Wilderness Lean-To by Nutnfancy: Part 1

PART 1 OF 3: Building a lean-to wilderness shelter in snowy and cold conditions…good times! There are numerous shelters that you can construct in these northern, mountainous woods and this is one of them. It does require a fair amount of time, calories, and preferably some tools to get the job done. But the task itself is relatively simple. Many topics are discussed including the survival mindset and training, site selection, construction techniques, knife and tool usage (and breakage!), clothing and glove considerations, flashlights (Fenix L2D), common sense environmentalism, food procurement, etc. Conditions were adequately challenging with temperatures eventually dropping to 18F and snow continually falling. Allie the Mountain was the faithful companion on the outing.

I’ve gotten several requests to make a simpler woodgas stove than what I’ve been making lately. Something that doesn’t take special parts that only I seem to have. Something that is easier to make than some of the woodgas stoves I’ve made in the past. To go back to the woodgas stove rather than the wood forge stoves. So I rummaged through my can stores and found a soup can that fit into a one quart paint can perfectly and proceeded from there. This video shows how I put those two cans together to make what I think is a pretty simple stove that I think anyone could put together using only a few tools such as a can opener(side cutting), drill, drill bit or uni-bit, and maybe a needle-nosed pliers. The stove may be a little big by some peoples standards but when you consider that it burns fuel that you can find along the trail it will save both money and weight on long trips. Also I used the extra space in the stove to store an alcohol stove and fuel to be used when or if needed. I hope that my requesters (is that a word?) will find this stove easy to make and useful.