Large strips of birch bark can
be very useful as roofing.Always enclose your shelter
to make it as windproof as
possible.Fire in Your Shelter
Your shelter’s primary purposes are to keep you warm and to increase your
sense of wellbeing, and there is no better way to achieve these goals than
to build a fire inside. This isn’t possible in all shelters, however, and you’ll
need to be very careful even where it is possible. But should conditions
permit, it’s worth the effort to use this technique in a survival situation. An
inside fire takes you one step up from feeling like an animal in a hole.
If you’re planning to have a fire inside your shelter, you’ll have to
create the space for it before you do anything else, even before making a
bed. Clear an area for your fire pit against a boulder, sand embankment, or
a few bowlingballsized rocks you’ve moved together, as any of these will
help to reflect heat into the shelter. Create a barrier between the fire and
your bed area with rocks (best option), dirt, or wet and punky logs. When
building the frame for the shelter, make a smoke hole in the roof, allow
for the height of the flames, and ensure that no combustible material is
(^152) | Survive!