6
Tuesday, May 10, 1977
University Daily Kansan
LIFE IN THE WOODS.
A small garden plot will provide fresh, organic vegetables this summer for Lucast and Ermeling.
"Then they hear the sounds of Harmony, and they look up, wanting to perceive it." [from Seven Arrows]
Nestled in a walnut grove outside Lawrence, two students have made a home in the woods. Unlike most students, they must worry about wood to keep warm in the cold and enough water to last until their next trip to town.
Suzanne Ermerling, Lawrence junior, and Chip Lucas, Kanast City, Kan., senior, live in a tip, "TIP" is an Indian word meaning "for living in." A tip can be an attractive item that fits in with nature.
Ermeling and Lucast became disenchanted with Lawrence housing, so they tried a tip.
"It's better than living in the cockroach-infested student ghettoes," Lucas said. "The move was more towards basic independence, but I have done it without the support of friends."
Ernelming said: "We try to get by on the very bare necessities. I don't like to have any more that I really need to get by on."
Armelling and Lucas say they work as a lawn designer, designated as male or female. Armelling cuts wood and dug most of the ground for their garden.
The tipi has been occupied by one or the other of them since last June. The tipi was atop a hill, but before winter they moved it to a lower point. The tipi is now situated in a valley, which provides privacy and a natural windbreak.
A tripod with other poles placed around it forms the tin's base.
The pine poles are 22 feet long. Fourteen poles are used, two of which serve as smoke poles. They were bought from a fence company in Colorado. The poles were lined with rubber and rubbed down with oilseed oil for weatherproofing.
overlapping pieces that have pegs placed through holes.
An outside flap can be lowered over the entrance and inside flap can be folded down for double protection from rain.
The smoke poles are used to hold smoke flaps open and are moved easily for opening or closing the flaps. With the smoke flaps open a draft is created to draw heat from the room during warm months the opening serves as a skylight.
The last pole that goes into position is used to carry the canvas, made of medium-weight materials and sewn with nylon thread. It is spread around the poles and stretched tight. It is held together in front by
Inside, the lodge has a diameter of about 20 feet and is about 12 feet wide. It sits on a desk, a small short table for preparing meals or studying, and a bed placed opposite the place of honor."
Above the bed is the lowered ceiling, which helps trap heat for warmth. This double ceiling protects the bed below rain that falls through the top.
They have had to train themselves to wake up in the night to feed the fire in the wood-burning stove and rely on the stove for cooking as well as for heat.
"During the coldest months of last winter we were toasty inside," Lucas said.
"When snow is on the ground and there’s a full moon, it’s really a trip walking down to the tipi with the light red flash."
"You just have to learn your stove and how to adjust it," Lucas said.
"It's beautiful; snow and a tipi are magical.
Tipi living means bedding down and listening to the sound of crickets, frogs and the distant sound of a coyote calling—not the sound of a police siren.
'It's beautiful; snow and a tipi are magical.
The rain is a problem but "not unbearable," Lucast said.
Living in a tipi is a learning experience for Ermellung and Lucasat, an expert on it," he said.
By Mike Campbell
How to keep warm,
taken for granted by
most students, has been
considered very difficult
experience.
The lodge with a diameter of about 20 feet is a spacious room with adequate room for two people to live. Kerosene lamps and a light bulb wired to a 12-volt-car battery provide light for reading.
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