The Floor plan

Here is the basic floor plan of the hut. The inner circle is our basic frame made of maple saplings bent over and tied together using basswood bark and grape vine woven for added support. The secondary wall is the same general idea, but constructed very differently. The black circles represent large maple poles that were sunk 1-2 feet into the ground, theses poles are roughly 6 inches in diameter and range from 15-20 feet long. Once the poles are in and angled toward the center you can start to weave maple saplings in and out of the poles. As you start to weave your way up the hut it is important to have a higher concentration of saplings on the bottom where there will be the greatest weight and better chance for the mud to fall through the cracks. As you get higher on the wall you can start spacing the saplings out more and more. As you are building your second wall of saplings up you can start to add your mud or what ever insulating material you plan on using. This space between the walls is what makes this hut work, having that gap to trap air in and keep wind out is the reason why the warm air inside will stay in and the cold will stay out.