rope bed and packing worries

[kareina]

The past few days have been busy. archinonlive and I went down to his parent's house on Sunday and stayed over through to Monday evening. While we were there we enjoyed visiting with his family (his sister and her partner and child were up from southern Sweden, and one of his brothers and his partner also came over), eating fresh strawberries from the garden (yay, I made it back before they were all gone, though a few were a bit over-ripe, most were still really, really yummy--I love berries grown with 20+ hours of daylight!), bouncing on the trampoline (I have always wanted to try one, and can now report that they are as much fun as I thought they would be; I never did outgrow the wish to jump on the bed, though I no longer do so due to fear of damaging the bed), helping out with home-improvement projects (there are now baffles on the roof to keep the snow from sliding off and landing on people walking past), and building the frame for our new rope bed (yay for family with plenty of spare lumber lying around available to be used for such projects!).

Yesterday we managed to get to the store that sells sailing supplies and picked up 40 meters of rope, which turns out to be exactly the amount we needed for the bed:



This was the first attempt at setting it up and figuring out how to lace it. I have since drawn up a diagram showing the correct pattern of over-under for the lacing, and then typed up a description of the over-under path for each time we thread it (E.g. the first three crosses over the bed there are no intersections with previously wrapped bits of rope, but the 4th time we need to cross under the one length that is already there. By the time we get to the 10th crossing of the bed we go under the first two previous lengths of rope we encounter, and under the third. The 20th crossing we will go over, over, under, under, over, under, over. After we test this to make certain the recipe results in the correct lacing pattern I will write the u,o,u or o,o,u,u,o,u,o or whatever next to the numbers on the frame(I wrote the numbers on the frame before we even unlaced it the first time!)

Now that we have a rope bed sleeping at camping events will be much more comfortable (we have a rug that goes over the ropes, then two thermarest camping mats that just fit side by side, then a wool blanket, then the normal sheets, covers, and pillows). However, getting everything into our very small car is going to be a challenge. In theory we pick up the last component for the roof rack today. Assuming that works we can put at least the pavilion poles on the roof, which will free up space in the car, but it will still be an adventure (and exercise in compromise between what we want and what we need to bring) to pack.

Today there is still cooking of food to take with us to be done, a few more projects to finish up, and the roof rack to deal with.

Tomorrow (Thursday) we load the car and start the 20 hour drive south. We need to be there on time to catch the 04:30 ferry to Gotland on Saturday, so we are allowing plenty of time to take breaks to stretch and walk (or dance or other movement) regularly. We will be in Visby at the Medieval week through to the following Saturday morning ferry, and then we have the weekend to drive north again before he has to go to work on Monday.

I won't be bringing my computer, so unless I borrow someone's phone to check in, I will be off line for the whole trip. Hope everyone has a great time, and I hope to see some of you in Visby!

Comments

[fjorlief.livejournal.com]

Have a wonderful adventure in Visby.

I have a rope bed that is my regular bed at home, Bill made it for me years ago. your new rope bed looks much more portable.

[kareina.livejournal.com]

How cool that you sleep on a rope bed at home! Do you need to tighten the ropes often?