Too Close for Comfort?

Can you see him? Out there lurking in the thick brush?

Yep, that's him...

And he's B-I-G!

It may look like I scrambled up a tree to safety to keep some distance between myself and a hungry bear, but that wasn't the case ;)

These Black Bears are kept a safe distance from watchers thanks to a high walkway at Wildlife Safari near Mahoney State Park. The animal life is allowed to roam, and the people keep their distance.

Tipi Report - Cutting Begins!

Today we made the commitment of putting scissors to a very LARGE hunk of fabric - there's no turning back now!

BEFORE

AFTER

The 24' x 12' cover practically fills up my driveway, and makes use of two large canvas dropclothes joined end to end (which cuts down considerably on sewing!) Then after stretchinbg out my cnavas as flat as possible I simply determined the center line at the top edge, and from there measured out a length of string tied to a pencil to trace out the half circle shape of the bottom hem... the rest was snip-snip-snip.

I'd already preshrunk my fabic to offset the risk of my lodge going from a size 12' to a size 10'5", so the very bottom edge came up a bit short. I can use some of the extra material just trimmed off to sew on there.

Why a size 12' tipi? When many "experts" and manufacturers advise nothing less than 18'? Because 12' is right for the two of us - our plan is to eventually use this for camping (not "living"), it cuts down costs and construction (not to mention stress on an old sewing machine) and for now that's the plan I'll stick to.

I can only hope that Grandma's 60's era Sears Kenmore is up to the task of sewing the rest. So far a canvas sewing needle and the spool of outdoor UV resistent polyester thread I found at Walmart is doing the job. Now I'll need to do some basic hemming around all the edges to keep the material from fraying and reinforce the existing seams with an additional zig-zag stitch.

Face to Face

Whitetail

Tipi Report - Sew What?

Add Grandma's freshly lubed Sears Kenmore, a spool of UV resistent polyester thread and two large canvas sections measuring 24' long and what have you got?

A kidhood dream-come-true in the making!

Looks like my livingroom is going to be taken over by yards and yards of tent-making for the fore-seeable future.

American Bald Eagle

White Buffalo

Camping with the Scouts

This was a completely new experience for me - thousands of campers pitching tents bumper to bumper (while in the dark in our case!) and waking up to the strains "Revelry" ealy in the morning. But rather than have me tell you all about ScoutQuest 2010 held at Mahoney State Park, perhaps it's best to let Junior (Webelos 2 Scout) tell you himself in his own words:

October 8-10 was a special weekend. We went to ScoutQuest when we were camping. It was crowded with scouts and rides. All the scouts' flags were there. There were plays. We ate with our friends. And we played at camp.

We played dodge ball, shot a catapult, fought in the battle dome, and there was lots of stuff to buy at the scout shops. We saw people dressed as Indians, and even Gallagher! It was a lot of fun, can't wait tell next time.

And there you have it ;)

Medicine Pouch