Sunday, August 15, 1999

Building a Tepee

Today Isaiah said I should build a home. Yes, I had one that I had been staying in, but it was the shed for all his tools and it was time he put them back in. It was exciting to see all the possible styles of shelter I could build as he sketched them in the dirt with a stick.

How thrilling to build it from scratch, instead of using a store bought tent!

He said that it was more tropical up where we were living. This means there are more insects and rain and a need for a roof and walls that would keep out mosquitoes, leeches and other undesirables. I also would want a roof that had a slant, so that it didn’t gather rain or moisture.

Most shelters included a frame and a different method of weaving leaves in this frame. There must have been 10 styles. I chose the bamboo frame (if we could find any) because it would collect drinking water, too. Since we were not sure if we could find any bamboo, my first shelter I chose would be a teepee.

Nearly all tepees have angled support pieces of wood that are tied together up top and create a cone shape. Then they are covered with fabric, leaves, hides or bark. There is another way to make a tepee and I found this one to be easy. You find a tree, suspend fabric from a branch, give the sides a steep angle and secure the bottoms to the ground. Voila!

The catch in this option was that I didn’t have the fabric. My sarong wasn’t big enough and it wasn’t waterproof. That’s all I had in the way of material. Isaiah said that I could work for him selling his vegetables and fruits in town at a farmer’s market.  With my earnings, I could buy the foundation of my abode.  It would be strange to be in the “city”, but of course I would do it! I was getting back to the basics.

 

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