So, tooling around like I do on the web, I stumbled across this neat little concept. Actually, I was āresearchingā the concept of having a hanging tent that one could put in a tree. It keeps you off the ground, and generally allows rain to fall off the sides (as well as being sheltered to some degree from the rain by the tree itself). My biggest obstacle in the entire design process was: āHow can I make this out of natural materialsā¦?ā Needless to say, I was a little more than hesitant about suspending myself 20 ft into a tree using wet sinew and buckskinā¦
Then I came across this: http://hennessyhammock.com/
I thought the idea was really neat - a small, enclosed shelter thatās portable, reasonably waterproof, easy to "heat, etc. The bonus being that Iām pretty sure I could make something like this out of buckskin and sinew without risking breaking myself in the process.
So - the skinny: Iām looking for ideas or suggestions about what to make various components out of. Iām pretty sure I can make the body of the hammock out of buckskin, which will keep me nice and warm, and keep the wind from getting me too bad. Iām also reasonably sure that sinew (or maybe rawhide?) for cordage could support your average Joe, even when wet (but I donāt have much experience with either material just yetā¦ feel free to correct me).
Things Iām pretty lost on:
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Rainfly. Can I make this out of buckskin, too? Provided itās not touching the hammock itself, and no lines attach to the hammock that water can run downā¦ but again, my lack of experience with buckskin is biting me hard, hereā¦
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Insulation. I imagine that cat-tail down and white pine boughs could put a little distance between me and Old Man Winter pinching my butt while Iām asleepā¦ but I could still use a few suggestions.
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Cordage. Something I can support my weight with (maybe the weight of two people if I can figure out a ādeluxā (hubba-hubba) model?
Imagination seems to be the limit. I think Iām going to order one of the above models to see how all the little details workā¦ then Iāll probably set to work on a āprimitiveā copy. That isā¦ if I can finally get my hands on some skins and brains!!!