Hammocks

Mike was asked recently to go camping with the scouts.  Since the scouts are preparing for a high adventure this summer with lots of hiking, they were going to do some backpacking and carry everything including food and gear to start practicing.  Mike really didn't want to lug the tent around, which has started leaking in wet weather and is also a bit big for backpacking.  The scoutmaster usually uses a hammock for camping and Mike wanted to see if he could find instructions for making his own hammock instead of buying one.  He found a great site at www.tothewoods.net that had instructions that were fairly easy and not very expensive.  Lena helped Mike with some of the sewing and showed him how to do some of the sewing himself as well. 

Unfortunately, the campout was canceled due to lightning, but the hammock and packed backpack came in handy the following weekend for a tornado cleanup in a neighboring state.  After sleeping in the hammock, which was the most comfortable camping Mike has ever had, he thought it would be fun to make camping hammocks for the whole family.  Lena picked up some more nylon fabric from the store and we spent a couple days making everything.

Mike and the kids set the hammocks up in a series of trees in our yard one night this past week.  Only Kirsten managed to sleep outside all night with Mike.  The other kids slowly decided they wanted to go inside and sleep for one reason or another.  So Mike didn't get much sleep.  They wanted to sleep in their hammocks again the second night, but Mike wanted more sleep, so we hung them from Jon and Rebecca's loft beds.  Here are some pictures of the kids in their hammocks.