30 Days of Wildness – Day 21 – Finishing the Den

Day 21 of the 30 Day Challenge found us going back to finish our shelter we had started on Day 18 (Shelter Building – Part 1).

I had to trim a rather overgrown Leylandii in our front garden and I voluntold the kids into helping me. They had to tell me if anyone was coming (the branches hung over the pavement) and transport the cuttings back into the garden.

Once that was sorted we started the laborious job of breaking of the branches so that they could be used for thatch for the den they were building.

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Trimming the Leylandii

Then it was a case of dragging all the cuttings into the back garden (It was just Catherine and myself at this stage as Finlay had headed off to Karate).

Once we got all the cuttings in the back garden Catherine and I leant some of the bigger branches against the frame to catch the cuttings (pointing upwards). The we started to weave in the cuttings (pointing downwards) to thatch it.

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Gathering and set up

There were plenty of holes in the thatch so Catherine went inside and would stick her little hand out where she could see sunlight. It was then my job to thatch it.

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Checking for holes

We laid a lot of sticks on the outside to hold all the thatch in place in case the wind gets up.

Finlay was back after 8 pm just in time to finish it off with a few extra additions

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Final touches

I think they have a proper little den to play in now for the next few days.

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A proper den

Cheers

George