Nature Daddy

Nature Daddy Bushcraft, survival and outdoor adventure from Alberta, Canada. Field tested gear. Real trips. Shelter builds, fire craft, hunting and fishing.
(4)

08/06/2026

first hot meal in the shelter we built by hand.

got the fire going with one strike and let it burn down to coals before the pot went on. water boiled, pasta in, fed two of us hot inside walls i stacked stone by stone. food tastes different out here. it always does.

do you cook straight over the flame or wait for the coals to settle?

06/06/2026

a shelter is only as solid as the ground under it.

no music on this one. just the shovel biting dirt, the thud of the posts going down, and the bark peeling off in long strips. the foundation work nobody films, because it is the part holding everything else up.

every survival shelter starts here. level the ground, set the posts, earn the frame.

what sound does it for you, the shovel or the posts going in?

06/06/2026

rounded the bend and the meadow was full of elk.

waskesiu does this in the early evening. you go quiet, you slow your steps, and the bush hands you something you did not earn. prince albert national park up in northern saskatchewan is thick with them this time of year.

no music on this one. nothing would have touched it.

ever had a herd stop you dead on the trail?

05/06/2026

jasper does not feel real until you are on the water.

paddled out across maligne lake with the peaks dropping straight to the shoreline. stood under athabasca falls and caught the spray coming off the canyon wall. wandered the valley of the five lakes and watched the water shift from green to deep blue, lake to lake. some country you just have to move through slow to take it in.

which one would you put on your list first?

04/06/2026

the a-frame posts are finally in the ground.

cut the trees ourselves, stripped the bark down, then dug every hole by hand. set each post and braced it before backfilling. that is the part nobody sees in the finished shelter but it is the part holding everything else up.

a shelter is only as solid as what you put under it.

what would you set first if you had the site and the time?

04/06/2026

snow outside, fire inside.
coming up to the shelter cabin never gets old. we came through the new door, knocked the cold off our boots, and got a fire going to warm the place up. by the time the stove caught the whole cabin felt like a different world from the white quiet outside. winter shelter life is hard to beat when the wood is dry and the walls hold the heat.
what is the first thing you do when you reach camp in the cold?

04/06/2026

steak on the grill, tortellini in the pot, all of it over the fire.

cooked the whole dinner inside the shelter tonight. steak seared straight over the coals, pasta in the pot right beside it. nothing fancy. just hot food and a roof we put up with our own hands. sat down inside when it was done and ate where we built.

food tastes better when the walls around you came out of the same woods.

what is the best thing you have ever cooked over an open fire?

03/06/2026

three years on, the roof finally came off.

the original held through three winters of cabin adventures, but it earned an upgrade. we stripped the old tarp, cut twice as many logs for the frame, secured them in place, and laid a fresh tarp over top. this bushcraft shelter roof is twice as strong as the first build and holds heat far better. that is how shelter building goes. you learn what works by living under it, then you build the next one better.

here is to another three years.

what would you have changed on the rebuild?

03/06/2026

the first layer holds up everything above it.

started with gravel to level the ground flat. no flat base, no wall. then rolled each rock into place and dry fit the whole course before locking anything down. smaller rock and more gravel pack the gaps and hold the line. get this layer right and the rest of the stone wall goes up clean.

this is the base of the a frame bushcraft shelter build. slow work, but it pays off every layer after.

what would you set your first course on, gravel or bare dirt?

03/06/2026

75 rocks hauled. that builds one wall.

some of these stones run close to 200 pounds. no machine gets back this deep in the bush so we rolled and hauled them in by hand, a few of them a full 300 feet to the site. this is the half wall the a frame bushcraft shelter sits on, and it is going to take weeks of this. hard work, but the shelter will be worth every stone.

what is the heaviest thing you have ever moved on a build?

Address


Website

https://www.naturedaddy.store/, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JSf0imrkCM

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Nature Daddy posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

  • Want your business to be the top-listed Shop?

Share