I don't know how that happened, I think my daughter stopped by about then and I must have been distracted. Seeing that post listed when I checked the site this morning sure had me looking to see who else was testing one of these

Anyway, as Paul Harvey used to say, "Here's the rest of the story"....

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The day before yesterday I went down back and set up a "Super Shelter" like the one in this you tube video.

I made mine from a 10'x10' piece of 1 mil visqueen, two 6'x8' pieces of 3 mil visqueen, two Wal-Mart "Ozark Trails" mylar emergency blankets, and some duct tape and grommets.

The 10'x10' tarp, set on an angle to make a lean to, has a 5'x7' foot print and front opening. I used one of the 6'x8' pieces as a ground sheet and the other as a cover for the front opening. I taped the mylar sheets to the 10'x10' piece so they'd line the ceiling and part of the sides of the shelter. It's plenty big enough inside for two, and you both can lie down and sit up comfortably.

The shelter is easy to set up. Stake down the two rear corners and secure the front upper corners to sticks, trekking poles, or suspend them with a ridge line or guy lines to a tree, stake off the front lower corners, lay down the ground sheet, and attach the front cover to the front upper corners.

After sundown (about 6:00 pm) I built a fire in front of the shelter. It was about 45º then. I built the fire on top of a bed of 3"-4" thick branches and stacked them tightly together, laying increasingly thinner branches on top, crosswise with a little space between them, until the stack was about 10 inches high, then kindling and tinder on top of that. I lit the tinder on the top and let it burn down. This creates a long lasting fire and a thick bed of coals before it flames out.

By eight o`clock it was about 38º and getting a little chilly outside so I got into the shelter. I was pretty amazed at how warm it was in there. It's a nice, even heat inside it. Not like being outside and close to a campfire, where your backside is cold. I had my bubble foil sleeping pad with me and as it got later I laid down on that for awhile with no other pad or insulation, just the plastic ground sheet beneath it, and I was plenty warm in just my clothes. When I went back to the house about midnight it was down to 34º outside, but I was still toasty warm inside the shelter.

There's no doubt that you'd have to get up and stoke the fire several times during the course of the night to keep it warm, and depending on what you're burning that could be pretty often if you wanted to keep it toasty warm in there. But once you had some coals going it didn't take much fuel or a big fire to warm it up, and it didn't take long either.

Just before I went back to the house, as I was lying there getting heat from just the coals, I found how well a small LED flashlight lit the interior of the shelter. With all that reflective surface it produced an even light throughout the entire space.

I built this shelter with only the intent to test the concept, and it worked well enough that I am going to keep toying with it and testing it some more. It's certainly not for everywhere, or all the time, but it I think its a pretty good shelter design for most winter conditions here in the Ozarks and surely many other places too.

In any case, total cost was less than $15 for everything needed to make it and it's a fun project to play around with.