Where do you get the wooden poles for this pole-shelter? Even many suburbanites have "problem areas" near their property borders, where young trees are growing up wild, as brush. The source for your poles could well be just such an area. As a bonus, you'll be cleaning up the area at the same time, improving the looks of your yard.
Lacking such an area yourself, consider whether neighbors, friends, or relatives may have such an area on their land. Often, they'll be glad to have you offer to help "clean it up" by removing some brush. What's "brush" to them is "building material" to you, for this project! It doesn't matter what kinds of trees are available: all you need is some wood that will hold up through the winter.
Having located a wood-source, look for a straight sapling (a tree about 3" - 4" in diameter) with a sturdy branch 8'or more above the ground. Cut the tree down.
With the felled tree in a horizontal position, you can now fashion your pole, by making 3 cuts:
- Measure 8' from where the branch that you chose meets the trunk, down towards the base of the tree. Cut off the excess wood (whatever exceeds the 8' that you need).
- Similarly, go back to the branch that will be forming the "fork," measure from where it meets the trunk out 8", and trim the branch there.
- Roughly across from cut #2, cut off the rest of the trunk.
Repeat this operation on 3 more trees, since we need a total of 4 vertical poles. On Page 3 we gather the crosspieces....
