Wigwam - anyone ever...

anyone ever made and lived in one short or long term. If so any tips, hints, etc about your experience doing so ? I am considering making one. if nothing else, just for having the knowledge of how to do it. The area I am in doesn't have much cat tail to make mats out of to use on the sides or trees of sufficient size to cover so I will probably use canvas or a brown tarp.

Found a great instruction for them at nativetech ~ http://www.nativetech.org/wigwam/construction.html





~peace

 

Wow, this one looks great

 

I know right. found that picture on the livinghistory.org website, was in there photos for NY/Iroquois/Erie Canal pictures. The Instructional at nativetech looks pretty easy set up overall. Guess it might all depend on the size you decide to build. They give instructions for a 14 foot diameter wigwam, I was thinking more of 8-10 foot diameter. Room for a bunk off the ground to sleep on and a small fire pit in the center for cooking in rainy/bad weather. I'll need to do more scouting the area I have in mind to build it and see if I can find a flat area for a small camp that is removed enuff from the eyes of public.

originally I was on instructables.com and saw an instructable for a geodesic green house. It made me go hmmmmmmm...



~peace

 

Making bit bigger one shouldn't be a problem if you have resources and if you make sure that construction is stable.

 

Oh Man! I am SO gonna do that.

Thanks for the link, Skooky.

Not sure what I'm going to shingle it with yet (plenty of pampus grass around where I'm at, but all that weaving sounds like a lot of work.)

 

Me to, I'm off to the woods today to scout a location.!

Your very welcome captian

Weaving can be very time consuming, I've woven mats out of cattails before large enuff to make a sleeping mat out of and boy did it take a long time. There are no cat tails around where I plan on building so I will probably use a brown tarp to help camoflage it. I watched some youtuve videos on roof thatching, they used palm fronds, none of those in Ohio tho. aha

I'll figure it out.

~peace

 

How'd it go?

That's funny: just before I saw this post I was outside on the campus checking out the palm trees and thinking what great thatch they'd make.

 

Not very well, I hiked about for 4 about hours scouting and looking for a decent enough area. The area I was in is undeveloped park land owned by the county. Years and years ago there were a few cabins along the river there, there is only the remnants of one now. It is very rough ground where I was hoping to find a flat enough area to set up camp. To many steep ravines and washouts. There was only one area that was flat enough to build on but it was back pretty far and would be a real chore just getting in and out of the woods from there. The problem was the flat area was close to the back edge of the wooded area and was fairly close to some houses. The thing about this part of Ohio is most wooded areas are not very large, by the time you get far enough in to be away from the public you are starting to leave the other side. Especially along the rivers here. Which would be a preferred location for me, a nice supply of wood for building and cooking, there are natural springs that feed into the river for fresh clean water, and fish to catch and eat.



This picture is deceiving, that rock is about 4 foot across. Those 2 fallen trees in the middle, are about 12 feet from the ground in the middle.

I'm going to keep looking, have a few other areas in mind.

~peace

 

Sorry that didn't work out, Skooky. Better luck with the next spots.

Ever consider creating a flat spot yourself?

The spot I have my hut on now was only semi-flat, which didn't really matter because I intended to dig down a cpl of feet anyway before I built the actual hut. Being partially underground has some advantages, especially if you're trying to play it low-profile: digging down a cpl of feet allowed me to get away with having a hut that's only 4 ft high and a lot easier to camouflage and still have 6 ft from floor to ceiling.

I actually want to go down 4 ft with the next one. With a 2 ft roof I could make it practically invisible.

One thing though if you decide to try this: make sure that your roof over-hangs your living space by at least a foot for every foot you dig down. Otherwise water tends to seep in.

 

That's a great idea of digging down. In an ideal spot I would build a wigwam for a temporary shelter while I build an earth lodge. Basically that is what you are describing. Guess it depends on the size of the shelter. Most Hidatsa/Mandan style earthlodges were quite large but I see no reason it couldn't be scaled down to a smaller size. Then I could use the wigwam as a "guest room". lol maybe as a chicken coop or something.

I am considering building a simple lean to shelter until I locate a better spot. Quick and easy and temporary. Right now it all depends on where I end up. Seriously considering leaving Ohio for more remote areas. Figuring things out here, waiting on some matters to be settled, doing research and thinking of rubber tramping (at least temporarily) to somewhere. I no longer have any real reasons/ties keeping me here other than a couple friends. Just generally hoping things work out like I hope they do.

 

Where are you thinking about going Skooky?

 

Doesn't matter.... Ohio is just such a great place to leave.

 

LOL! A lot of places in the midwest like that.

 

I will Probably head southwest or wherever I feel like going. Any state I have yet to go to which is about half of them. I have friends scattered here and there across the country I haven't got to see in quite a few years. Would be nice to see them. Messaging and such just isn't the same as in person. There's also a lot of BLM land out there for living cheap and free and alot of beautiful places I'd like to experience. Devils Tower in Wyoming is on the top of that list. I'd love to visit some of the Intentional Communities I've been reading about. Travel around, meet people, experience things, eventually settle down someplace spiritual, artistic, creative.

I know right.
I have a theory about Ohio and have had it for awhile now and it seems to hold true. Of all the friends and people I have known that move away from Ohio, somehow for one reason or another they always return eventually. It's as if Ohio has it's own gravitational field or something that just refuses to let go.
It always sucks you back in. lol

 

Yeah... It sucks alright.

 

I'm looking at BLM land myself, up around Diamond Springs here in California. You can still get up to a 20 acre claim for like $160 a year.

 

Oh my. Something else for me to investigate. lol I was thinking more of 2 weeks free camping but after a quick search and read of the California BLM FAQ for filing a claim.

http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/info/iac/faqmc.html

Sounds pretty cool and profitable. I do believe I have heard of Diamond Springs before, read something about someone mining on a different message board. Not 100% sure that was the place I'll have to look into it.

 

I've always been mainly interested in the land itself. But with gold at almost 2,000 an once now, it wouldn't take much to make a decent living.

The weather up around Diamond Springs (not far from Placerville) is pretty mild so shelter could be pretty basic.

A cpl years ago a few friends and I were talking about it (almost got to the planning stages) and what we were thinking about doing was buying a cpl nearly derelict mobile homes or house trailers, fixing them up, and hauling them up there.

Might have worked too but group-drama kept it from turning into anything.

 

Still out scouting for a suitable remote place to build a wigwam No luck finding a suitable area that won't get me into trouble.

I did find this on natural Homes...way cool.