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Make a snow cave - PEM BB traditional.straw.cave

posted 12 hours ago
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This is a badge bit (BB) that is part of the PEM curriculum.  Completing this BB is part of getting the Straw badge in Traditional Skills.

You may find yourself away from home in the winter and in need of temporary emergency shelter.  Let's build a snow cave!

 
 

Here's one way to do it:


Minimum requirements:
  - Make a snow cave
  - Virgin snow or piled up
  - Sleeping platform for at least 1 adult
  - Air vent
  - Anti-drip curved ceiling
  - Not where a passing snow plow can cover the opening
  - This bb can only use materials that existed 200 years ago

Provide proof of the following as pictures or video (<2 min):
  - Place where the snow cave will be
  - Several progress points during excavation
  - Finished snow cave from inside and outside
  - Show an adult can fit on the sleeping platform
COMMENTS:
 
Kevin Olson
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posted 4 hours ago
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Mike Haasl wrote:
  - This bb can only use materials that existed 200 years ago



For clarification, does this include the tools used in its construction, or just the final product?

I have a (bought used, off FB Marketplace) Icebox igloo maker slip form system, which I have not yet used "in anger".  It is made of plastic and aluminum tubing (with a few steel fasteners).  It is no more permanent than a shovel to the eventual structure, however.  It's just a form system to assure a proper catenary dome for maximum structural strength and stability.

For reference, here's the commercial link:
https://skipulk.com/product/icebox-igloo-tool/


Despite the fact that this September has been some of the nicest summer we've had all year, I know that winter is rapidly approaching...

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Or what's a heaven for?"
Andrea del Sarto by Robert Browning

 
Mike Haasl
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posted 1 hour ago
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I guess that would be ok.  A good way to think of it is that the materials have to be traditional, the tools and equipment don't.  

So if you're building a birch bark canoe, the parts that make up the canoe all have to be historical, but you can use a cordless drill to poke holes and a plastic bucket to hold pine tar.  If you want.  

SKIP books, get 'em while they're hot!!! Skills to Inherit Property
See me in a movie building a massive wood staircase:Low Tech Lab Movie

 
Kevin Olson
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posted 52 minutes ago
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Thanks for clarifying.

I haven't gotten into doing badge bits, yet.  I've never been much of a "ticket puncher," I guess - more interested in acquiring skills and producing final products, or helping someone else do the same.  I was that way, even in Boy Scouts.  But, lots of stuff I do would probably qualify for BBs, with a bit of forethought to be sure I'm not transgressing the rules.  Maybe this would be a good place to start.

Thanks again.

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?"
Andrea del Sarto by Robert Browning

 
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