gotta You gotta love it, right? No snow on my fire please, no rainin' on my parade, no snowin' on my long fire. Control, hoagie, smoke, he's growin', showin'. I'm havin' a good time, can you tell? It's been a stressful, very, very, very stressful week. I'm referring to the video I posted on early in the week. That was crazy, and now I'm out here. Because I had to get out, I couldn't do it while I was dealing with all that. So, thank the good Lord, And it's snowin'. things away. It's going to get dark any minute here. I've chopped another couple trees down and I have the wood readily available just right behind the camp. So that plus all the wood I still have and all these cedar branches that keep coming off are readily available and helpful and warming. And it's a good thing. Like I still have all that firewood and stuff but it's not even five o'clock yet. So yeah fire. I haven't burned any of the big pieces. Those two big pieces on the outside are fine I got two or three and they're still too that's cool and I found a very nice cedar stump very dry I chopped it up I thought I got on film but I didn't record it this is me carrying that back to the camp a couple leaves in there I ain't too bad it's mighty fine to me perfect there you think maybe some more water down the leaves the ongoing thing like the firewood so the smoke bath steam bath there how you can try to find some cool spots to watch the Sun go down and try to find firewood but I did I found some firewood I didn't find too many open spots at all so anyways the fire's burned down quite a bit but there is still lots and lots of life left in it and lots of wood left so we're doing good I'm starving I gotta eat thing of chili it's gonna go down heavenly probably come out real good too I am starving I gotta get this snow-melted and cook my chili up that is the old school zebra pot I've had upwards of 16 years the old zebra billy 12 centimeter recommended by none other than Ray Mears well sir Raymond got some more happy yeah fail me now really doesn't matter at this point lunch and then I haven't had anything here for one algae in full full of water Oh beans the beans that handle cool down It's gonna melt right through these leather gloves That's so hot. He said to leave it for 10 I left about 15 almost even 20 Smells like chili smells like happy yak Really soft Rehydrated I never really like these guys the Happy Yak ones They're okay. Honestly, it's okay Not my Wilhelmina is cooking, you know, it's honestly pretty good This one's called chili fiesta man. I I want to reiterate how happy and excited and thankful and grateful I am to be back making YouTube videos for my YouTube channel That's my YouTube channel again, my Google account again my email again. There's a flavor I got taken for a ride man. It's my fault, unbeknownst to me obviously Smarten up, people of my age with the Millennials. Is that what we are? Eighties kids, anyways never again will that happen, onward and upward from my mistake and take it as a learning experience and move on, and that's certainly what I'm doing and I'm so much appreciating being out here shooting a video, I know I'm gonna go home and edit put on my YouTube channel and put out to my subscriber base, to stoke this fire up sitting here close, close near it, close by it and I'm gonna go chop up that tree that I keep talking about I've downed over there these gloves are frozen and they're just Slipping on the wood. That's not good. I gotta put some beeswax on my handle. I think these are my favorite gloves Oh, the Hestra Fall Line gloves, these ones Unfortunately, I either melted too many times on a hot pot off the fire or what, but the thumb, the tip of the thumb is Gone, they're very durable if you're not me I've used different pairs of these over the years like probably three separate pairs I think in 12 15 years Burt Kreischer commented one time on an Open Tabs podcast on my video he commented in the comments asking what kind of gloves these were you can go look at it It's it. I believe in the overnight bushcraft camp with my dog video the Scout so very many years ago the machine Alright, the last flame has finally died out just coals in there now this fire Bivvy sack yet. My back is screaming at me. Soon, it'll just be a bit of an early night, but that's alright. Most of my wood gone. Saves them for the morning. Gettin' on. Jump, jump! It's not gonna take long. The wrong bivvy. I wanted my Gore-Tex bivvy. I was hurried up trying to get out here while the snow was still going. Still a good time. Alright, let's get in here. Toasty. Toasty, bud. Everything with my coat. Wind block. Situate myself in the snow where it's somewhat... but this thing would do nothing if a spark landed on it. That's why the Gore-Tex bivvy, the USGI Gore-Tex bivvy is the one to use in the snow by a fire, or a wool blanket on top. That's it for me tonight, I'll see you in the morning. It's just after three in the morning, my fire is out completely, dead cold, and the cold is trying to seep through this sleeping bag. I'm gonna try to get back to sleep for a couple hours, and then get up and make this fire big, but I was expecting some coals. I see no orange, no orange at all. Not as much as it's going to suck getting up out of this warm sleeping bag. I really cannot stay in bed any longer. I had an early night last night, and I've been laying awake here for a couple hours now. I want to get up and start the fire. Good, I had a nice flat lay. Cold, warmth at all. Dang. Again, no hardwood to keep the coals, but that was a rocking fire. Like, I was so overly warm last night before I went to bed. I was expecting even a little bit of warmth, but that's all right. We'll get her going good Burn up all these end pieces. Oh Let's not I got too cold last night. This one is use my right hand a lot more Holy smokes put this lighter where the Sun don't shine Little brisk don't warm my hands those gloves. We're not doing it at all. They're so cold. Yeah, but nothing like it it nothing beats it in the morning on a cold day oh man that is pure joy my last pieces of wood on here get a nice warm and fire I got a hole in this glove I can move my hand now I can move them thingies got to get some wood on here that should go good need about some snow I need water so I'll do that maybe make a tea I have one tea bag with me fire feels good I want to keep this up Throughout the winter going out on little trips overnighters two-nighters Excuse me. I'm planning on doing one big one with Wolfie move around. He's gonna love that Just run around the whole however long I'm gone out there on frozen lakes and stuff. I have visions of it in my head We're gonna make that one happen for sure bottom of my bag got some condensation on it I can only assume it was because the bivy was tight and it was compressing the down Yeah, the bottom of all the bottom of sleeping pad is soaked Oh, oh, unless it's been through by my body heat. That's probably why the condensation on my bag Probably just wetness not even condensation I did a whole lot of camping this year a whole lot of winter a whole lot of canoe camping rather Not so much winter camping last year So like I said, I'm gonna get back in the swing of things on this but I feel up to the challenge Sure, winter camping has its own challenges, but it's a lot of fun. It's in its own way It's got its own thing going like fires to warm up your hands when they're freezing cold from touching synthetic things I did all right for firewood sometimes in the wintertime I like want to wait till late at night to start so I had so I can conserve my my wood But that was not an issue this trip with all of this dead standing wood in here mostly balsam fir some cedar and some Spruce lots of cedar actually off that tree behind you just limbs though That was a lot of help your pieces leaned up against this tree in case I ever Find my way back to this spot one day and use them again or squirrels can run up them One of the two or maybe both you never know life is magic life is magical Anything can happen. Well now I can see plenty fine to hike out of here. That's my plan go home Lots to do before Christmas. I got to get this video edited and put out alright folks that's it for me on this one you can certainly expect to see me every week for the next winter for the full winter this is my plan from when I started posting right when I got back from my canoe trip in July and I haven't missed a week with the exception of last week because the channel got deleted because I got hacked you all know that go check out the previous video if you don't, but that was beyond my control by far. Believe me, I didn't want that to happen. If I could have avoided that, I would. I would stand toe-to-toe with a bear any day rather than do that nonsense again. Mark my words. At least I would have a physical chance, at least I would have something in my power to do. That's crazy. Alright folks, old Joe over and out. See you again very soon. Thanks for everything.