So we're supposed to get a pretty nasty snowstorm today.

And tonight we're going to do something a little different this time.

I'll be camping out in a shelter that I made myself out of cardboard boxes and some scrap wood.

I attached it to a sled so I can pull it out into the woods, and we're going to see how it holds up in the storm.

And also see how warm it gets inside with the heating system I built into it.

The worst weather supposed to be in the higher elevations up in the mountains.

So that's where we're headed.

It's cold and it's only going to get colder.

We're supposed to get some high winds and a good bit of snow.

So I'm going to have to gather a lot of firewood out there so I can stay warm and cook some food.

So join me as I brave the storm in my cardboard shelter.

I also want to use it as a hunting blind in the future.

A portable one that's lightweight that I can drag around fairly easily and cheap to build.

Cardboard fits all those categories.

All right, we're here.

It's overcast.

It's getting windy.

The storm supposed to start at any minute now.

Let's head out.

I'm going to show you the sled that this is sitting on top of.

It's called a jet sled.

It's meant for transporting ice fishing gear across frozen ponds.

But I use it for all kinds of different things.

I have a harness on.

It's my tree stand safety harness that I use for hunting, and I just hook it up to the pole string on the jet sled, and it works great.

Even up this little bit of a hill.

It's not too bad.

I'm off the trail now.

I don't want to be in these pines or these spruces.

I should say they're a lot more protected from the weather.

When you're under evergreens.

I mean, downside is usually they're more likely to drop branches, especially in high winds.

It's kind of a trade off there.

You just get on the edge of them.

It's looking good here.

So this wasn't bad to pull it off.

It's very lightweight.

And I'll have my fire right up front here.

The wind's not blowing into the opening of the shelter if it starts to.

I'll just adjust it later.

I have a thin plastic sheeting that'll protect the roof, because the heat from the inside that might melt that snow that's on top.

And I'll get the cardboard wet.

I didn't waterproof it or treat it in any way, so it's just raw cardboard.

It's not done yet.

I still have some finishing touches to do on it, but just wanted to bring it out here and test it out as is.

Snow is coming down pretty good now.

So now that I'm all situated here, first thing I'm going to do is go gather some firewood.

I want to do that before it gets dark and before it starts coming down real bad.

Get my folding saw out of here.

Let's find a dead, fallen tree that's not rotten.

A lot of people ask me why I don't burn rotten wood.

There's a few reasons for that.

One is because it's a lot less dense.

So it's not going to give you much heat, even if you do burn it.

Another reason is it soaks up a lot of moisture if it's spongy, punky.

So for that reason, it's also not going to burn.

Very good.

There's other uses for punky wood, like getting the fire going from an ember.

If it's bone dry, that is.

But it doesn't make good fuel.

You want logs that are sitting up off the ground.

This one's close to the ground, but still raised a little bit.

This is going to be more dry than a log that's sitting directly on the ground, soaking up all that water.

Take this back to the camp.

Wind's picking up a little bit.

That's one.

You get some more.

We're on a hunt for some firewood.

Standing dead trees are really good, too.

You can find some of those.

Those are going to be pretty dry.

Usually.

A little word of advice.

If you ever set your tools down in the snow, make sure you're very careful about it.

So I've done it before not thinking you can see how hard it is to find when you need it.

Better yet, just don't set them down at all.

Got some good sized logs here.

I'm about ready to get this fire going.

Cook some food.

I'm getting hungry, and I'm pretty excited because we're going to have stuffed pepper soup tonight.

That sounds good to me.

It's starting to get dark now.

There we go.

That should be enough firewood.

And I just have a long piece of jute twine going from one side.

Hooks on to the other side.

Just to prop this door open.

Now, I used for this was scrap cardboard boxes that I had been saving for a while.

It's fastened together with screws, packing tape.

Obviously, it's not going to be the most sturdy thing in the world, but it's holding up pretty good so far.

And for the frame, I just use some scrap wood I had laying around two by fours, some one by threes.

And for the floor it's just more cardboard.

The bigger boxes really help out.

That way I don't have to do as much patchwork like I had to do back here with smaller boxes.

If I had a couple refrigerator boxes, that would have been perfect and obviously cardboard is very flammable, so got to keep the fire a safe distance from it, and I got to keep it as dry as possible.

If I was taking this thing out in the rain, I would definitely put more plastic sheeting all around it.

This dead dry spruce will do.

This will make excellent kindling.

A lot of times that'll give you splintered pieces at the end of your log.

It's an easy way to make kindling.

From the nice, dry inner part of that branch.

It's a good idea to also have another big bundle ready to go throw on top of that.

Some fat wood here.

Fire down with it.

Can't beat the smell of burning fat wood.

Put it right into that kindling pile and get another pile of kindling.

Just lightly place that on top on the downwind side so that the flame blows into the pile.

It's a nice dry wood.

It makes that sound, you know it's dry.

There we go.

Gloves are getting wet, but I have an extra pair of gloves for that reason.

Well, these ones dry out.

I can wear my other ones.

Fires nice and warm.

Snow got heavier.

Winds picking up to.

Well, we got a blazing fire going.

We are nice and warm.

It's looking nice and cozy in that shelter.

Fire means we can get the food cooking soon, so it's going to be a good night.

It's kind of nice having this thing because you just drag it out here.

You don't have to set up a tent or anything.

Once you're here.

We'll let this fire burn down to a nice bed of hot coals before I start cooking.

See what the temperature is out here.

This thing's probably a little warmer since I'm holding it.

It's reading 2629.

I got this part hanging on this tree, so that'll tell me what the temperature is outside.

And later, once I go in the shelter, we'll see what it says on the inside.

It'll be my little chopping block.

And all my stuff here.

And make some soup.

Some stuffed pepper soup.

I'm going to start chopping up my veggies.

It's my first time making this.

I'm not sure how this is going to go yet.

Pretty simple.

So it shouldn't be too hard.

I did forget to bring the lid to my pot.

That's the only thing I forgot.

And we're in good shape.

Now for the green pepper.

Got red and green.

How festive.

I'm just going to do half green pepper.

Half red pepper.

Now for the onion.

We're just going to do half the onion to.

Snow's getting inside of the pot so I have it sideways.

There we go.

Add some olive oil.

Now we're just going to saute those for a little bit and we have some ground venison.

I'm going to be using for this.

This is from the dough I shot in the fall season.

I'm just going to add this to the vegetables.

Just break it up in there.

Just browning the meat.

So those are pretty well cooked.

We're going to add a can of diced tomatoes.

And a can of tomato sauce.

I'll put some beef stock in about half of this.

Mix it up real good.

I'm going to have to add a little more.

For my seasonings in here.

And put those in next.

I'll just let this simmer for about 30 minutes.

Then I'll add my cooked rice.

It's another thing I have meat sticks from my deer with cheese.

These things are really good.

Very good.

It is getting colder and colder out here.

Grab my emergency blanket.

This is going to help keep me warm.

Get the maximum amount of heat that I can from this fire.

I love these space blankets.

Gives me something to sit on and the fire radiate heat bounces back off of this reflective mylar surface, and without it, it's a lot colder back there.

We'll let that simmer for about five more minutes.

Then I'll add my rice.

This rice is already cooked.

A little frozen, so it'll break it up.

Stir it in.

Let's give that about a minute or two on the heat and I'll take it off.

It's about done.

Oh, that's looking good.

While that cools down, let's get this fire blazing again.

Melt some snow.

So we're going to make some hot chocolate too.

All right.

Time to dig in.

That's really good.

I'm definitely not going to eat all of this, but I will have some for tomorrow, too.

I will say my wife makes it better, but this is pretty good.

For my first time, making it.

More snow in here.

Well, the shelter's holding up pretty good so far.

Also going to heat up this water in this stainless bottle.

I'm gonna use that for warmth later.

Instead of using a Nalgene bottle, these ones I can just put directly on the fire.

I have another one here I might use to my drinking water boiling.

Got some Swiss Miss.

And we're also going to add some Hershey Kisses to this.

Little extra chocolate.

Yes.

This is my dessert.

And a little caramel or caramel however you want to pronounce it.

Let that melt in there.

That's good.

I added the second packet of Swiss Miss to this too, because why not?

My water boiling here.

Take that off of there.

So we're going to test out the heating system on this shelter.

I don't want the wind blowing toward the shelter.

I'm going to pull this closer, but not too close.

I want the front about one step away from the fire.

With this clear plastic in the front.

The heat will radiate in there and get trapped like a greenhouse effect.

I have a pair of dry pants in here.

I'm going to put on and take my outer layers off my boots.

Climb in there.

Anytime you're winter camping, you always want to bring an extra pair of clothes.

You don't want to be wet out in the cold.

You can see the sparks blowing up.

Hitting it.

I'm not going to go to sleep with the fire like this.

So I'm just going to keep an eye on it.

Should be fine.

Okay, let's climb in there.

So I got that hot water bottle inside of this sock.

I like to put these hot water bottles inside of my sleeping bag before I get into it.

Warms it up real nice.

And that is putting off some heat.

I'm in here in just a T-shirt now, and I'm warm.

That's the outside temperature.

This is the temperature in here, and that's still climbing.

We'll give us some time to catch up to see what it really is in here.

So here's the inside of the shelter.

And above me you can see I have one of these cheap survival space blankets that'll reflect the heat from the ceiling.

Back down a little bit.

This is similar to the Mors Kochanski Super Shelter.

It's where I got the idea from.

It's getting windy out there, but it is nice and toasty in here.

If I really wanted, I could cut some huge logs, throw them on that fire, and that fire would last all night long.

The only problem is, like I said, I don't really want to go to sleep with the fire right next to this cardboard shelter, for obvious reasons.

I want to be awake while the fire's going.

Make sure it doesn't burn down.

I don't want to be that warm.

76 degrees in here now.

Still climbing.

And as long as that fire's going, it'll stay warm in here.

But soon as it goes out, it'll cool down quick.

But I'll be in my sleeping bag all night anyway, so.

Oh, fire died down a little bit, and it's 55 degrees in here.

Been in here for a couple hours now, so.

It's over my backpack.

I don't get to snow covered.

You get some of the snow off for the roof.

Doesn't collapse.

I'll leave some of it on there, though, to insulate it.

Some.

Very cold.

Wind chills as low as ten below zero expected.

Where in Pennsylvania Higher elevations of higher elevations of Westmoreland.

Winter storm warning remains in effect until 1 p.m.

Sunday.

The cold wind chills as low as ten below zero could result in hypothermia.

If precautions are not taken.

Still coming down.

It's 2:30 in the morning and sounds like it's still snowing out there.

Fire's been out for a while, so I have this door shut.

Ten degrees out there.

Morning.

It's cold.

Try out this electric heater before I go out there.

It's got my power bank here.

Charge my stuff with.

I'm not going to be able to run this heater for very long, because it really eats up the power fast.

With a fully charged power bank, I can only get about two hours of runtime.

This doesn't put out a ton of heat, but it's better than nothing.

Definitely going to insulate this better at some point.

I also going to work on this door.

It's kind of flimsy when it's shut.

The sides kind of flare out a little bit.

Well, it's 54 degrees in here and climbing with the heater going eight nine degrees outside, so it's not bad.

All right, let's go out into the cold.

It's snowing again.

It's beautiful out here.

Well, let's go cut some more firewood.

Get a fire going.

Get warmed up and heat some of that soup up too.

A little birch bark.

Hand warmers.

My gloves.

Make some nice and warm.

Let's go get some more firewood.

I slept pretty good last night.

As long as you have a good sleeping pad and a sleeping bag, you're going to be in good shape.

I got up early in the morning, poked my head out.

It was brutally cold, so I just went back in the shelter, closed the door.

Didn't really feel like dealing with it yet.

Slept for an hour or two longer.

It's always the worst.

Getting up in the morning.

Got to get out of your sleeping bag.

Out of your tent.

You haven't really gotten the blood flowing yet.

Then you feel better after you get a good fire going.

Sun's coming out.

Let me get that soup warmed up.

I'm getting hungry.

Yeah.

One more deer stick.

It's about ready.

I highly recommend.

It's really good.

Really easy to make too.

So good.

Stopped snowing for a while.

Now it's snowing again.

Very peaceful out here.

Saying about seven degrees out here.

Usually it warms up as the day goes on.

Today it's doing the opposite.

Good bit of snow on top of the shelter, and it didn't collapse.

Nice and sturdy.

So I'm pretty happy with the shelter.

Make a few changes to it.

Well, it's about time for me to get out of here.

So nice thing is, I don't have to take a tent down or anything.

A lot of my gear.

I just threw in the shelter, and we're going to get out of here.

Now, a little dusting to do.

Hope you guys enjoyed the video.

Thanks for watching and join me in my next one.