DIY camp bed. “Hollow trunk”: a shelter house for spending the night in nature Prepare a sleeping bag and blanket
Not far from the city of Bordeaux ( France) in a forested area there is an original structure resembling a wooden cylinder. This is a special shelter house where you can stay overnight, spending a weekend in nature with your whole family or with friends.
French architecture studio Bruit du Frigo implemented a project for the construction of a series of original dwellings located in a forested area near the city of Bordeaux. These cylindrical structures called Le Tronc Creux(“Hollow trunk”) are made of natural materials and really resemble a fallen tree.
When creating this dwelling, the architects were guided by the idea of a temporary shelter located relatively close to the house. If desired, a group of friends or a family who decides to spend a weekend in nature can spend the night there.
Le Tronc Creux is made of a steel frame covered with planks. Thermal insulation is provided by a layer of recycled wood. There is enough space inside to accommodate 9 people. The cylinder contains three single, three double beds, a folding table and chairs. Through holes act as windows.
This house has neither electricity nor sewerage. There is a dry toilet nearby. You can spend the night in such a home completely free of charge, just by first booking the required day.
Before you go hiking, check that all the pegs and ropes are in place. Set up your tent at home and make sure you have all the necessary parts to set it up. Typically a tent consists of a waterproof flysheet and an inner light tent with mosquito net and waterproof bottom. It comes with pegs, frame arches and ropes that hold the rag house in strong winds.
Take the time to check if the zippers on your tent are working. With the arrival of darkness, not only the cold can creep in, but also all sorts of small creatures.
2. Learn to pitch a tent
It is very important! A crooked tent will not only confuse perfectionists with its appearance, but can also leak in the rain or fly away in the wind. First, read the instructions - it never hurt anyone.
Remember that the tent must stand on a flat surface without any holes or bumps. Assemble the tent (tie all the ropes, stick in the pegs, stretch the awning and close all the doors). The tent should not be assembled in this position. If it looks like a real flat house, then you can safely spend the night in it.
3. Stock up on a rug or mattress
Despite the fact that the tent is equipped with a waterproof bottom, it allows the cold to pass through perfectly. And if you don’t want to freeze something, then get some foam or an inflatable mat. Dense, high-quality foam will save you from cold and moisture, but sleeping on it is quite hard. Although after one or two nights you will get used to it, and your back will stop hurting. Lay two narrow foams overlapping so that the cold does not get into the gap between them.
An inflatable mat or mattress is softer than foam. It is comfortable to sleep on such a bed, but it costs five times more. The choice is yours.
4. Prepare a sleeping bag and blanket
If you think that a simple blanket in the summer will save you from the cold at night in a tent, you are very mistaken. In nature, especially in the morning, it can be very cold. Therefore, a sheet and blanket will only work if you have a heated tent.
The optimal solution is a sleeping bag. Choose it carefully and pay special attention to the comfort temperature indicated on it. This is the air temperature at which you will not freeze in your sleeping bag.
5. Bring a heating pad
It won't take up much space, but on a cold night you'll really enjoy it. A good option- salt heating pad: it lasts a long time and is safe to use. If the cold takes you by surprise and you don’t have a special heating pad on hand, you can take an ordinary plastic bottle, fill it with hot water and place it in your sleeping bag.
6. Don't forget your pillow
Another important item that will help brighten up your nights in a tent is a pillow. You should not take a large down pillow or a thought from the sofa with you. All this variety will perfectly replace the inflatable analogue. Inflatable pillows are sold not only in travel stores, but also in hypermarkets.
Another good substitute for a pillow is a cover from your sleeping bag, in which you can put warm things, such as a jacket. The tent will be in order, and you won’t lose the cover.
7. Prepare insect protection
Mosquitoes, beetles, woodlice, and spiders are not the most pleasant neighbors in a tent. To prevent insects from entering your rag house, close the doors tightly. If they have already crawled there, then you can use a folk remedy - hang bouquets of tansy in the tent. But it’s not a fact that you will find it.
You can use special coils to smoke, but they don’t smell very nice and create a lot of smoke inside the tent. Not only insects, but also you yourself will not want to spend the night in such a room.
There is a modern way - a portable battery-powered device. It works all night, does not smell or make noise, but is more expensive than coils.
Do not wear woolen clothing when outdoors, as the aroma of wool attracts ticks.
8. Bring a change of socks
In conditions tent camp you may have to change a pair of socks a day. They won't take up much space, so don't be shy and take at least three pairs for two days.
9. Bring a folding chair or foam seat
In order not to look for a decent log and not sit on blankets, grab folding chairs or a foam seat with an elastic band, with which it is attached directly to the tourist. Sitting on a chair or armchair is very comfortable, but you can leave the foam on throughout the day. The “place to sit” will be with you wherever you go and your hands will be free.
10. Prepare lighting for the tent and area
To avoid tripping over pegs at night and searching for things by touch, stock up on economical but powerful enough lighting. Cover a clear plastic jar with glow-in-the-dark paints. It's better to do it from the inside so you don't get your hands dirty later.
Or tie a flashlight to a water bottle, or you can even just put it on your smartphone with the flashlight on.
All of us, lovers of forays into nature, sometimes have to stay overnight in the forest or near a pond. Everyone arranges sleeping places differently, some in a car, some in a tent, and some in a boat. But not everyone can drive a car to the desired point or location. hiking you have to sacrifice a tent to take other things with you. And sleep under open air or in a hut made of spruce branches, where the smell of impregnation is much more pleasant than in a tent. Fresh air and the pleasant smell of pine create a wonderful atmosphere for sleep and relaxation.
I often have to spend the night in the forest and rarely get to use a tent. I only use a tent when I go on a hunting or berry or nut picking trip that lasts several days. In the fall and even in winter, when hunting on foot, I always take with me a plastic film or 2.5 - 2 m tarpaulin. If the hunt drags on, and the house is not so close, it is still light (although I had to set up camp in the dark by the light of a fire ) I select a convenient place (where there is more firewood and some natural shelter blocks the wind) and set up camp. First, I make a fire, then I chop thin poles - from them I build a frame for a canopy (see picture), I attach a film on top of the frame, and I press the bottom edge with a cobblestone or log. Such a lean-to shelter serves as protection from the wind and as a heat shield. Then I chop up spruce branches and arrange something similar to a bed. After cooking and other things, I add wood to the fire located 50 - 80 cm from the bed and start to sleep. If the air temperature is below +5 C*, I prepare two or three dry logs with a diameter of 30 - 35 cm and 2 - 2.5 m long in advance, and use them to build a “nodya” fire (it burns evenly all night and also gives even heat).
You can also make a hut from available materials (for those who walk lightly), but its construction will take more time than for a film shelter. Although the hut also has its advantages.
A correctly folded hut protects well from rain and even hail (according to own experience) water rolls off it like from a regular roof.
Almost anything you find nearby (spruce or fir spruce branches, reeds, hay, straw, grass) is suitable for its construction. First you need to prepare thin poles (dimensions in the picture), two strong flyers and a support pole. We start with installing the flyers; this stage of work must be approached very seriously because... This is what the whole hut actually rests on. The flyers should be driven vertically into the ground by almost a third of their length, so they will stand firmly and will not deviate from the weight of the side rolls. We place a strong pole on top of the flyers. Next, vertically and obliquely adjust thin poles (rafters) onto the support pole at a distance from each other (as shown in the figure). After the rafters are ready, we lay the material that we got nearby in rows from bottom to top, so that the top row covers the bottom. We seal the back wall in the same way as the side rolls.
To make it warm and cozy to sleep in such a hut, you need to place a fire near the entrance and, behind the fire, build an inclined heat screen towards the entrance to the hut.
How pleasant it is to wake up early in the morning in a cozy hut to the singing of birds - only people who have shared all the delights and hardships of wandering and communicating with nature know.
When hunting in the forest, the hunter often has to stay there overnight. We have already written about the features of spending the night in the forest on our website - read about it. Today we would like to tell you about how to make such an overnight stay more comfortable. And, will help us with this... a raincoat, a tent, a bed. At the same time, we will try to consider the option of not just how to make a raincoat tent, but how to turn this structure into a comfortable bed. It is likely that this information will be useful to you, and already during your next overnight stay in the forest you will be able to experience in practice that spending the night this way is much more convenient...
Making a raincoat tent bed
To make our complex bed tent raincoat design, you and I will need light water-repellent cotton fabric - as shown in Figure No. 1 - by the way, you can make such water-repellent fabric yourself - this is described in detail here.
Such material will have to consist of 2 canvases, the width of each canvas should be 1 meter. As for the length of the canvases, it is determined based on the person’s height plus 30 centimeters to it. On one of the canvases, using an ordinary sewing machine, you will need to sew end-to-end overlays (they are also called sleeves) along the long side, of such a width that you can later insert poles into them, the diameter of which will be 6-7 centimeters, which will become the basis or the frame of our camp cot bed. You will need to attach loops to the second canvas at its ends, to which you will later attach tension cords when setting up the tent. Don’t forget to also sew the sides to the top and bottom of the fabric. Along the top edge of each of the canvases you will also need to make a fold, which we will need to tighten the cord or braid.
In order for our raincoat tent bed to be fully equipped and live up to its name - do not forget to also sew or fasten the hood. After this, by pulling the tape from the top of the canvas with a slight movement of your hand, you can transform your tent bed into a raincoat with a hood that can protect you from bad weather in the forest.
How to make a tent bed from a raincoat
If you need to make a tent and a bed out of such a hooded raincoat, you simply insert poles into the sleeves, as we wrote above, their diameter should be 6-7 centimeters, and their ends should rest on 4 wooden slingshots, which you previously drive it into the ground. Thus, from a raincoat you can make a bed similar in design to a folding bed, as shown in Figure No. 2.
You will need to stretch the second canvas over the surface of the bed so that you can get a canopy at an angle of 40-45 degrees from the surface of the ground. It will serve as protection for you from rain and wind. In order to stretch and secure the tent canvas at the desired angle of the canopy, you will need to drive 2 stakes into the ground (their height is determined depending on the angle of inclination of the canopy), after which you can tie a cord to the loops and pull it through the top of the stake and attach to a small peg, which you previously drove at an angle into the ground
However, if the weather is clear and there is no chance of rain, you may not need to install an additional canopy. And, you can use the loose canvas as a blanket.
You should install the slingshots on which the ends of the poles of your homemade forest bed will rest at a height of 20-25 centimeters from the surface of the ground.