"Water, he no got enemy" -Fela Kuti

Lets face it, some things are just funny... even when they lack class or sophistication. Farting yourself awake is funny no matter how old or well-educated you are. Oregon State University, at some point, made the questionable decision of choosing the beaver as their mascot. This of course means that you can go to a football game and scream "Beaver!" at the top of your lungs for hours and not get arrested. Leagues of eager college girls walk around in sweatshirts with things like "Beaver Believer" and "Go Big Beav!" on them. On the edge of town a billboard advertising a new condo reads "Live among beavers!". The strangest example we have seen of the blurry line between team spirit and downright naughtiness is a hair salon and spa that has a sign in the window that says "Get your beaver waxed here". If I was making this up I would be embarrassed, but I'm just reporting the facts. As much a I enjoy living in a town where I have to swallow a laugh every time someone tells me they root for the beavers, I think a more appropriate mascot would be a jellyfish. Corvallis is essentially an aquatic environment this time of year. It rains for days at a time and I fully expect that come spring we'll have to knock the barnacles off the airstream and shoo off an octopus or two. The winter temperatures are nice enough and the evergreens knock the edge off the dreariness, but squishiness is definitely in abundance. Our solution to being pushed indoors has been to put up a tipi, and so far, having some extra space has been a nice change. The trailer has about 75 square feet of space, the tipi has 243 with a middle height of 20 feet.


After laying in the tripod with a clove hitch and some rapa-nui technology, we layed the circumference of the tipi out on a gravel pad with the door facing east.
Here, Nala and the goats shows the canvas laid out prior to being rolled and lifted onto the frame. This part was a bit gruntier than expected.
This is the final product, minus the rain cap. The floor is a waterproof tarp covered with closed-cell foam and a carpet.
Stella shows off the faux-hardwood floors before we put up the inner liner.