we're building a teepee

[art]

At the moment the children and I are building a teepee. Our 6 acres is plagued with sweetgum trees that do well long enough to get really huge and then blow down causing all kinds of problems. A massive one blocked our driveway after hurricane Ivan a few years ago. So, I decided to start getting rid of sweetgums. The children and I went out one afternoon recently and cut down 3 about 18 feet tall, lashed the tops together, and set up our teepee frame out in our field. The base of each pole is about 15 feet from the others so when we get it covered with tarps we should all be able to camp in it. We also love fishing and hiking in the Smoky Mountains mainly in the Townsend/Cades Cove area.

[benshelpmeet]

Bro Art,

This Tee Pee you are building sounds like great family Fun! I'd love to see it. Please post pictures if you can. What color of tarps are you using? Can you build a fire inside?

[art]

Sister Darlene,

I don't have a photo bucket account or a clue how to use one but I'll try to remember tomorrow to take a picture of our frame with one of the children standing under it for size reference and e-mail it to you if you don't mind. As yet, we don't have any tarps on it...just a frame. We checked walmart a couple of weeks ago but all they had were bright blue tarps. I'm sure the children wouldn't mind camping in a bright blue tee pee but I was sort of hoping to find some tan colored tarps since I'll be seeing this thing in the middle of our field every time I look out the living room window. We have the smallest walmart in the world here (literally...I'm told it's really the smallest) so I thought maybe I would make the 20 min drive to a super center in a neighboring town and look for tan tarps. Maybe I can do that tomorrow but my day is already looking kind of over loaded. The jury is still out on the fire question. I'm not going to make up my mind on that one until the tarps are all on. There would be room enough I think for a fire in the middle with 3 or 4 people sitting around the edges but I don't think it will be roomy enough for a fire with 6 of us trying to sleep in there.

[benshelpmeet]

We saw a brown tarp at Home Depot but I'm not sure how big they are.

Hey! I just found this site!


www.tarpsplus.com/bbrowntarps.html

[art]

Sister Darlene,

Did you get the picture I e-mailed? That's our 8 year old son standing under the tee pee frame to provide some size reference.

Thanks for the tarp suggestions. I didn't make it to the supercenter yet but there is a Lowes across the street from it when I can get over that way so maybe they'll have something big enough. I checked out that web site for tarps plus and they do indeed have what we need. I'm not a big fan of ordering on-line or by phone (just old fashioned I guess) but if I don't find cheap tarps soon then we'll probably order from them.

Art

[benshelpmeet]

I never received your e-mail

[e-mail]

Please try again, I'd love to see it.