A glass of wine sat around the campfire...

[SeaShellsAndTheInlawInvasion]

so I am fed up with the rest of MN (this whole mamazon shite really is the ,last straw), so I am assuming that if any of you are trolling you are showing extraordinary persistence by delving into the thrills of iceytec and are worth chatting to.

So anyway, hi, I am SeaShells, I have 2 dc and have been camping and trapsing through the Great Outdoors all my life. I hang out here as my love of camping is more a love of the countryside and life, and you lot have a similar outlook.

< admires well made fire and tastefully arranged logs with throws>

Well, I've sent a detailed e-mail now, with timing, descriptions, suggestions etc etc. Thought about it, and because I'm rubbish at confrontations thought e-mail might be better as I can list all the facts, risks etc without getting flustered.

Good plan Sal. I always get terribly English and apologetic, I would have ended up apologizing for pitching my tent within their trajectory

Wildthings-I've booked my smear, hope you did to! Yet tried to get me to chicken out by being engaged all morning but I managed to not find anymore excuses!

So not sure if anyone saw but Nettletea said the MN camp on her farm at aug may still go ahead. We are now officially broke (4weeks before I go back to work though) but we still hope to do something holiday lcamping like this summer...So keeping it in mind...

Same here, SeaShells, I think I started and ended my e-mail by apologizing. Urgh. You know what? I actually apologized to the boys who initially refused to remove their soon-to-be-bonfire from our pitch! There is no hope, no wonder they're trying to kill me off...

And yes, just saw Nettle's update. If all goes to plan, we're def in. Would be lovely to meet.

I'm disgusted on your behalf to, MisSal. How old were these boys, anyway? 10-yr-old-needs-better-fire-education, or Youfs? Tch tch.

well, I have finally tied DH down and we have ORDERED our tent! It's a 5 m Soulpad, so no marks for originality, but I am very excited. It's one with a separate groundsheet, because aside from mention of the odd beetle, I haven't ever found anyone who said this was a major drawback in terms of leaks, sub-tent rivers or bug infestation. PLEASE don't now come out of the woodwork and tell me your separate-groundsheet-horrors. I have a teeny bit of buyer's remorse (did we get the right one? Should we not have used the Go Outdoors discount card and got a nylon thingy with a covered porch, separate rooms and storage? will DS1 Touch The Walls all the time?) but that's standard for me - anything that costs more than £15.99 is agonised over after I've flashed cash. (Not that I'm a miserly tight wallet - quite the contrary, I'm a terrible spendthrift, but I do it guiltily.)

So we're going to try a weekend locally before our festival (at least two weekends if I can manage it) to troubleshoot and break the DSs tent in a bit. Any tips for almost-virginal campers (haven't camped in about 8 years) with small children? And how can I stop DS1 from packing his entire collection of brio and trains?

I think I should confess to a bit of lunacy pre-preparation too. We camped on 17th June for the weekend, and have several more trips planned in before the end of the summer. When I came back I didn't put it all the kit back in the garage where it normally lives for the rest of the year. All my stuff is carefully laid out in the front room, with essential items in one area and sub-sections for trips lasting more than a couple of nights. I've also done practice packing the car for different variations of trip, ie no DH = inclusion of moon chair, etc. DH too, has done the eye-rolling thing.

Do I need Help, or am I simply very odd organised ?

Needs-better-fire-education (and perhaps the occasional supervision) 10-yr-olds really. I can understand the running off for adventure thing - there were lots of little groups around the woods and in the streams, and it was good, old fashioned fun. E.g. that monster catching game where you all run and the person in the middle needs to catch those running through, throwing each other with grass (away from the adults), walking in the streams, etc etc. It's just the fire thing - if you can't have really strict safety rules that you know your children will follow, you need to supervise them a little closer imo. And I'm saying this as someone that grew up on a farm and was off getting dirty on adventures as often as possible.

More importantly, re your new tent! You will not regret it, trust me! I'm actually a tiny bit jealous, wish we'd gone for the 5m instead. Love ours, nothing wrong with it, but when we don't take the utility pop-up, I often wish we had more space to put stuff away without getting too cramped. First time we went without travel cot in ages this weekend, and it worked brilliantly, so we've got some space back again.

With toys - take a couple of small things (cars, trains, story books, Ipad ) to keep him happy in case it rains.

Well, notwaving, I don't know whether you're odd, but I think your approach is considerably more sensible than mine - I'm more a bang-it-in kinda camper. Never good, and means I forget half the stuff we do need and take too much of others. Had to open a tin with a tent pen and mallet this weekend...

It's good you complained though Sal, I know you managed to save yourselves from incineration but someone else might not have been so lucky. Hopefully it was just an isolated incident.

I must admit, I'm dreading packing for camping. For a start, the car has to be cleared of all the spare clothes/nappies/toys/dropped rice cakes. And then I'm a chronic overpacker. We recently went on holiday in the UK and I and the DSs only wore about 1/3 of our clothes. But when you're holidaying in an unpredictable climate, what can you do? (weaning DS2 not helping on overpacking front either. messy)

Glad to hear I made the right choice after all! Anyone know how long soulpad normally take to deliver? Would I be too optimistic to hope we get it in time for my birthday at the weekend if we ordered online last night?

on the soulpad

They are like tent porn to me.

Sadly we only bought the Go Outdoors nylon job last year so it's going to be a while before it wears out

Notwaving, you are an odd-ball

I cannot BEAR camping stuff in my house. It has to be washed, repacked and neatly restored in the garage pronto.

Two days I had the Cobb in my kitchen, urgh, gave me the splayed toes.

Camping stuff & Household stuff. Never the twain shall meet.

well, in my defence, the front room is actually downstairs (three storey house) and I do not have to look at it on a daily basis. We don't use the room for anything except as a telly room for the DSs and me, so its practically an extension of the garage which is next door.

It will all be packed neatly onto its own racking in the garage once the camping season is over. Honest guv.

at the Pringle Rocket - that's terrifying.
I can't get that thread about the tent up in flames out of my mind, tbh.
Where were you camping, Sal? It sounds lovely apart from that.

We had a lovely weekend the w/e before last, at Welsummer. My first visit there. V small, and lots of families with v young children - more syuted to small children, our 10 yo boys declared the woods not adventurous enough compared to Forgewood. The whole atmosphere is great though and we really appreciated the little shop - fab sausages, ice lollies, and some fresh baked muffins.

P.S how do you make a pringle rocket? they sound v exciting. When not on a campsite, of course!

yeah yeah notwaving. You just LOVE those boxes don't you. To find your happy place do you imagine your camping boxes? Do You?

Sal I also would like to hear how you make a pringles rocket.
In a spectacular Heath Robinson moment I transformed a pringles tube into an inhaler spacer device few years back in the tent in Anglesey for dd1 and her irritating cough which turned out to be pneumonia

Lol Blu, I wanted ask that question but didn't dare

Hmm, just did a search, and found this. Sounds like it was another take on this - it was stuffed full of tissues and paper, so I take it this will start burning when rocket lit. Was surprised at the number of You Tube links that had boys playing with lighter fluid / hairspray and lit matches or gas lighters.

Oh, in my search, I found this alternative to the Diet Coke Volcano. As long as you're faaaaar away from others (i.e. middle of a field), harmless and spectacular. Ignore the disgusting burp. Eww.

It was you lot, wasn't it?!

My cousins demonstrated to my DS how to make flour blow up in mid air. And developed a taped together device involving a two-way lilo pump, a small plastic funnel and the flame from a camping gas bottle. Then they tried filling a balloon with flour and setting fire to that.

But it was obvious how dangerous fires in mills are.

I am very dubious about all those lanterns with real fire floating off over very dry woods and crops, and understand why sites like Forgewood ban them.

Glad you apologised complained Sal, it was the Right Thing to do.

Ooooh Reshape a Bell Tent, you must be beside yourself with anticipation . I too suffer from the angst of spending more than £15 in One Go, it's ridiculous.

Am going to create Camping Boxes this weekend in an attempt to get some organisation around this whole idea in my idea that is Camping - terribly woolly at the moment, need to get down to the details.

Blu, it was Wowo in East Sussex. Frank's Spot on the Tipi Trail - it's wonderful. We're never camped in the general camping area, as this part is my idea of heaven. Only thing though - the compost toilets were horrendous this time, so a good 15 minutes walk to cleaner portacabin ones. Still worth it though.

bloody hell at attaching a pringles can to a gas tap!

Aha!
Never been to WoWo - am too disorganised and never book far enough in advance, also not sure my campfire strumming credentials are strong enough.

Oooh, what shall i do? I have a perfectly servicable tent, but am wondering whether to buy a Decathlon pop-up, as I am pitching and striking by myself more often than not, but then I couldn't even think about buying an Icey tek as well, not this year, anyway....

I've just wasted 20mins watching YouTube videos of other people's mis-spent youth!! So this is what the others did

I'm gonna make me a coke and menthos rocket at mn camp

at Pringles rocket.

Still trying to finalise our next trip, but I have ordered myself a new waterproof jacket in anticipation !