My tipi

[Gypsy Jane]

Spirituallifetime asked me to do a post about my TIPI. It's actually my second one. I wore out an 18 foot lodge, used other kinds of lodges, then got my second tipi, a 14 foot one, the summer before last. Besides doing lots and lots of living history events, I've lived in tipi foot a winter in Virginia and a summer in Georgia. What do you want to know?

 

[Patrick46]

Pictures Jane.

We Need PICTURES!!


welcome to the asylum!

 

[Konaexpress]

Yep!

John

 

[Gypsy Jane]

 

[Spirituallifetime]

I've spent the last couple of summers in a tent just to be closer to nature and actually slept better. I was thinking a tipi would holdup better in the wind and last longer. My Coleman tent I would have to take down if storms with high winds were coming, this was very inconvenient. And I was wondering how difficult it is to transport a tipi, I was thinking a 12 or 14 foot might be best.

 

[Gypsy Jane]

I carry my poles on an extended E350 van, but I've seen them carried on minivans and even a Subaru wagon. My 18 footer had 17 poles, 15 of which were 24 feet long. The 14 foot one has 14 poles, 12 of which are 20 feet long. (The other two poles are shorter, for the smoke flaps.) Tipis are pretty stable in wind if pitched correctly, and have other advantages, like that indoor fire. They take a while to set up but are not difficult. I do it alone and I'm no athlete. Where are you? If you go to a living history event where some folks have Tipis, they are generally happy to show them off.

 

[highdesertranger]

that's very cool, nice camp. can we get some more pics and details? like do you have a floor? do you have a fire inside? double wall? length of poles? highdesertranger

 

[Gypsy Jane]

No more pics til I'm on my computer. I usually put cheap painters tarps and genuine wool rugs on the floor. Water passes through them and doesn't puddle. Wool rugs don't burn easily and have saved my life. Yes I have a fire inside. That's kind of the point of living in a tent with a hole in the roof. Yes, there is a liner, which goes up about nose high.

 

[Spirituallifetime]

I'm in Northern Nevada 30 miles out of Elko. Summer temps get to 100 but the nights cool off quickly to about 50. Wind can get strong at times with no trees to block it.

 

[NeedAnEscape]

With the hole in the roof, how dry does it stay inside? Does the rain mostly stay in the middle, since the sides block the wind?

 

[Gypsy Jane]

IF it's set up right, the flaps are set correctly for current conditions, and your poles are smooth, rain is mostly deflected by the smoke flaps or evaporated by the fire. That said, I've taken the occasional unplanned shower. Water will follow the poles to behind the liner unless it hits a nick or rough spot. Poles carried on roof racks tend to have those. Sit happens.

 

[Konaexpress]

Are the sides tarp too or are they some kind of oil cloth? Did you make it yourself or did you buy it? Enquirering minds want to know.

John

 

[Gypsy Jane]

The cover, liner, and door are all Sunforger canvas. I bought it from Panther Primitives in Normantown WV.

 

[Konaexpress]

I'm guessing this is some kind of treated canvas then? We had canvas tents in the military, if you touched them in a rainstorm, they would leek like a small faucet in that spot. We would sometimes touch it over someone's head and listen for the screams and cussing! Funny as all-get-out until they figured out who the culprit was?  Then there would be reall screaming and a good old leg race to boot!

John

 

[Gypsy Jane]

My fire in the tipi.

 

[Gypsy Jane]

On Sunforger:
http://www.tradersoftamerlane.com/tents/canvas.htm

 

[Konaexpress]

Well that's pretty dang cool! I have to check this out. (thumbs up!)

John

 

[Spirituallifetime]

Where do you setup your tipi and how do find places to set it up, on private land or public land? If I get a tipi I would like to keep it up for a month or more at a time, I have to work so can't move around much.

 

[Gypsy Jane]

Where do you setup your tipi and how do find places to set it up, on private land or public land? If I get a tipi I would like to keep it up for a month or more at a time, I have to work so can't move around much.

I mostly set it up at eighteenth century living history camping events called Rendezvous sometimes I set up in a friend's yard like I did in that picture. I've never set it up in a camp ground, but when I was a camp host a camper did set one up. Turned out to be a friend of a friend. I'm in the east. Out west it might be easier, and better weather in some places too. It's kind of wet in the east, which is why they were a Plains thing.

 

[highdesertranger]

I really like your fire ring. got a story on it, homemade? store bought? got a link? highdesertranger