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I made the wooden nails with a hatchet. We both lived in a tee pee for 3 full years.
The tee pee had a cracked pot belly wood stoce as the back reflector of the fire pit. The stove had just 2 sections of stove pipe apx 4 feet.
A tee pee IS a class act tent, as it has a cover, a inside liner which helps create a draft and in that one I made a ozan, which is a inner roof like structure much like a smoke shelf is in a fire place.
The bad part about a tee pee is the weight. You can ditch the poles and lug the cover and other parts, but they are all one man can lug.
One thing that has made me curious about tipis (or teepees / tee pee - depending on ones spelling preference) is whether they are cold down lower by the floor where you sleep. Seems the hot air would go up to the top, and the cold air would stay down by bunk level.
Although, on the other hand since tipis are lower in volume than a wall tent has (or cabin, or any other square-ish building), maybe the lower volume would negate that hot air rising / cold air sinks effect, because the whole thing would eventually just heat up right down to the floor level.
Yup sure is colder on the floor, damper too. The first 2 years I made a crude wooden bed with 4 posts and just rough cut boards. The last year I made a proper rope bed, but it takes a long rope.
Chairs are lean back type. A tripod fitted with willow back rests, that extend out where yer butt sits.
The tee pee liner is the key. This is a inner wall covering supported by a line. The set up is going aroun d clockwise from the door. The line is tied to the left door pole, and passed around the next pole and the one after that and again until you reach the right side door pole, as high as the liner is.
2 small sticks are placed in each pole loop to hold the line off the pole to the inside of the lodge. These are installed by tilting the sticks and rolling them into the already tight line. These are apx 3/8th" by 5 inch long sticks per pair, per pole, and allow the liner to stand off the poles and to allow rain water coming down the poles to pass.
Pole want no fuzzys of anything from a bad hack job in the peeling or dust bunnies stuck to the poles. Anything that hangs off the inside /underside of a tilted pole will m be a drip of water in rain.
But with the liner touching the earth and the outter covering not touching the earth, air moves into the heat, but then is forced up to the liner cover top edge and then the same in coming air turns downward towards the fire pit, over your head.
No tee pee will stay warm when the fire is out, hence the wood stove as a back of the fire pit reflector. The stove is in the fire pit somewhat in my set ups. The broken stove had a bad time keeping coals all night too. But it managed to keep enough coals buried in ashes I seldom had to start from no embers at all in winter.
In my camps there is always 2 fire pits if not 3. In summer it's hell to be trapped in a tee pee for cooking only, so I don't. I get another tarp and hang that as a summer kitchen set.
One fire is for light and the other is for coals to cook with.
In winter you have the open fire ahead of the bed and the stove for cooking as well.
All year long I maintained a metal 55 gallon barrel stove as well, mounted on old skis. I made a pan to fit for boiling maple sugar sap. I found a steel plate that didn't totally fit, to use as a grill, and filled the missing place with a for a Farm Mail box a really big mail box and could bake items in that.
By far the MOST important thing you need to start with is, a piece of land that you OWN. I had written in this forum before about a couple of homeless fellows I know, one of whom lives in a motor home, but he has no land and has a very hard time finding a place to park his rig. He is so stressed out, being always told to move along, that he doesn't get much sleep, even though he doesn't work. So yes, owning some land somewhere definitely comes first!
In all of our investigations, we have come back to the same conclusion: the fastest, cheapest, most fireproof and waterproof structure to place on a piece of empty land is a ground-level storage container (CONEX). They rent for $70-100 per month, or you can buy one for $3-4,000. Pretty cheap rent. 8 x 20' is 160 sq ft and 8 x 40' is 320 sq ft.
Not very pretty but then no one would suspect anyone lives there. If painted dark gray or dark tan/brown, they likely wouldn't even be seen. Best short-term shelter we can find, and will definitely have a couple of these for storage after we stay in it to build a camp. No towing it anywhere so you don't need a truck -- they deliver them.
Nor'eastah thats interesting. I would prefer a big one and maybe do welding for a door or windowor plumbing, hah (joking about the door and window). It's pretty much like a trailer off an 18wheeler.
Old reefer boxes work well because you can heat the thing with a candle. They are warm in winter and cool in summer. Wish I could post a pic. I know a guy who has a 40 footer.
Old reefer boxes work well because you can heat the thing with a candle. They are warm in winter and cool in summer. Wish I could post a pic. I know a guy who has a 40 footer.
In this context the word "reefer" indicates a refridgerated trailer or shipping container. The sides and top of such boxes are insulated (and maybe the bottom as well). Probably cost more than standard steel shipping containers.
That's my guess and I'm sticking to it.
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