This last Friday, we decided to try our hand at “rustic” camping.
We constructed our shelter from scratch. First, we built the frame for our lean-to.
We held the support sticks in place with young, lithe saplings.
Next, we Reuben gathered spruce boughs and we layered them on our frame.
The finished shelter. I placed pine boughs on the floor to keep it soft and dry.
As the day grew just a bit chillier, we started a fire with the wood we had sawed by hand and batoned (batonned?).
When the fire burned down to coals, it was time to toast some cheese & pepperoni sandwiches.
They were delicious.
Soon it was time to turn in. I won’t say it was the most comfortable night’s rest I ever had. Reuben had to wake up several times during the night to attend to the fire, so we didn’t get quality sleep. But it was amazing to sleep in a shelter we had built completely by hand.
The morning dawned breathtakingly gorgeous.
We grilled the remaining sandwiches for breakfast, packed up and headed home, very tired but satisfied with the knowledge we had survived the elements.
Then we took a shower, put on clean clothes (I wore flats and a knee-length skirt) and went to town (I went to the mall, Reuben to Gander Mountain). The end.
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