Tarp size

[Guest]

The best idea is once you decide on the size that you want, go the next size bigger.

That is a truism for many things. Every time I finagle my fancy dancer footwork way into our overstuffed equipment shed I wish the heck I’d made it just a little bigger. I don’t ever recall wishing my tripping tarp was smaller.

Say what you want about them, but I have had an awesome collection of shredded blue poly tarps over the years.I can do stuff with my $10 Princess Auto tarp that I woiuld NEVER try with Karin's pricey silnylon one. Not and live to tell about it anyway. The best part is that if it is too small, I can buy a bigger one for next trip, cuz, well, I will have to. Then the previoius one ends up covering something at home.

Our collection of poly tarps once rivaled the world record. We still have one that will cover most of a house, and needed it when a tree crushed our neighbor’s roof.*

We have what we call “the tarp shed”, a disused wood swingset/playhouse A-frame from which we years ago removed the swings and sliding board, encasing it with heavy duty green poly tarps. We use it use for firewood storage and seasoning (it holds two+ cords).

Those HD green poly tarps last a lot longer in UV exposure than the cheap blue poly ones; they’ve been stretched over that frame for 10 years or more in the sun and snow load and are only now starting to wear thin.

We have a couple or three more poly tarps in the gear room, and another several more-shredded ones in the shed used for hauling fall leaf rakings into the ravine.

*I have to tell this giant tarp story,it is a favorite group trip memory. We were on a “Gentleman’s Trip” with a dozen guys and had brought that house-sized poly tarp with plenty of poles and rope.

There was a storm brewing and we had a dozen guys to assist. With everyone “helping” that massive tarp was rigged and tied and guyed six ways to Sunday. To create the peak we used two telescoping tarp poles stuck together, for a 16 foot center peak. To keep the center pole from poking a hole in the tarp we stuck a 5-gallon plastic bucket on the tarp end. Brilliant!

It got windy and rainy and we were all happily dry and secure under our circus tarp. Fire tender friend Tom as breaking kindling wood over his knee when something else snapped.

His ACL. He fell over into the firewood pile moaning and groaning and we helped him up and into his chair with, um, gentlemanly expressions of concern.

As he sat there grimacing and rubbing his knee when a gust of wind blew into the massive tarp, and the 16 foot center pole lifted free and wobbled this way and that. . . . before clonked him square on the head with the 5 gallon bucket. What are the odds; 360 degree of possible fall angle, 16 feet of pole distance and the bucket landed a hole in one on Tom’s noggin.

It was still one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen, and I’ll never forget the hollow “CLONK” of that plastic bucket.

I’d say he hasn’t been right since, but, meh, even before. . . . .

 

[lowangle al]

No Title

That sounds like one you'll never forget Mike.


I prefer the cheap poly tarps for there versatility. I use at least a 10 x 12 and it protects me from wind as well as rain. I usually set them over the fire for heat and rain protection. I will have more than one for the shoulder seasons. They are also good for throwing on the ground to sort gear or to lay down on to relax. I could also use one to make a pack bundle in case I had to bring something extra out like a problem black bear. I pack it in my Duluth pack so it gives me a cusion between my back and hard gear.

 

[Alan Gage]

Fire tender friend Tom as breaking kindling wood over his knee when something else snapped.......His ACL.

Sometimes I think processing firewood by hand, without a saw, is one of the most dangerous things I do so I try to avoid it. Note I didn't say it was necessarily dangerous for everyone else, just me.

I can break that with my knee. Hmmm, let me push a little harder. Ok, maybe I can lean it against a log and step on the middle of it. That didn't work either. I'll try jumping on it with my wet and muddy shoes instead. Now I'm getting pissed. Go find a bigger log or rock to throw on it. Wow, that sure did bounce off farther than I thought it would. By the time the wood is broken my knee hurts, my hands hurt, my feet hurt, and there's wood splinters spread over a 20 foot radius.

Alan

 

[Guest]

tarps have a magical way of shrinking once set up. When my lovely wife and I paddle camp we take a 12X12 and on a rainy windy, cold day even that is too small. if weight is not an issue, I take my Panther primitives canvas 12X12 diamond fly and use it as a tarp so we can have fires underneath.
Turtle