CAMPING OUT IN YOUR BACK YARD
WHO is ready to go out on a camping expedition to Make-Believe Land?
It is a wild land, full of wild creatures if you choose to believe in
them. Cats you will probably meet on the trail, and they are wild ones
if you will. Wolves, too, may prowl around, for what else are Tramp and
Nipper, your own dearly loved dogs, but descendants of the wild wolf.
There will be plenty of sailing, fishing and outdoor sports. Guides can
be secured at headquarters and you will not have to travel far, for the
camping ground is your own back yard.
You must have your
=Camping Outfit,=
as all campers do, and it is the proper thing to think, plan and talk
much about this same outfit. As the trip is to be made overland and you
will have no camping wagon, use bags for carrying the various articles
needed in camp. Old flour bags are just the thing. Into these you can
put all your things except perhaps the camp kettle. The camping party
should be supplied with a tent, a hatchet, a camp kettle, coffee pot,
tin plates and cups, old knives, fork and spoons, a tin pail and dipper
and a tin wash-basin; all these, as well as provisions must be taken on
the journey in true campers’ fashion, for there should be no running
back from Make-Believe Land to get forgotten articles. Shawls and
blankets to spread on the ground if it seem too damp will be a welcome
addition to the outfit, and the party should be provided with sharp
pocket knives for whittling stakes and for other needs.
[Illustration: Camping in Make-believe Land.]
[Illustration: Fig. 250.—Tie the corners of the sheet with tape.]
[Illustration: Fig. 251.—The sheet is ready to put up for the tent.]
Select the site of your camp and pitch your tent with reference to the
clothes line, for the line is to support the tent and act as a ridge
pole.
=Make the Tent=
of two muslin sheets sewed together along two of the edges, one edge
on each sheet, which run from the wide hem at the head to the narrow
hem at the foot of the sheet. Tie a tape on each of the four corners
(Fig. 250) and tie a tape at the centre of the ends of the tent
sheet-covering. This will give three tapes on each side of the tent—six
tapes in all (Fig. 251).
[Illustration: Fig. 252.—This is the wooden tent peg.]
Make six wooden pegs resembling Fig. 252. You can have them either
round, square, three-cornered or irregular; the only essentials are
that the pegs be strong and large enough to hold the tent securely.
Have a notch cut near the top for the tape and a point whittled at the
bottom that the peg may be easily driven into the ground.
Look about carefully and decide exactly where you want the tent
placed on the clothesline; then hang the crosswise centre of the
covering evenly over the line. Hold the top ridge centre in place with
clothespins while you stretch one side out away from the clothesline,
and peg it to the ground by tying the tapes around the pegs and pushing
the pegs slantingly into the ground, with the peg head running from and
the point directed toward the tent (Fig. 253). Remove the clothespins
and peg down the other side of the tent in the same way.
[Illustration: Fig. 253.—This is the way to peg your tent to the
ground.]
[Illustration: Fig. 254.—The sticks are laid across the table legs
ready for the board.]
[Illustration: Fig. 255.—Your little camp-table.]
[Illustration: Fig. 256.—Nail the cleats inside the box for the
shelves.]
[Illustration: Fig. 257.—This is your camp-cupboard made of a box.]
Find the best place near the tent for
=A Table,=
and make the table in true woodsman fashion. Take four strong forked
sticks, sharpened on the lower end, and drive two of them into the
ground in a straight line about one foot or more apart, and the
remaining two in a line with, and two feet from the first sticks (Fig.
254). Have the sticks stand above the ground about two feet, or the
height you want the table, and keep the crotch, or angle where the two
forks separate, on all the sticks at an equal height from the ground.
Lay a stick across each pair of forked sticks. Get a piece of board,
rest one end on each of the supports you have just made, and you will
have a rustic table, strong and suitable for any camp (Fig. 255). Use
wooden boxes for seats. Select one box for your
=Safe or Cupboard=
in which to keep supplies and camping utensils. Fit one or two shelves,
made from a side of another wooden box, in the cupboard. Do this by
first nailing strips of wood, for cleats, on the inside of each side of
the cupboard at equal distances from the bottom (Fig. 256). Slide in
the shelves, resting each on two pieces of wood (Fig. 257). Set a lot
of lids of tin cans in the cupboard to serve as camping plates, also a
few tin spoons, an old table knife, a kitchen fork or two, three tin
cups, and a smooth, clean, folded piece of white paper for a tablecloth.
[Illustration: Fig. 258.—Sink the pail part way into the ground.]
[Illustration: Fig. 259.—Bank the earth up around the pail for the
spring.]
Now for
=The Spring=
Ask your mother to let you have a large, clean pail suitable for
drinking water. Carry the pail to the opposite side of the yard from
your tent. There dig a hole large enough to sink the pail down about
half its height (Fig. 258). Bank the loose earth up all around the
pail (Fig. 259), and cover the earth with leaves, grass, moss and
vines; hiding the pail completely with the greenery; then fill the pail
with fresh, cool water, and lo: there is your mountain spring (Fig.
260).
[Illustration: Fig. 260.—Like a country spring in your back yard.]
A clean tomato can, free from rust, with the top removed, will make
=A Fine Pail=
for carrying water. You can make a hole in the tin, near the top on
each side of the can, by hammering a good-sized wire nail through, and
then form a handle to the pail by threading one end of a piece of twine
through each hole and tying a large knot on the outside to prevent the
string from sliding out of place (Fig. 261). When you need water in the
camp, always go to the spring for it, and carry the water in the little
tin pail.
[Illustration: Fig. 261.—The camp-pail is made of a tin can.]
It is not necessary to have a real
=Camp Fire,=
but you can pretend there is one. Drive two forked sticks in the ground
a short distance from each other; lay a stout stick across from one to
the other forked stick; then pile up some dry twigs midway between the
stakes. Tie a strong cord on the centre of the cross stick, leaving
one end long enough to loop down and under the handle of a pail or
kettle and reach up and tie to the short end of the cord. You can put
various things into the camp kettle and pretend to cook them over the
make-believe fire (Fig. 262).
[Illustration: Fig. 262.—You can pretend to cook over the make-believe
fire.]
[Illustration: Fig. 263.—A low wooden packing-box for the boat.]
[Illustration: Fig. 264.—The box with its pasteboard ends.]
Of course you must have a boat, for there are lakes in Make-Believe
Land and plenty of fish to be caught, so
=Make a Boat=
for your camp. Select a rather long, narrow wooden packing-box (Fig.
263), and on each end tack an extra pointed pasteboard end (Fig. 264).
To make the pasteboard end you will have to measure the height of the
packing-box, and cut from an old pasteboard box a strip of pasteboard
wide enough to fit the height of the wooden box and long enough to
allow for tacking on the end of the wooden box and extending far enough
out beyond the box to form half, or one side, of the pointed end with
two inches over. Score the extra two inches and bend (Fig. 265); the
bend A forms the extreme end when the pasteboard point is bent in
shape. Cut another strip of pasteboard two inches shorter than the
first strip, and sew it on the two-inch bent flap of the first strip
(Fig. 266). Score the two ends of the long strip and be careful to
score them on the side that will cause the pasteboard to bend outward
in the right direction, then bend (Fig. 267).
[Illustration: Fig. 265.—The pasteboard strip with end bent.]
[Illustration: Fig. 266.—The second pasteboard strip is sewed on first
strip.]
[Illustration: Fig. 267.—The pasteboard is now ready to be tacked on to
box making pointed end.]
Tack the pasteboard strip on the end of the wooden box and make another
pasteboard point for the other end of the box (Fig. 264). Cover both
pasteboard ends with stout paper by gumming the paper over and down on
the outside top edge of the pasteboard points.
Make the boat seats of short boards laid across from side to side of
the wooden box and nailed in place (Fig. 268). Use broom-sticks for
oars, and make believe the boat is off on the water, a long distance
from the tent.
[Illustration: Fig. 268.—With the seats in place it is a boat.]
[Illustration: Fig. 269.—The row-boat is turned into a sail-boat.]
If you want to play that you are
=Out Fishing=
in the boat, take any kind of long sticks or walking canes for fishing
poles, with common string for line and a bit of paper tied to the end
of the string for bait. When you want to turn the row-boat into a
sail-boat, you can tack a three-cornered piece of white cloth on the
end of a pole and rig up a sail (Fig. 269). Cut a hole in the forward
centre of the bottom of the boat immediately next to the covered bow,
run the pole through the hole down into the earth until it is well
planted in the ground and stands straight and steady; then tie a string
to the free end of the sail and fasten the string to the boat to keep
the sail stretched out, just as if there were truly a good stiff breeze
and you were sailing along at a rapid rate with the spray dashing upon,
and at times over, the sides of the boat.
If your back yard is large and you need more tents for friends, erect
several, one on each stretch of the clothesline. Should the line be
fastened to four posts, a tent can be put up on each of the four turns
of the clothesline, making a little settlement of tents.
[Illustration: Playing Tether-Ball with the Home-Made Game.]