After some late night planning, Youssef and I started early enthused to progress on the debris shelter designed for a longer term stay. In route to the job site, we were distracted by the big red tractor. Several days ago it did not want to start up when I tried to fire it. We hooked it up to my truck for a jumpstart, nothing happened, no lights or anything. We let it sit for a minute while I cleaned out the truck. Still nothing. Youssef, mechanic extraordinaire, saw that the battery terminals were corroded and might be the source of the problems. The negative terminal's screw that clamps it together had been completely corroded through.
We headed back down the hill to resume putting in our upright supports for the shelter. Youssef dug the footings. We then filled them with gravel to keep the timber uprights off the ground and away from the sides of the holes, similar to concrete. It is possible to do this with rocks collected from the river, if you don't have extra gravel available.
The first horizontal support hung on the timber uprights.
With the blessing of an aluminum ladder, the supports came together easily using 550 paracord and the wrap and frap technique of attaching logs.
A central triangular support adds extra strength.
End of today. What you don't see is the harvesting of trees with an axe and small handsaw then toting them to the build site.
At some point Ash came sniffing down the trail. I don't know if she knew we were down there or if she was just running a mock per usual. She followed us to the top of the field. When I got to the goat field it was apparent how she got out this morning. She chewed through the rope that I had used to close the bottom portion of the gate to keep it from swinging. I used a salvaged piece of chain from a former fence post hidden in the woods to patch her way out. Tomorrow we shall see the result.
Edit 8:55pm Ash has escaped and is barking in the back field.
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