back yard sleeping

[squeezebox]

I thinking of making a set up for backyard sleeping. I was thinking of something like the civil war tents. make it from 2x2 frame and a blue tarp, tent/tarp ends optional. Easy to make it self supporting. Make a "pallet" to fit an old single mattress, or buy an army surplus cot. Thinking of no ground sheet. I'm sure Tipi Walter will suggest a tipi.
Have you done any such thing?
Comments?

[Leo L.]

For many years I spend very many nights sleeping somewhere out around the house, around the campfire, on the terrace, in an open loft, or just somewhere in the open field. With or without shelter.
Just for the fun of it, in order to "get some nightwind around the nose" in substitutuion of some real backpacking, do some sky/shootingstars watching, or to test stuff and setups.
You learn a lot about nocturnal life in your surroundings this way, as well as about dew, rain, wind etc.

My favorite setup for non-rainy nights so far is a bivi poncho set up tarp-style with two hiking poles. No ground sheet. I set up and dismantle this for every single night, because I don't like to leave the stuff in the open exposed to sunlight (UV-rays will destroy nylon over time) and more severe weather. Have to pack up pad&bag every morning anyway, so stuffing away the tarp too is just little more work.
For serious rain I tried to convert my old dome tent in a tarp-style half open shelter by adding a ground sheet to the outer skin, but this failed unfortunately. So far I sleep beneath a roof overhang or in the open loft when rain is forecast.
I don't like to build a fixed place to sleep in, that would take away a big part of the fun for me.

Biggest problem I encountered so far are the slugs - we have millions of them everywhere during the warmer half of the year. No help against them that I could think of.

[daddytwosticks]

Nothing permanent. I have slept out on the porch/deck in order to try out sleeping bags, pads, clothes, etc. to see how my tolerance to cold would be. I've set up various shelters too and have slept in them to test them out also. Fun and educational to do, but my neighbors think there's something wrong with me.

[ChrisJackson]

Great idea, I've wanted something like this for years: https://www.frostriver.com/shop/cano...campfire-tent/

pricey, and I haven't canoed in a while, but would love to have one in the backyard! You could probably have some fun and roll your own though.

[Another Kevin]

Nothing permanent. I have slept out on the porch/deck in order to try out sleeping bags, pads, clothes, etc. to see how my tolerance to cold would be. I've set up various shelters too and have slept in them to test them out also. Fun and educational to do, but my neighbors think there's something wrong with me.

I try to avoid gear testing at home lately. Not only don't I get any sleep, nobody on the block does, either. The neighbour across the back fence has a dog that goes crazy if I sleep in the back yard. Clancy knows I don't belong there, and announces it loudly to the whole neighbourhood.

[Two Speed]

. . . The neighbour across the back fence has a dog that goes crazy if I sleep in the back yard. Clancy knows I don't belong there, and announces it loudly to the whole neighbourhood.

One word: dramamine.

'Nuff said.

[OCDave]

I sling a hammock between the Rainbow Play set and the backyard elm a few times a month every month of the year. Winter sleep is actually more peaceful as I don't get wakened by my neighbor's water sprinkler at 4:00 AM. Spring and crisp Fall nights are clearly the best.

A 2x2, pallet and blue tarp structure doesn't seem appealing. If you have a tent why not use it? If you have a tent, the additional investment is zero $.

Cots are less comfortable than today's high-end pads. An army surplus cot is nearly as uncomfortable a sleeping platform as you could find. Masochist? If not, find a way to justify a high-end pad. Better yet, build an inexpensive hammock stand and make sleeping in your backyard a worthwhile experience.

Good Luck

[Tipi Walter]

I probably get more bag nights camping "in the yard" than I do on my backpacking trips because when I'm not out hiking I'm home preparing for the next trip and sleeping out in the yard every night. Why not? I much prefer a Thermaest on the ground behind the house than I do the indoor bed. We all strive to be King of the Bag Nights.

There are many considerations for proper Backyard Camping.
** Choose your style and shelter: Bedroll "cowboy" camping? Hammock Camping? Sleeping on your porch or deck or covered screen room? Setting up your backpacking tent? Setting up a family basecamp style tent? Go cheap with a walmart ozark trail big tent (they leak) or fancy with a big Sierra Designs or Eureka or other? Erecting something out of saplings like a debris hut, tipi, wigwam, baker tent???

** Of course nothing looks better in the backyard than a white canvas tipi set up permanently with the poles poking out the top.

** The main point is, do you want a zipable enclosed shelter like a big tent with a floor or do you want an open structure like a baker tent or a tipi or a wigwam or some type of tarp or canvas config? One night I was sleeping in a primitive canvas shelter and woke up with a scorpion on my pillow. Not good.


You could throw up something like this, a small 14 foot diameter canvas tipi (my buddy Johnny B's lodge set up in Rutherfordton NC).


Here's a "backyard" camp I used on Chickasaw Creek in TN in 2001-2002. A simple tent next to a creek.


Later I covered it with a canvas tarp for some protection.



After the tent died I set up a Witu with a woodstove and used it for my bag nights. It's just a circle of upright saplings in a 14 foot diameter and bent over to form the frame, like a big sweatlodge. And then covered by heavy canvas. A very stout structure.


Since the bugs are bad in East TN (think scorpions and black widows and copperheads), I decided to replace my Witu with an actual basecamp tent with a floor and a zipped door. This baby was wonderful---Cabelas Xtreme Outfitter tent. I added a Mr Buddy propane heater for winter and got all my bag nights in it for 7 years until it started to fall apart.

[martinb]

Walter only needs a house to dehydrate meals.

[Another Kevin]

One word: dramamine.

'Nuff said.

Take it, or give it to the dog?