Chad Zuber

I begin a new wilderness adventure, searching for resources and a hut site while surviving with handmade tools, minimal food, improvised shelter, and primitive fire-making.

On day two of my wilderness adventure, I find key resources and use primitive tools to prepare for building a new hut while surviving with minimal supplies.

I continue exploring the wilderness, making a simple shelter, finding wild food, and discovering clay, all while searching for the perfect spot for a new settlement.

I move closer to the perfect hut location, relocate my camp, build a primitive shelter, discover clay for bricks, and struggle to make a friction fire to survive the night.

With food running low, I make primitive fishing tools, then unexpectedly hunt and prepare a cottontail rabbit while gathering materials for future survival projects.

After choosing my settlement site, I begin making adobe bricks to build structures that stay cool in summer and warm in winter, improving long-term survival.

The weather turns rainy, so I build a primitive roof using natural materials and bushcraft skills to stay dry and prepare for building my adobe hut.

Upgrading my shelter to a comfortable adobe hut is slow and exhausting, slowed by rain, but I focus on survival tasks like making fish traps to improve my diet.

I harvest wild greens and palo verde seeds to make a nutritious soup and nearly finish my adobe shelter with a juniper roof before starting the new hut.

I hike to the stream to collect yucca fibers and finish my fish trap, but adapt my plans when nature presents an unexpected new opportunity.

I tear down my original shelter to build a new one around the finished rocket mass heater, giving me a chance to test its effectiveness while improving my setup.

At eight bricks per hour, my adobe hut slowly takes shape. With winter approaching, I consider finishing the roof first to shelter in before completing walls and details in spring.

I build a roof for my adobe hut using juniper, desert willow, and 100 feet of yucca cordage, creating a warm winter shelter and learning skills for spring construction.

I cover my adobe hut’s roof with juniper bark, testing its ability to keep heat in and rain out after completing the frame, using abundant local materials.

I explore a primitive method of shaving the male beard and mustache, discovering what it was like for ancient cultures to remove facial hair.

My adobe hut roof faces its first test during a snowstorm, trapping heat and protecting the interior as the desert is blanketed in several inches of snow.

I test primitive fishing methods, using cactus thorn hooks and fish traps, learning through trial and error how ancient techniques can improve my chances of catching fish.

After a year of making bricks and pausing for winter, I finally have enough to finish my adobe hut and focus on improving life on this land.

I showcase the primitive bushcraft and foraging skills used to build an adobe hut in the harsh high desert, adapting to heat, cold, arid conditions, and scarce food.