She found hunting was easy when all you had to do was look at something to kill it. She lived almost comfortably on dried meat and berries that her senses determined weren't poisonous. She found a couple of trees close enough together that she could make a basic treehouse out of them, connecting the branches with a crudely tied platform of sticks and vines. She hadn't fallen in the few nights she'd spent there, so she guessed she did something right in the creation of the platform. Her next task was to create a ceiling, to keep her dry. She only has a month until the beginning of fall. She'll need a way of keeping dry and warm in the upcoming months if she wants to live through the blistering winter.
Finding branches that would create the frame to the ceiling was easy. Most were provided by the trees she's making her shelter in; others were found in other trees. It was finding leaves that could be woven together to become the waterproof ceiling that was hard. She had found some that were properly waterproof, but those weren't flexible enough to be woven together. She'd found flexible leaves that could be woven together, but those didn't keep water out well enough.
Her solution was to weave the flexible leaves together, then add the waterproof leaves. This way, the layered leaves would keep water out of her shelter while retaining the structure of her shelter. A few supporting sticks were added to keep the ceiling from bowing and help strengthen it in preparation for the inevitable snow. She'd also used woven leaves to create walls to protect her from the chilling wind. Animal pelts were piled against the walls to help keep her warm.
Warmth during winter still isn't secured, but that's what she's tackling now. She'd experimented with fire before. She knows if she does it properly, she can warm her shelter with a fire under her shelter. Keeping firewood dry and having a place to put the fire is what will be the true struggle. Winter wind would blow snow under her shelter. The only way to easily prevent that from happening would be to create walls under her shelter to keep the snow out and heat in, and firewood wouldn't be able to be stored under there. Another way would be to dig out an area under her shelter, using the dirt and mud to create bricks which she could use to create the fireplace and a wood storage rack as well as walls to keep snow and rain out. It would work better than the leaf walls the first idea had, and she'd be able to expand to store more if she digs out space.
With nothing but a crudely made shovel to dig with, it took her a week to dig out the pit under her shelter. She packed the dirt and mud she got from digging the pit into bricks, laying them out into walls around the pit, using extra mud to make sure that there aren't any cracks. She makes a door woven out of leaves with brick walls to the sides and a smaller ceiling above it to keep snow out.
Now, a day before fall begins, she's carefully getting more food to ensure she won't starve during winter. Dried meats and berries have carried her this far. She can only hope they'd carry her further.
Another threat that she'd have to face is after-winter floods. The area gets enough snow to raise water levels in the area by up to ten inches. The flood would, if she doesn't keep up on moving snow, flood her storage and fire area. To prevent this, she needs to keep the snow away and make a trench around her shelter. Hoisting a crude bag filled with mud onto her back, she grunts. Her preparations for winter are almost done. Now, all she has to do is wait and hope she has enough wood saved to last the winter.
The mud from the trenches gets used to add to the walls around the storage area, making sure that the heat from the fire doesn't cause snow to melt and get water in her storage and firewood area. She also uses the mud bricks to create a bridge frame across the trench. Climbing out of the deep trench to get food is hard and leaves her covered in dirt. If she creates a bridge, crossing would be easier and she wouldn't have to worry about her food getting dirty when she returns to her shelter. Getting into her shelter is easier than getting out, as her trench creates a slope around her shelter while the side away from her shelter is a vertical wall, almost, with some mud and dirt used to raise the area to prevent melted snow from filling the trench from the outside.
She completes the bridge with sticks and leaves, using the sticks as a hard surface under woven leaves that are waterproof and prevent her feet from slipping even when they are wet. The leaves would also help keep the branches from rotting, as they'd keep water from reaching the branches. Leaves around these areas decay slowly. She can find leaves from at least three years prior lying around on the ground, only just starting to turn red. Leaves fall yearly, if only to allow the trees they were on to keep growing, but they are often bright green when they fall. Most leaves are built almost elastically, slightly stretchy to compensate for the water freezing within the leaf. The leaves provide water for herbivores in the dry season of summer, when many water holes are circled by predators hoping to snag a meal. The leaves are what she relies on for water, when she is too focused on work to fill her makeshift waterskin. Breaking the leaves the right way allows her to get the water within, and the leaves themselves are nutritious as well, so she doesn't have to carry food around with her while she works.
A groan escapes her as she realizes she still needs to chop some firewood. She's still using crude tools, so chopping the wood takes a lot of effort to do. If she were using actual tools, she'd already have enough wood for winter. Since she isn't, it takes her twice as long to chop the wood as it would have if she had the proper tools. Her energy reserves may be improving as time progresses, as her stamina gets better and better from her hard work. but chopping firewood takes a lot of effort just to gather it and bring it to her shelter. Then, to cut it small enough to store effectively takes even more effort. Luckily, she's very determined. In only a week, she'd gathered enough wood to get her through even the coldest winter nights.
