Camping News

I guess this is the forum for this type of post. We're getting ready to send my youngest to his first Boy Scout camp. They sent a list of things to send with him. One was a cot with mosquito netting. We have a lot of camping stuff, but it's stuff collected over the years. We also camp with air beds, not cots. My husband wanted to price several places and see what was the cheapest place to get a cot. I figured Walmart would be the cheapest, even though I'd have to settle for Made in China. I don't have it in front of me, but I think I found one made in Missouri. It was fairly cheap, being $33.88. I was shocked. My husband did have to alter it a little. The end pieces were too long for the mosquito netting that he bought at the Army/Navy store. So he took the end caps out, sawed 2 inches off each end and put the end caps back on. Normally when you buy the regular Army cots, they apparently are ready to accept the netting. My husband had to make a frame for this one.

It's a good thing I have a handy husband. He just happened to have a whole bunch of broom handles lying around. I guess it pays to be a pack-rat. He sawed them off to the proper height, and made a 3-legged frame that lays along the ground and pokes up through the cot to hold up the mosquito netting. There has to be one in the middle that's just zip-tied to the frame, and a second one that he puts up after he gets in bed, but he has a netting.

He was so excited, he slept on the patio last night to try it out. Just the cot and netting with a blanket over it, no tent.

But it got me to thinking. At that price, we could all get one. The frame my husband made was easy to make; he made it in about an hour after work. I think the netting cost about $20, so together it would cost about $55 for each person to have the set up. It would all fit in a little bag, and in an emergency, you wouldn't NEED a tent if it was mild weather. My husband even mentioned if you had a poly tarp, it would keep the rain off. If we had to bug out, we could do it. It would transport with a big backpack. If you had more time, it packs less than the big double thick air bed with an air pump, and you don't have to worry about the air bed losing air. And I always hated that the air bed was cold in the winter time.

My grandparents camped that way.....OMGOSH...I've turned into my grandparents! Everything old is new again. What was it grandpa used to say? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. They had a tent, a couple cots, a Coleman stove a dining fly and coolers full of food and would run every day or two and get ice. They would camp for a whole month refilling supplies from the local store. Grandma cooked simple meals, just camping meals; Vienna sausage out of the can for lunch or sandwiches, eggs, bacon, toast for breakfast...to tell you the truth, I don't really remember dinner, but I know it was simple and filling. I would go with her a month at a time. They would come home, mow the lawn and get their check to put in the bank, drop me off and go back. Fun times. I have a feeling if it comes to camping that long this time around, it won't be that fun.

We have a trailer, but right now it's just a frame. It had a particle board bottom, and it was out in the weather and it deteriorated away. My husband wants to put a solid bottom or a better steal honey comb frame. I would like one of the boy scout grub boxes on it. You can probably google the plans from the boy scout site, they're great, if you've ever seen one. It's a storage unit and a cooking facility all in one. Our little trailer probably has enough room to do the grub box on one end and leave the end for a big Rubbermaid box for storing the tent and cots on the other end. We'll have to see.

My suggestion for everyone this time is to gather your camping gear or buy some. Get familiar with how to use it if you're not. Practice camping even if it's in your back yard or at a campground really close to you. Get it down to an art/science. We haven't camped in a really long time, and only go once a year now. That's not often enough to have it down. I may start asking my husband if we can have pretend drills where we have to load everything up and then camp in our yard and lock the doors as if we were gone. Or maybe trip the main power so the kids can't come in and use the facilities....why camp if the TV is available?

Lori Ann Smith