Some of you will find it difficult to locate a good spot for your camp or cabin. A possible solution may be found in our national forests. If you write to the officer in charge of a particular forest, he will give you information regarding available sites. If you don't know who your nearest forest officer is, write to the National Park Service, Department of the Interior, Washington 25, D.C.

A permit to build in one of our national forests usually stipulates that you will make improvements costing at least five hundred dollars including labor. In order to avoid the erection of unsightly shacks, it is specified that only one cabin can be constructed on a lot. Each applicant must submit his plans for approval before a permit will be issued. Permanent construction must be completed by the second season after the permit is issued.

The Forest Service requires that the construction be done in a workmanlike manner; substantial floors, roofs, doors, and windows must be installed. The buildings must be in harmony with the surrounding landscape. In a large colony you may be required to install a chemical toilet or septic tank and have a piped water system or other improvements. Be sure to ask about these things before you go too far.

If you decide to build in one of the national forests, you will find that a good deal of the site selection has been done for you by the Forest Service.

If you build on a hillside or slope and if the rainfall is heavy you may have to install a watershed. A shallow ditch or low wall is all you will need to keep the water from running into your cabin.

		In picking your site you will want to consider the matter of good roads. Your cottage doesn't have to be on a main highway, but you will want to be able to reach your property conveniently. You will have to get supplies—and there is always that emergency. If you decide to build a beach house, don't build too close to the water. Ocean storms often drive the water a considerable distance inland. Be sure to get expert advice regarding the safety of your location. If the coastline is rocky, it is usually a good idea to keep your cottage back from the water as far as the shrub growth. Usually this line is a safe distance from waves. Orientation Regardless of where you decide to build your camp or cabin, there are some things you can do to improve the climate around your cottage.

In summer, the best orientation for the large glass areas of your camp or cabin would be about 20 degrees west of south. If your view is due west or north, the best thing you can do is to improve the surroundings so that the climate around your camp will be as comfortable as possible. This may call for building walls or screens or planting natural hedges.

Lakes, rivers, and ponds can have a cooling effect on your camp. Water is an evaporator cooler. Wind or air moving over its surface (during the summer) is cooled and moves out over the surface of the land. The air on land is heated and rises. The vacuum left by the air that was over the water pulls the hot air above it down onto the water. This cycle is an almost continuous operation. The cool air path that moves outward from a body of water is only about 50 to 100 feet deep. Therefore, if you have a choice, it would be wise to locate your camp not too far back from the water and not over 50 feet above the surface of the lake.

There are other factors to consider in orienting your house. In summer the sun rises
in the northeast and sets in the northwest. The hottest sun is between 3 and 5 p.m.—the time of day when you really begin to feel the heat. If the glass areas and porches or terraces are located so that they are not washed by the sun, you will have a cooler and more comfortable cottage.

One of the most obvious approaches to climate control is the screening of sunlight. Trees, of course, are very helpful. They are usually above the roof of your camp and serve as an umbrella to keep the sunlight off the roof and terraces. Bushes and shrubs can also be helpful.

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