Shelter

Last night we picked up a canvas wall tent off Craigslist. This is a huge heavy duty army issue tent from the 1960's. It is 16x16 and weighs about 250lbs. It came with a wooden door and a small wood stove. My understanding is that people around here use these tents as semi-permanent hunting shelters. They are very warm and can be used almost all year round. We are going to build a wooden platform for it as well as a wooden frame so it can be left up most of the year. Making this into a usable shelter will certainly be our first construction challenge. This is the photo of the tent that was on Craigslist.

This is what Ray brought home. . .


Here is the little stove that came with it.


The whole set-up is pretty cool because it was mostly handmade. The family that was getting rid of it had been using it forever and gave us great tips on how to set it up correctly and keep it in good working order. They even gave us this neat wooden chest they had built to store it in. We're not planning on using it right away. I want to give it a good scrubbing and Ray needs to repair a few of the parts. While we're at camp this weekend, we will choose a site for it. Hopefully, the next time we go up, we can build the platform and set it up in it's permanent home. Ray loves it and keeps saying how it's just like MASH. I love it and say it will be just like Out of Africa. I envision 4 cots in there with mosquito netting fluttering over them as well as a small table and chairs with a little lantern hissing cheerfully in the evenings. Thor says he would like to use it as a stable for the horse we going to keep at Camp Freedom. Guthrie is excited to cook a steak over the wood stove. We each have our own fantasies about what this adventure is. Luckily, so far, there is enough overlap between those fantasies to keep us all happy. In the meantime, hopefully, this will become a comfortable home base for us while we work on the rest of our projects.