There’s not much I can say with the written word that would outdo what you can see in the video below.
Suffice it to say we had lots of fun building the teepee frame. Jim Cluett, W1PID, was not feeling well that day and even still we completed the frame in just 45 minutes.
The teepee is on some land I own and has a great vista to the south. The plan was to take advantage of solar radiation inside the teepee much like a greenhouse gets abundant warmth on winter days from the sun.
Three days passed after we constructed the frame and we decided to try shipping plastic wrap to protect us from the wind. It did a pretty good job, but a solid sheet of plastic will be better. That’s what you’ll see in the next outing!
If you can get a hold of the book “The Indian Tipi” by Reginald Laubin it will tell you everything you need to know about constructing and raising a Tipi. To get a good fit you really need some gussets here and there and a little more than a semi- circle with a diameter aproximately the height of the crotch where the poles come together. You can actually make a cover out of several pieces of material a few feet wide that are “sewn” together. I had a canvas tipi for a while and toyed with the idea of making a new cover myself. the book tells you everything you need to know to do it.
Great idea – question – if you use a wider product to cover the pole, won’t it be more difficult to get a tight covering – I noticed with the saran wrap, there were quite a few gaps when circling your first attempt. – perhaps pulling the plastic sheets tighter as you go round the poles will work or what about using some plastic baler twine strung around the frame as you wrap it will help – get it at a New Holland dealer – just a thought from a farmer in Canada.
Doug, we’re going to use a solid sheet of plastic for TeePee 2.0. I completely GOOFED up in my estimation of the size sheet we needed. In my head, I thought we needed a piece 20 feet by 20 feet. To get that, you had to spend $90 on a 100-foot roll. In reality, we only need a piece that’s 10 x 20 to cover the frame. They do sell those smaller rolls of plastic for much less! What an idiot I was for not drawing it out first on paper.
The Code takes me back to my flying Navy days, early 60’s and I was a back-up radio operator. Not that ‘seasoned’ I often sent a QRS5, slow down to 5 wpm, which once earned me, I believe, a CWH, ‘Place a competent operator on the net.’ The regular operator used a Speed Key, sounded like teletype on the air!
You have an amazing aptitude for clever ideas and you’re entertaining as well. Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to you and Kathy and your family….enjoyed the teepee video….neat…..keep the neat videos coming…..would love to see a full picture of your home….looks like you have a real nice deck…..and I love that it is on the second floor…..I love being up high 🙂
Have question…looks like you wrapped the teepee all around, didn’t see you cut door to get in….looks like the wind would go thru the door and blow the teepee down LOL…..I’m sure you designed it so that wouldn’t happen right ?
I think I could have told you that using a large sheet of heavy duty plastic would be better that the plastic wrap you used !!!!How far down did you go with the poles and how did you anchor them down ???
Mona, the rear deck is about 12 feet off the ground and 45 feet above the lake water. Yes, we just squeezed between the layers of the plastic wrap. We’re going to use a solid sheet of plastic for TeePee 2.0. The poles don’t need to be anchored into the ground for what we’re doing. The wind won’t lift this out of the ground.
Nice video great idea. Have a nice Christmas.