How anal are you about your tent and were you a guide?

[WhereTheWildThingsWere]

Have realised am hopelessly anal while camping which is odd as house is a tip very lived in.

When pitching all guys must be in a perfect line, when striking all guys must be tied 'just so'.

Inside the tent it's very much 'a place for everything and eveything in its place'.

Tent is swept constantly.

The beds are made with millitary precision as soon as we are all out of them.

Everything is generally folded/squared/clean.

At the end of this weekends camping I watched a couple saying 'sod it' and just stuffing their unbagged tent into the boot and throwing clothes/pots/toys/boxes on top.

It wasn't even raining.

I looked like this -->

I was a guide, I had discipline whist under canvas literally hammered into me, on arrival at a camp site we had to spend a good amost of times fashioning thinds from poles with plenty of square lashing before there was any chance of rest of refreshment.

Is Baden-Powell to blame? How do you run your tent?

I had a camp dress. And a neckerchief. I got them at 15 or so imagining my future as a proper guider. But then I lapsed, and gave away the horrible camp dress, and all navy items of clothing.

Woodcraft folk camp tends to look like a mini-festival, flags and banners everywhere, and no attention to the correct knotting of your guylines.

Fennel, the woodcraft folk will come a cropper one day with their poorly tied guys and flags and banners. You will be sat under a partially collapsed tent with a moist bit of fabric flapping in your face and your will rue the day you ever left the Guiding movement.

I remember cutting the turf Lovecat, but not in an H shape. Why was that?

We used to sneer at the Woodcraft folk and their scruffy uniforms

The way we were taught it, the H was cut (facing sideways on, like an elongated ][ ) so that you could grab each half of it (ie a ] shape) from the middle and fold it backwards, leaving an oblong patch of bare earth to light your fire in (does that make any sense at all?).

After you'd finished with your fire, you folded the turf back down and stamped it in, then watered it with a bit of dishwater so it could grow back.

That was the theory, anyway!

The cuts make the H slubber, so you have 2 square sections to peel back but which can be rolled over again when you leave

X post!

The brownies in the next hall do look a bit askance at the noisy colourful rabble that comprises our woodcraft folk.

And just occasionally I do have moments of longing for that Efficiency and Sense of Purpose from the guides, in contrast to the woodie anarchy. but my kids absolutely adore it. And (relevant to a camping thread) there is a lot more camping, from a much younger age. we take our 6-10 year olds camping a couple of times a year, and bivvying in the woods, and lots of playing with knives and fire.

Perfect sense. Maybe I wasn't paying attention or maybe my Guiders were negligent on the turf cutting front but I have no memory of that. Latrines, yes, turf folding, no.

It does sound lovely Fennel. I strongly approve of all things fire and knives from an early age.

In defence of the Guides I did spend most of my Sunday a few weeks back tramping round a forest with my rainbows making things out of leaves and twigs.

We are off in a few minutes to make campfires in the forest. I know that guides does this too, and i know it's changed a bit since my day, but maybe my guides was a bit tame, I liked some things about guides and brownies but it was all very demure and contained, I used to find that hard. I look back and can't believe I had my Little House Emblem, complete with Laundress and Hostess and homemaker badge. Bleurgh.

Another queen's guide here, a bit of information DH finds unbelieveably funny It never occurred to me that I might not tie up the guy ropes!

I would like to have a perfectly pitched and perfectly tidy tent, but unfortunately I have DH who is incapable of doing anything properly. But then he wasn't even a cub.

We used to make our own washing up stands for a washing up bowl and a drainer too, but nowadays I just send DH or the DC to do the washing up!

Oooh yes, I remember getting the little house emblem. Must be why I'm such a perfect homemaker now!

Fennel .

Thing I miss most here is no woodcraft folk ds1 started at 5 and went right through dd has started but then we moved and none .I love woodcraft folk way more relaxed and fun than guides etc more outdoorsy and games galore

Having grown up (a bit) I think I'd rather have DD join Woodcraft than the Brownies or Guides, as I do prefer the ethos. None near us, though :(

Well I was (briefly) a guide but left the week before my mates got thrown out asked to leave for being disruptive!

At home dh is the anally tidy one and I am the scruff bag. Camping it is the total complete opposite - could have written lovecats post about 'wht have you done with my wife?'

Not sure I'm that bothered about guy ropes though sorry but maybe I'll pay more attention to them this year!

Ooh, local Woodcraft Folk meet very close to us (not quite as close as Rainbows/Brownies, but near enough), I might have to bear that in mind. DD is currently between Rainbows and Brownies, having been booted out of the former after turning 7, but having no place in the latter yet.

The local branch of the older kids' version appears to be called Urban Peace Pandas. Cool. :o

Hmm there are woodcraft folk meetings near us but no details of exactly when/where on the page. Looks great, but I want to do it too. I'm currently looking into doing some forest schools training. All very exciting.

I fall into the very organised on holiday/hopeless at home camp. But then I was neither a guide nor a brownie. It was ballet for me which ended with crushing disappointment when I didn't get into the Royal Ballet School.

Oh wow, of course! I too am not that much of a domestic goddess but put me under canvas ....

I have to get up and tidy the tent, I have an assortment of boxes, and "everything in its place" mentality, an overwhelming urge to tie up my sleeping bag in the morning into a groundsheet. And when we strike camp I always sit and scrape all the mud off the pegs before they go in the bag.

I had honestly never made that connection with Guides before but you're right!

Mee too! I am constantly tidying and sorting and arranging stuff in the tent. And when I pack up, the guy ropes get tied up, and everything is packed away in it's proper place. I am an absolute midden at home so I don't know what causes the freakish tidy-obsession it in the tent! Although, I do not go as far as DH who wipes mud off the pegs and also wipes the bottom of the footprint groundsheet til it's clean. That's just madness. He is a Queens Scout though, whereas I am just a common or garden Guide.

Since there's loads of former guides on here, answer me this - I seem to recall making camping seats out of folded up newspaper and bin bags. Did I dream that?

Scaryt, they are discouraged from giving out exact details of where and when children's groups meet online or on posters, it's a child protection thing.

I am another one, I was a brownie and a guide and am now a guider.

In fact I just had to tell you that we made bunting last night for our upcoming camp.

I am so excited, it is not traditional bunting but the guides designed their flags themselves and I am going to laminate them and put them on strings to hang on the guy lines.

I insist on tying up guy lines and brushing the mud of the bottom of the groundsheet before I fold it up.lol.

We also insist that the guides learn to make bedding rolls. Very traditional Guide camp but we too sleep in venture 500's.

[Well I don't I sleep in my quechua 4.1 now.]

anal checking of guy ropes, turning washing up bowl upside down, wrapping everything up with fold side down on groundsheet, hook-hanging, matches in ziplock bag ex girl guide but sadly only occassional camper here

DH also thinks i am mad.

especially since i am a slattern much more relaxed about tidyness at home

and YY to weaving sitters out of folded newspapers and carrier bags

Hey AuntieMonica, what do they all say when you go out shopping?

Slubber!!!

you are the only person who has ever GOT my name!!!

they all say 'oo la-la' of course!

because her muff is swaying

I was just going to ask how your muff was swaying actually?

scaryt are you just going via the main Woodcraft site, or have you tried googling for your local one? Cos there are no details (except name) on the main site, but I can find a little bit more about my local one via their own website ... erm, exactly where and when they meet actually