Ding-ding-ding! We have a winner! The debris shelter is on my land, and it is not illegal nor unethical nor evil for a family to practice shelter building on their OWN LAND. In fact, I would be allowed by law to cut down a bunch of trees and use them to build a cabin (helluva shelter building exercise, there!)...Oh, actually we have a cabin there, built of WOOD! Not deadfall! Where are all the trees now? Oh, that's right, more trees grow every year. It's really weird. When one dies from old age...er, being viciously cut down, more pop up right by the dead one. It's like some type of circle of life thing or something. We've also been known to (gasp) cut down a tree for Christmas every year. Sometimes even two (for a less-advantaged home) HORRORS! Oh, I'm sorry, did I spell Christmas out???? How offensive! But we do have a pagan rite before we do the evil deed, with offerings of herbal essence and smoked peyote embers cast to the four winds. Praise Gaia!

And about 10 years ago, the loggers came through and CLEAR CUT about 10 acres of our 40 acres. I bet they wore eye patches and have the number 666 tattooed in their scalp. HORRORS! To provide wood for homes to keep people warm! Evil, I say, evil! Spike the trees, sit in them, do what you must to protect the innocent boughs from the wrath of the chainsaws! Except...hmmm... that clearcut swath is now the NICEST LOOKING FOREST ON MY LAND. Just like before, more trees appeared out of nowhere (must have been some sweet environmentalists dressed as dryads and sprites who came at midnight to sprinkle fairy dust and lodgepole pine cones) I SWEAR I didn't plant them. We've been trying to keep a clear space of grass open for years, and y'know, those damn trees just keep encroaching! It's like they *want* to grow and reproduce or something. Weird. If someone can please explain how/why these trees keep coming back and growing in ever greater numbers on my land, I'd love to know. I was taught at PC university that whenever a tree is cut down, a silent scream pierces the air, life ends and the forest dies. I actually heard a scream once when I was cutting one down, but it was me when I dropped the chainsaw on my blasted foot.

Oh, and the ridgepole should have been longer. (To keep it on a survival forum thread)