TeePee Time

Friday night's air was vibrating with drumming as the Ashdown Grove met for their monthly meditation night. Some stayed, some went home. Some stayed up and chatted, some tried to sleep but all were woken by the thunderstorms piercing daylight into the night. Invigorating, exciting, wet.

Saturday six adults and twho children woke with hearts lifted and bodies cooler - this is the hottest summer for many years with some of the highest temperatures recorded for July but today we had some reprieve from the heat in the damp woodland.

We started to clear the camp. First the tents were moved to a new location, and then some trees had to be felled and cleared to open up the clearing to about 20ft wide to allow for the teepee. Then the poles which were stripped some weeks ago were smoothed by removing remaining branches and knots. The day passed quickly and the four remaining adults decided to sleep in the temporary shelter for the night as it was to be taken down the next day. A drink unduced sleep followed.

Teepee Day: After struggling out of bed on Sunday morning, the shelter was dismantled and the ground prepared for the erection of the Teepee. None of us have experience or training on how to build teepees so this really was going to be a challenging day! A friendly face turned up just in time to help which made us five. So, with the three main poles tied together and the two parachute covers hooked over the top we started to raise the A-frame shape. We had put string loops around the parachutes to keep them from falling down the poles and swamping those beneath, however, this was quickly realised to be a mistake because once the frame was up, we couldn't release the parachutes to fall into place so we had to lower the whole structure again .

The second erection was going well and we got the structure stable again but his time the strings in the middle of the parachutes were restricting the chimney hole too much so we lowered the legs to try and get it low enough to cut the strings but in doing so one of the poles snapped and the structure gracefully fell to ground once more.

The third attempt, with a new pole tied in, worked without a hitch, and it only took four of us on that attempt too. Amazed and reinspired by our success we inserted all the other poles one by one around the structure, carefully knitting the tops in together. After adjustment of the legs in diameter we filled the clearing with the TeePee and the cross words, sweat and exhaustian were gone with a sigh of relief and an amazing sense of achievement.

Work continues.....

In the dappled shade four of us set to work to cut down and strip the rest of the poles for the Tipee - 12 in total. We talked and discussed about where and how and when and decided to just expand the space that is there currently by taking down a few selected week trees. By nature of the woodland there are a lot of trees that have grown tall and thin just to reach the canopy which are week and need thinning out. None of the wood will go to waste that's for sure.

So, in a couple of weeks we will be clearing the area where the camp is currently and erecting our 20ft wide tipee which will provide enough space to have a fire safely for cooking and keeping warm on cold winter days and to store tools and season wood for the winter.

Because the tipee is a temporary structure and can easily be taken down and put up again, and because it will be covered in olive green parachuts (2 layers) and is for storeage and woodland management purposes it does sit well within the law for structures on woodland.

We are off to a camp this weekend in Wales and I have printed off leaflets and flyers for the woodland and the events which we have planned for the future, so I hope there will be some interest and possibly even bookings.

A jouryney begins

www.morganswood.co.uk

The purpose of this blog is to keep a diary of Morgans Wood. I plan to keep a diary of the progress made, events, happy days and holidays together with information on work done to the woodland and it's evolution.

We bought Morgans Wood only five weeks ago on the 26th May and already there is a website set up, a fully functioning camp with shelter, central fire, kitchen area, and even a compost toilet have been installed all with the help of our very special friends. The first trees have been carefully selected and felled to provide some of our winter store of fuel and poles for our first home built tipee for overwinter shelter and storeage.

Initial outlay thus far has been quite high, but we did anticipate that with needing new tools (including a chainsaw and safety equipment), parachutes for the shelter, kettle, thunder box supplies, tarpaulines for the kitchen and wood pile, rope, string, fuel for chainsaw and hurricane lanterns and website set up.

We have been really lucky with the weather so far and whilst the rest of the country swelter in 33 degree heat, the wonderful trees keep us cooler and sun safe as we work and play - blissful.

We do get time to relax and try and work as much as our bodies will allow, and stop when we need a break and rest in hammocks gazing into the tree canopy with a cold beer resting on a tree stump at an arms reach.

Looking forward to the weekend already.....