The Taxpayer's Tipi

So JJ and I were sitting around a fire one night in September 2020, something we often enjoyed with our other friend Bobby (Fischer) and all our spouses. It was a brisk 40 or so degrees, not terribly cold but not warm either. We had invited our wives to sit with us by the fire so we could share some drinks and stories but they decided it was too cold. As we began to think about what it took to keep them out there with us a little longer next to the fire, the idea of the tipi came to pass. We began discussing it with Fischer, and before long we decided it was something we wanted to do. The initial efforts proved it to be too expensive, around $2000-$4000 for a 20 foot tipi with poles and a canvas. We were a little hesitant to make a move with costs like that, even split among the 3 of us... Until the government stepped in and gave us a whole bunch more money that we didn't ask for, didn't deserve, and didn't need.

The tipi stands for something more though: an opportunity. The world we're in is full of virtual relationships, we're disconnected in our connected world. So not for grand adventure, but for simple pleasures, we'll invite you in to share the experience. Small groups of people can share in the same joys of good conversation in a cozy surrounding outside by a fire.

The first two rounds of stimulus money spent or given away, we needed to decide on a budget. It just so happened that Uncle Sam wanted to give each of us $1400. Guess what?! That's now a budget of $4200!

Let me take just a moment and be very clear: I have a personally held belief that my two friends aren't as vocal about. I believe it to be extremely irresponsible of the US government to give what amounted to $9000 to my family. I hadn't lost any income during the pandemic, I make good money and have no need for it. This project took on something of a middle finger for me to the government for what I thought of as... idiotic. We all wanted a tipi to hang out in, but knew it was something of an extravagance that was unnecessary under normal budget considerations. The last stimulus of March 2021 gave us all the justification needed.

The effort was mostly led by me, Matt, and at times I may have felt like I was dragging the other two guys with me. Upon further discussion, though, it became apparent they were definitely in, but they needed someone to lead the effort. I am... extremely motivated by this project.

I looked at several tipi makers, there is actually no shortage of them. But what I really wanted was a very nice structure that we could be proud of and in the end, we decided on Nomadics Tipi , a company based out of Bend, Oregon.

There was some discussion among the three of us about how we wanted to skin this cat. Basically, it came down to pole work.

You see, Nomadics Tipis are kinda expensive when you start adding all the things you needed to make a complete package. The canvas cover, liner, sand snakes to hold the liner to the floor, the floor, carpet, etc., and most importantly to me, the art work, would add up to $3600. Poles would add another $1300 to that, and that exceeded our budget of $4200.

As you'll see in the pictures, I have no shortage of poles to work right behind my house.

We made a few rookie mistakes... I made a few rookie mistakes in piecing this together. At first I thought I'd get some 8 foot tree poles and combine them to make one 24 foot pole. That turned out to be trash. Then when I decided to go looking for trees to use, I was very discouraged at first. You have to walk and look... and walk and look... and walk and look... until you can find a straight (ish) tree that's about 22-30 feet, width of about 3-4 inches at the bottom and 1.5-2 inches at the tie point (~19 feet), without rot or bends. It was harder than I thought. But also as you'll see, we were successful!