Teepee in Progress
Lt -Rt: My Wife Sarah, Me, My Brother Larry and His Wife Lilia
A couple of friends of mine, Gary Stairs and George Probst and I thinned out a few trees on Gary's property, not last winter but the winter before. As soon as the limbs were cut off, we loaded them into a trailer and hauled them off to my place, with the idea that I would attempt building a Plains Indian's teepee at the end of spring after I had skinned all the bark off them with a draw knife. I believe I skinned about three of them before I had to put it aside to work on more important projects. So, for the longest time, the poles just lay in a pile by the fire pit until my brother arrived with some of his family and a friend for a very short two day visit from Alberta - they were on their way to Halifax, Nova Scotia to attend their daughter's college graduation ceremony.
The night of their arrival, I wasn't surprised to see my brother haul out a good sized bottle of 110 proof Absinthe, which he also brought to my wedding in 07/07/07. Sarah and I had a great wedding, which was held at our friends, Paul and Sharon Niddrie's 2 acre estate in Cedar, near Nanaimo. The reception lasted for about 2 days and we supplied the booze - two kegs of beer and about 100 bottles of wine. I was fine knocking back the beer as fast as a dying of thirst Arab that's just dragged his scrawny ass across 100 miles of burning sand to an oasis containing an unlimited amount of the sweetest water on earth. That is, I was fine until come next morning, Larry hauled out a bottle of Absinthe and we poured it over a sugar cube per single shot and knocked them back with glee. Reminded me of the time a friend of mine Judi De Yoe, who occasionally cut my hair, introduced me to what she called, a Golden Cadillac. Well hell, they went down smoother than a sucked-back snout full of snot and before I knew it, my legs had a life of their own or should I say not much life - standing and talking without slurring was a definite problem. And so it was the same at the wedding.
I easily drank down half of Larry's Abstinthe and was surprised that I was in just as good condition as if I'd knocked back a case of beer (I've had over 50 good years of pounding back beers) but I was sore - my back, hips and hands ached something awful - this being old and plagued with arthritis is just no fun - jobs that at one time were simple are becoming a real chore. Now, by big bro (actually younger brother) looks at my stack of teepee poles in the morning, after breakfast, decides that we should finish skinning them and erect the skeleton of the teepee. I was trying to talk him out of it by saying he should just enjoy his visit and not do any work. But he'd have none of that, just said we could jaw away while we peeled poles. So, after I'd peeled three of them with a hatchet and Larry had done twice that with the draw knife, I had to pack it in because of the pain and the cloud of black-flies hovering around my head. I thought Larry would quit when I walked away but no, there he stood, dressed only in shorts and a T-shirt, just merrily peeling away. Unbelievable; I was, covered head to toe and the black-flies were having a feast on me, while my brother wearing hardly any protection doesn't get so much as a bite. Some say that the black-flies like sweet blood, but at almost 72 years old, there aint nothing sweet about this aging old man.
I'd check on my brother every now and then to see how he was doing but he was a determined man-in-motion to finish skinning the teepee poles and he'd even recruited his daughter Deserai to give him a hand. Well, it wasn't long before the poles were lying naked in a heap and after I lashed three of them together near the top with a long piece of braided rawhide, we had the beginnings of the teepee under way. Didn't take too much longer, we had all the poles in place and roughly spaced to about a 19' diameter. I have to say, it was great to see our efforts, especially my big bro's, finally take shape. Of course, now comes the mind-bending part; trying to figure out the measurements for the tarp to wrap around the teepee's skeleton. I can't be making any serious mistakes in that department because a large tarp is going to be on the pricey side. A lot of people use canvas but since the most natural would be to use buffalo hides, I'm going to use a white vinyl tarp, maybe paint 'er up with some sort of native designs - something that won't clash with the red tuct-tape, I've been told to use.
A friend of mine, Stephen Harvey and his son Mitch just dropped off six cords of firewood this weekend, so I suspect, until I recoup some of that expense, the tarp for the teepee is on hold, and hopefully, the pesky black-flies will no longer be around when I purchase one. It's been a chilly, rainy morning and the studio is definitely on the cool side and since a few friends have dropped into our now open on weekends, Golden Unicorn Farm, tiny coffee shop, I do believe I'll go have a chit-chat with them over a good hot cup of hot coffee- cheers, eh!
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