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What's your SCA encampment like? |
Period all the way: tent, sleeping accommodations, cooking, even our underwear! RAR! |
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7% |
[ 1 ] |
Sweatpants or flowery peasant skirt, a long-sleeved tunic, and a space-age type tent I got from REI. Hey, I just go for the booze. |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
Somewhere in between the two extremes. I'll post. |
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85% |
[ 12 ] |
Poll-troll option. |
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7% |
[ 1 ] |
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Total Votes : 14 |
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 4:57 am
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My dream: To build my own yurt and have it come out strong, comfortable, and looking as Period as possible within the bounds of reason.
My reality: I just bought a modern Coleman camping tent, for now. It sleeps twelve, which actually means that about six people plus their gear could sleep in it if they're close friends. But in truth, it's only for two people (me and my RLSO), plus a couple of our best friends may join us once in a while for camping. It will admirably fit us, all our camping and/or SCA gear, and still leave us room to stand up, socialize, take our meals from two small folding tables while we sit in folding camp chairs, and not feel too crowded even if it rains all weekend.
Why would I buy a modern tent for $200 when I could make my dream yurt for about $700 (or purchase a yurt for $2100 to $8000 depending on where I go)? I'll tell you why. Because my RLSO is a reasonable person who enjoys listening to my dreams and then reminding me about reality. The reality, says RLSO, is that the last time either of us went camping was about 12 years ago. We were younger and less used to luxury when we were poor college students. So we're planning to save our money this year so we can afford to buy yurt-building materials, garb, camping supplies, and so on. Meanwhile, we'll go camping in a modern, mundane fashion with some meet-up camping groups we found online in our area, just to make sure we still like camping. It's better to know before we get into the expenses that we'd incur if we really got back into the SCA, only to find out that we can no longer stand to sleep outdoors.
So, what's your encampment like/going to be like? Where is it now, and what's your next step? Describe in detail, please!
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 9:23 am
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 12:00 pm
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Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 6:31 am
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LittleGreenGirl I would love to make a period tent, but I would need to buy a van or truck in order to camp, then. For now I'm happy with my large mundane tent that packs into a small bag so that I have more room for all my cooking gear. Cannot sacrifice the cooking gear! (especially since I usually end up feeding half my camp)
I don't even own a car. I get to events either by ride-sharing with someone with a bigger vehicle, or by just renting a cargo van. It's surprisingly cheap. Just google your address and then click on Search Nearby, and search for Rental Truck. You'll have to pay for the truck, the gas, insurance for the days you're renting, and occasionally they make you pay for mileage. However, you don't have to pay for full ownership, year-round insurance, or year-round parking on the vehicle, so it works out much easier, unless you attend a camping event more than once a month. I do about three a year, at most.
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 11:14 am
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Divash LittleGreenGirl I would love to make a period tent, but I would need to buy a van or truck in order to camp, then. For now I'm happy with my large mundane tent that packs into a small bag so that I have more room for all my cooking gear. Cannot sacrifice the cooking gear! (especially since I usually end up feeding half my camp) I don't even own a car. I get to events either by ride-sharing with someone with a bigger vehicle, or by just renting a cargo van. It's surprisingly cheap. Just google your address and then click on Search Nearby, and search for Rental Truck. You'll have to pay for the truck, the gas, insurance for the days you're renting, and occasionally they make you pay for mileage. However, you don't have to pay for full ownership, year-round insurance, or year-round parking on the vehicle, so it works out much easier, unless you attend a camping event more than once a month. I do about three a year, at most. Yeahhhh... that's a bit expensive for my budget. I've moved enough times to know that it's much cheaper to keep my own vehicle out at my parents' house and use it when I go out of town, and take only what I can fit in it.
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Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2009 5:34 pm
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LittleGreenGirl Divash LittleGreenGirl I would love to make a period tent, but I would need to buy a van or truck in order to camp, then. For now I'm happy with my large mundane tent that packs into a small bag so that I have more room for all my cooking gear. Cannot sacrifice the cooking gear! (especially since I usually end up feeding half my camp) I don't even own a car. I get to events either by ride-sharing with someone with a bigger vehicle, or by just renting a cargo van. It's surprisingly cheap. Just google your address and then click on Search Nearby, and search for Rental Truck. You'll have to pay for the truck, the gas, insurance for the days you're renting, and occasionally they make you pay for mileage. However, you don't have to pay for full ownership, year-round insurance, or year-round parking on the vehicle, so it works out much easier, unless you attend a camping event more than once a month. I do about three a year, at most. Yeahhhh... that's a bit expensive for my budget. I've moved enough times to know that it's much cheaper to keep my own vehicle out at my parents' house and use it when I go out of town, and take only what I can fit in it.
When I rented a truck about a year ago for a non-SCA purpose, I picked it up on Thursday and dropped it back off on Monday morning. It cost about $120 including the 4-day rental, gas, mileage, rental insurance, and the occasional parking meter when I used it to pick up supplies for the task at hand. Doing that 3 times a year would still be cheaper, at least for me, than buying a reliable car ($2000 at least), paying the insurance ($500+ every six months), paying a city parking fee ($70 per year just to get a sticker to let me park on a city street that isn't metered), and the gas and maintenance money I'd surely need for year-round usage.
Of course, if your parents just hand you a car, pay for the insurance, and you never have to park anywhere but in their driveway, sure, that would be cheaper.
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:07 am
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Update: I didn't want to buy a modern tent, but the RLSO said it would be smart to do, just to go camping a few times the 'normal' way and be sure we both still like it. We got a deal on a 12-person tent. It's heavy, definitely not a backpacking tent at all, but it'll be fine for what we want. It's big enough for us, our best friends, and all of our gear. We figure on going out to some Kampgrounds Of America site nearby and just spend a weekend. If we hate camping, we just won't do it, and we'll sell the tent on eBay or Craig's List or something.
If, on the other hand, we both still love camping, THEN the RLSO will let me build the yurt of our dreams. I've been saving money for the supplies. Here's my parts/price list, so far:
Wood: $150 for forty 1"x2" sanded cedar poles from Home Depot Canvas: $175 for five 5'x15' painter's dropcloths for the walls, plus 12'x15' dropcloths for the floor and ceiling from Tarps.com; I'll also get my floor tarp there, to keep the yurt floor dry, and another 12'x15' dropcloth to cover the tarp so people can't see the out-of-Period plastic tarp Hemp rope: When my co-planner emails me back to tell me what weight/strength of rope I want, I'll get it here, probably for under $50 even if I get a bunch extra Incidentals: Thompson's Water Seal for the canvas (it won't flake when bent/folded, like paint would); linseed oil or more Thompson's for the wood; possibly a few metal clamps or bolts to fasten roof poles to the center ring; tough leather lacing to tie the wood together for floor-surround, roof-surround, and walls; tent stakes to hold the yurt to the ground in a high wind (they'll be hidden by the canvas, so I'll use the plastic stakes from our 12-person modern tent); possibly some canvas paints for my artist friend to decorate the interior and/or exterior. All-in-all, I expect to pay about another $100 for all this stuff, maybe a wee bit more.
So, under $500 for my own yurt. Considering that you can buy a yurt made by someone else for anywhere from $2000 to $8000 depending on how fancy they get, not to mention the shipping charges, plus it'll look like THEY want it to look rather than like I want it to look... Yeah, this is way better.
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Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 8:53 am
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When I was little, we used a viking A-frame, which was alot more appropriate to our personas, but when that wore out we bought a pavilion because we had started selling at renfairs. It's a very nice pavilion, and frankly anglo-saxons in a pavillion is hardly the least period thing in any given event. We do have to make alot of sacrifices as far as authenticity goes, being merchants. While we do have everything to cook over a firepit and the knowledge of how to do so appropriately, and lamps appropriate to our period, we can't use them because we can't get insurance if we have open flame anywhere in our encampment, and if we can't get insurance, we can't sell. We do try to hide the mundane cooking gear in the back, but it's not like you can't see it. However, our half-way merchant setup is considered very classy when we're at pagan faires and renfaires, and unfortunately that's were the money is, so that's where we are too.
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:47 am
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 8:17 am
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 3:04 pm
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:09 pm
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It's not attractive, no, but modern campers do a few things that may be important.
1. They're a first-try vehicle. If someone's trying out the SCA and not sure they want to commit to the hobby yet, why pour money into new camping equipment (Period or not), when they've already got the modern camper sitting in their driveway?
2. If someone has a medical need for certain technologies, campers typically supply those. People need to refrigerate their insulin, power their wheelchairs or oxygen tanks, plug in their blue lights at night, or take care of other needs that require electricity, running water, or a VERY-nearby toilet.
3. People who didn't grow up in the SCA often start getting Period with their clothing, then expand to gear, and only after several years of saving do they have the wherewithal to start looking towards their tent/shelter.
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:51 am
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 11:14 am
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