Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Setting up a tipi

A call went up to help a man from Idaho set up his tipi. Steven was among several who headed out itno the rain and mud to help. I slogged along with my camera, since I'd never seen a tipi being set up. The tipi poles were 27' long. He tied three together about 1/4 of the way down from their tops.
With two of them parallel and the third one across from it, and a rope hanging down from where they were tied together, the men pulled them upright.
They spread the poles so it would balance.
Then the remaining poles were leaned up against the three to complete the circle, a total of 18 poles.
Slick, heavy, wet poles! It rained a steady light rain the whole time.
The tipi cover was attached to another pole and raised into place.
Then the cover was pulled around the poles.
The dinner bell rang (or in this case, the dinner "horn" blew!), so we left the tipi project and went to the Mess tent. Dinner was hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, potato salad, macaroni salad, and pop. Everyone ate standing around under the tarps, then scurried through the pouring rain to their tents. Steven went back to the tipi to help lace up the cover and peg it down.
The tipi belongs to George, who was here with his dog, Gilbert, to teach brain-tanning and snaring. He's a full-time trapper and lives part of the year in a tipi to run his trap line. Here's his tipi the next day:
We we returned to our tent for the night we hung our coats, clothes, shoes, and socks under the tarp-breezeway and in the tent, to dry. We were lulled to sleep by the sound of rain overhead, and woke to the same sound!







No comments:

Post a Comment