With the picture above in my mind, ingrained into my memory from reading various outdoors, survival, camping style books - on a whim I took a pile of dead branches from some recently cut trees, and started constructing a make shift Leslie style lean to!
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I lucked out cause some kids showed up when I was partly started and begin helping me by carrying, cutting, and building the primitive shelter too. (That is my sister's kid Cam, my cousin's kid Stephanie, and then last in the pic is me. I know I am the same size as kids.)
I am using a live tree for the 'backbone' of the shelter that is leaning all the way to the ground, making a perfect beam for an A-frame type of debris shelter. The A-frame shape is my favorite kind and I have always wanted to try it out!In the pic below you can see I even began a small door on the side, so it could have more then one entrance, and just to see how it would work out. Pretty neat! :)
After a few hours the kids left and I was back into it by myself - loading on thick branches for good structure and lots of little ones in between. I tried to have the biggest ones go all the way over, or at least to the top of the 'backbone'. 
