JMB Spring Term Day 5

Date: April 24, 2009
Location: JMB, Masardis, Maine, USA

Summary:
The rain and wind had passed by morning. Breakfast was followed by work more work on knots. After lunch we built braces for the group shelter's stove pipe as it had blown down the day before. The rest of the day was spent building "quad-pod" shelters. The other student and I are each on one side of a long fire. We will be spending the night in these shelters without sleeping bags.

Accomplishments and Observations:
1) Learned three new knots:
      i) prusik
      ii) constrictor
      iii) square
2) felled 2nd tree (Thuja occidentalis - white cedar)
3) made braces for stove pipe
4) built 1st quad pod

5) noticeable local increase in bird and insect activity
6) tadpoles now in ponds and stream
7) shown how to make basic sundial

Initial Reflections:
There really seems to be a lot more birds active today. Shelter is a huge amount of work. I was chopping carrying and weaving boughs for most of the day. It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

Current Reflections:
Going through the process of actually building a shelter (vs just reading about it) really highlights the complexity of the task. There are a lot of variables to consider and balance. One has to account for wind, rain, convective and conductive heat loss, proximity to fire, and other local considerations. Actually building a quadpod made me uncomfortable with my previous stance of "oh, that looks easy enough.... I'm sure I could build one if I really needed to...". My view shifted considerably after this day. My stance is now,

If you haven't done it, assume you can't do it in the bush.