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  • From: Bunjov AT aol.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Small camping trailer was: Draft Animals
  • Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2008 21:52:35 EDT

OMG - Tuolomne Meadows - a voice from my past! Until I was fifteen or so,
our annual family camping trip took us to Lake Tenaya, up that horribly
scary,
steep-cliffed mountain road that you had to back down if an oncoming vehicle
appeared. My mother and sister and I spent most of that uphill trip with our
hands over our eyes (peeping, of course), and thank God that it was in the
days before my dad started to drink. I wouldn't be here to tell the tale!
Coming back down was not so bad, because - from the seat on the right-hand
side of the old Plymouth I was next to the mountain - but going up...I was on

the outside, and you can't tell me there's a deeper canyon anywhere in the
world! (Although I know there probably is).
We camped in the same spot every year. Kept our perishables cold by
anchoring them in the lake. Hung the rest of everything between the trees so
it
wouldn't get gone in the middle of the night. I still have a vivid image of
my dad
in the middle of the night, stark-naked, brandishing nothing more than a
flashlight, chasing off a bear who had tried to come into the tent. I can
still
smell that greasy, canvas tent, if I think about it, and I remember how
terribly heavy it was. Somewhere in my bedroom closet, I still have the
little old
Coleman stove that we used. We spent our days hiking and reading.
Yellowjackets in the bacon every morning. Who thinks of insects as being
carnivorous...but I guess they are!
Bluejays to die for. smart-alecks that they are. If anything would make me
move to a higher elevation, it would be the promise of bluejays and
chipmunks,
and the smell of pine needles and all different kinds of bark.
Sandy
Mid-Mojave




In a message dated 10/5/2008 2:05:03 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,
lurine AT softcom.net writes:

We used to go up outside Toulomme, past the Meadows, several times each
summer to a restaurant that served authentic Basque food. The cook was a
guy who spent each winter with his sheep and came down in late spring to
cook.

There was also another one up on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe! Again, only
seasonal.

Absolutely to die for food!

Lynda
----- Original Message -----
From: <Bunjov AT aol.com>

>snip<

> In our midnight raids, we fell in with some Basque sheepherders, and -
> although there was an insurmountable language barrier - we were in awe of
> their
> 'rigs' - and the food!
> Thank you for all the information -
> Sandy
> Mid-Mojave
>
>
> In a message dated 10/5/2008 4:48:45 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
> don.bowen AT earthlink.net writes:
>
> The idea of a truck based camper comes from the earliest days of the
> automobile. Several people built various homes on the backs of early
> cars
> and trucks from the Ford Model TT to a large FWD. By the thirties there
> were several factories producing campers from the simplest to very fancy
> rigs. The well known Airstream started with a design in the very early
> thirties.
>
> Magazines like Popular Mechanics published many articles on building your
> own travel trailer or Teardrop. Most were light for use behind the
autos
> of
> the day and used materials and methods suitable for the home shops of the
> time with few power tools. The eventual owner of Airstream, Walley Bayum
> published at least one how to article on building a travel trailer.
>
> By the fifties with the power of the automobile increasing and the
> leveling
> of the American incomes many families could afford to purchase
> Recreational
> Vehicles and take weekend and two week vacations.
>
> I live in a travel trailer, currently parked in the beautiful Missouri
> Ozarks on Genes Heartwood Homestead. This afternoon I leave to go visit
> my
> son in North Carolina for a month. Then in November me and my RV will be
> back here for a brief visit then on to Southern California.
>
>> I have gone to the trouble now of finding out whether or not a draft
>> horse
>> could pull a small RV - sans engine, in these days of looking forward to
>> no oil - and I am told that yes, it could be done.
>
> Long before the automobile we had all sorts of horse drawn living
> arrangements. Medieval paintings show wagons fitted out as quarters for
> tournaments. By the late 1700s the huge incomes from colonies allowed
> England to start on a massive road improvement giving rise to the Gypsy
> Ledger Wagons and fancy Vardos. These were very heavy and were used to
> how
> off the owner's best team of horse.
>
> In this country the vast western distances gave rise to the Sheep Camp.
> The
> Sheep Camp was often little more that an old farm wagon fitted with a
> canvas
> top, a bed, and a stove. They were usually very light to be pulled by a
> single horse. By the fifties most had disappeared and the Basque
> Sheepherders moved into pickup campers. The Mojave Desert used to be
> home
> to many flocks of sheep tended by Basque Sheepherders.
>
> The huge western grain fields gave rise to the cook shack. A simple
> wagon
> fitted with a cook stove, water barrel, pots and pans, dishes, etc. The
> sides flopped down for serving tables and to allow air flow. The cook
> shack
> traveled with the harvest crews. My wife's grandmother was a cook on a
> Washington Palouse Country harvest crew.
>
>> Am I crazy?
>
> No.
>
> I would suggest you not use an automobile based camper as they are heavy.
> Build something like a Sheep Camp or a Teardrop Trailer. I have a whole
> file of plans from the thirties to fifties on building camping trailers
> and
> pickup mounted campers.
>
> Don Bowen KI6DIU
> http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html
>
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