Friday, August 15, 2008

Tipi part 4- finishing touches

Two more poles are needed to control the smoke vent flaps.
The smoke vent poles have a small cross shaped bar not far from the top,
so that you can carefully slide the pole into the hole/flap for the vent on each side,
and so that the canvas will rest against the crossbar,
as this park volunteer is doing here:

One on each side; here you can see how the vent flap is attached:


The pole can be moved around the side of the tipi,
so that you can cross over the vent flap to seal out rain:


And in fine weather it provides further ventilation,
especially for the fire inside.



Women put up the tipis in Nez Perce society.
In fact, women owned the tipis.
If a woman ever wanted to boot out her man,
she could put his stuff outside the tipi,
and he would know he was no longer welcome.
Heh.
I picture some no-nonsense Nez Perce lady tossing out her husband's stuff,
in the pouring rain,
the night after he'd been cavorting about inappropriately.

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