At Home in the Wilderness

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To provide for a door, omit enough rows of crossties between two of the uprights on the east-facing side of the hut—beginning with the bottom round—to form an entrance hole just large enough to crouch through.

The final frame members to be put in place are several sturdy poles (rigid, large-diameter saplings do nicely) that will act as floor joists to support the sleeping loft. Since they'll have to support your weight, the loft joists should be securely lashed directly to the uprights rather than laid atop a round of crossties. For loft flooring, you can use overlapping sections of heavy bark, or make a mat of smalldiameter poles laid side by side and perpendicular to the joists and lashed in place with cordage.

THATCHING

To make a thatch "shingle," gather up enough long-stemmed grass to make a bundle that's a little too fat to hold in one hand. Now turn the bundle so that the root ends of the grass are facing up, and "belt" it with cordage about a quarter of the way down from the top. Wrap the cordage tightly enough to form a waist in the bundle, and tie it securely—but leave enough line dangling from either side of the knot to secure the bundle to the framework of the but (Fig. 1, Inset B).

Once you have a quantity of thatch bundles made up, tie the first one—root end up—to the bottom crosstie and snug it alongside the nearest upright. Attach the second bundle hard against the first, and continue in this manner until you've thatched the lower crosstie all the way around the but (except for the door opening). Now begin thatching the next cross-tie up . . . then the next (using the framework as scaffolding), until you reach the top of the tipi. The critical point to remember is that the bottoms of the thatch bundles in each higher row should overlap the tops of the bundles in the row just below it—exactly like shingles on a roof.

The uppermost round of thatching will form a bushy cap at the top of the tipi. To make this cap watertight, tie the tops of the uppermost layer of bundles together with cordage. To further waterproof the crown, you can lash several more bundles of thatch over the top at different angles.

Now, with your outstretched fingers, go over the thatching inch by inch, working the bundles of grass until they intertwine and lay flat to provide a wind- and watertight surface.

The entrance hole can be draped with animal hides, or a door fashioned by lashing bundles of thatching to a stick framework.

The final step is to reinforce the entire shelter by spiraling cordage down from the top to hold the grass bundles flat against the framework and to prevent them from flapping and separating in high winds (Fig. 1, Inset C).

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