Backyard camping with Dad and Grampa

Westhead, England

Wrong.

Two skeleton Wordgirl and Huggy .

Backyard Camping

I slept kinda rough the “night” before so cold water and grape seed oil was all I made time for that day(even for lip moisture). My dad made BBQ (I could only handle a burger. That thing was huge) and I made potato wedges and spicy rotel dip. My practice tent stayed up for 3 windy nights so me and my bestfriend had some lunch inside before parting ways 🥲

Fun fact: no matter how old you guys get, whenever you get together with your bestfriend(s), you guys act the same age you actually met.

I moved into a tent in my backyard in May. It started out just my 6 man tent. I had an air mattress in there and had curtained off an area that had a coffee table and one of those floor chairs. I called it my ‘office’ even though I don’t have a job. It was where I sat to do my blogging and my journaling. Where I hung out when I was learning things.

So, the space grew. I put a larger tarp over the tent and pulled it out past the front of the tent; giving myself a covered porch of sorts. I had a chair under there and I loved sitting there when it was raining. It was incredible. I love sitting outside in the rain. The sound of the rain on the tarp is one of my favourite sounds.

A week or two later I pulled the tarp out a little further and added a second chair and a little table. Now, I had a whole seating area on my, now much larger, porch. This was amazing. I sat out there all the time. I spent hours and hours sitting there writing, enjoying my backyard, enjoying being outside, and not being stuck in the house for the summer. My cat even came out and joined me on occasion.

One day, I was feeling particularly annoyed with the world. i did not want to be part of it. I did not want to see any of it. I wanted it all to go away. So, the tarp came out even further... and right down to the ground so I now had a completely enclosed space. Well, that was fucking amazing. My own private outdoor room now. Inside, outside, without being in the tent. Fantastic. (The tent was red, I don’t like red. I didn’t enjoy being inside the tent all that much for very long). I moved the poles that I had been using to prop up my porch roof and found a few more to support the rest of the tarp on my now much larger space.

I think this is where things started getting a little out of hand. I now had my tent under this giant, enclosed space and I fucking loved it. I wanted more! I was so excited by this. I just kept adding and adjusting things daily. Before I knew it I had a seating area, an extra chair, the shelves I brought in from the shed, the box that I turned into a table so that I could put my 5 gallon water jug on, and all my art stuff was now in the tent. I had full-on moved out to the backyard. I had electricity. I got some string lights and lit up inside of the tent and under the tarp. Ok, I got a lot of string lights.

Next, I got myself a pool. Just a little 8’ pool. But I had my own private friggen pool underneath my tarp in my private outdoor room. That was incredible. Also incredible, I remembered to get a pool at the beginning of the summer before it was 8 bajillion degrees and everyone was sold out of pools! That alone was awesome because I’ve been trying to do that for, I think, three summers now.

Ok, so tent, tarp room, seating area, extra chair, 5 gallon water jug so I don’t have to keep going in the house to fill up my water bottles, pool, string lights, ‘bedroom’, ‘office’, and all my art supplies. We’re getting a little crazy here, no? No. It gets better.

The tent I was using is like 16yrs old. The poles are collapsing. Like the space inside the tent has probably been reduced by a good 30%. So, I found a good deal on a tent. I ended up with two new tents because I found an even better deal on a second tent. (The second tent is red. Ugh. But whatever. It was an amazing deal and it doesn’t need to be my primary tent). The blue tent, however. The blue tent went up right away.

Now, I have two tents. The old tent under the big tarp and the new blue tent, I moved my ‘bedroom’ to the blue tent. I also started using that as my ‘office’ space and dedicated the red tent to my art space. Once it got too cold for the pool I moved my giant lounger floatie into the blue tent and now I have a couch/lounger in here. It holds all my half dirty clothes as a piece of furniture in a bedroom should.

The blue tent is also under a giant tarp that I’ve connected to the other tarp. The tarp is open in front of the blue tent but still pretty private in front of the red tent. Nobody can see anything really under any part of the tarp unless they’re in my yard.

Everything is bungeed and tied down. The supports underneath, for the most part, are also tied in place somehow – otherwise, the wind gusts take them out. (I’ve got a better plan for that next year because right now I still have some that fall over every time) Also, finally, I’ve got it all supported in a way that no water pools anywhere on top of the tarp. Amazing, because I nearly lost the entire setup during a hell of a rainstorm one day. That was fun, and a story for another time.

I am a camper at heart and I’ve totally been in my element for the past five months. One of my favourite things has been adjusting the tarps every time it gets really windy or starts pouring rain – making things better and better each time.

So, I’ve been living out here since May. It’s now October 1. I think I plan on, sadly, disassembling my summer home on Thanksgiving weekend (October 10th ish) because it’s supposed to be a beautiful weekend and I’m going to run out of dry days to take everything down soon.

This has truly been an oasis for me. I have done so much journaling, so much self-reflection, and so much learning out here this summer. The little sleep I have gotten has been the best sleep I’ve had in probably over a year.

Monday night the plan was for Matt and the older kids to campout in the backyard. Emily and I enjoyed dinner and s’mores, but Emily sleeping in her crib is pretty much mandatory given that she isn’t the greatest night sleeper.