[Rancid Crabtree]

Then it's time to put it up. Three poles are set and marked as the ones that will form the tripod. They are lashed together and set up and the rest of the poles are set in the "V" created by the intersecting poles. All work is done on the ground. No ladder is needed.





Then all the poles are held together by circling around and around and tying off the rope to one of the poles so the process can be reversed when taking the Tipi down.



The last pole is used to lift the canvas in place and is called the lifting pole. The canvas is tied to the lifting pole and then lifted and leaned against the rest of the poles.



Then the canvas is walked around the frame of poles.



While the canvas is still loose, the lacing pins are installed.





To tighten and stretch the canvas to give the tipi a full and tight look, all the bases of the poles are moved outwards. The canvas is held tight by tying it off to stakes. To keep the canvas from ripping, small stones are lashed into the canvas with ropes and it's those ropes that are used to tie it down. The outer Tipi does not go all the way to the ground. This creates an area for air to come up and in between the outer Tipi and the inner liner. As the air warms, it rises. It acts like the attic of your house and it's this circulation that carries the smoke up and out.





The next step is to insert the smoke poles. These poles are shorter than the other poles and allow for adjusting the smoke flaps based on wind direction and allows for closing them all together in case of rain.





The bottom of the smoke flaps are tied off to something to direct the wind or left untied in calm.



Here they are closed for the night and this picture reminds me that I forgot to mention painting the Tipi