Rules for your campsite?

[toedtoes]

Re: Rules for your campsite?

dont camp with many italians do you?
any excuse for a feast

Ha, my Mom's family is Italian.

My food limitation is only if you are staying in my clipper. When I plan meals, I always plan for lots of food - but it is very well planned to provide a variety of meals, with little to no leftover ingredients (e.g., if I bring 2 lbs of hamburger, then the meals are planned to utilize the full 2 lbs of hamburger - no bringing home 1.5 lbs), and minimizing the amount of storage needed so it's not in the way of everything being done in the clipper.

If you want to bring a Costco run of food, then get yourself some coolers and a tent and ice. I'll drive you from here to there, but once we're there, you're on your own - none of that stuff is crowding my space.

[toedtoes]

Re: Rules for your campsite?

Hey, your clipper = your rules! Sounds fair to me.

And who would want their face towel used for cleanup? Yuck!

In her defense, she didn't realize I had a "kitchen towel" and a "face towel" - she saw a towel by the sink and grabbed it. But, when I grabbed the other towel and said "no, this is for the dishes, that's my face towel", she gave me that look. Since then, I have repaired the faucet in the bathroom, so my face towel stays in there - away from potential dish duty.

[NYCgrrl]

Re: Rules for your campsite?

Ha, my Mom's family is Italian.

My food limitation is only if you are staying in my clipper. When I plan meals, I always plan for lots of food - but it is very well planned to provide a variety of meals, with little to no leftover ingredients (e.g., if I bring 2 lbs of hamburger, then the meals are planned to utilize the full 2 lbs of hamburger - no bringing home 1.5 lbs), and minimizing the amount of storage needed so it's not in the way of everything being done in the clipper.

If you want to bring a Costco run of food, then get yourself some coolers and a tent and ice. I'll drive you from here to there, but once we're there, you're on your own - none of that stuff is crowding my space.

There are no known/acknowledged Italians in my family but doesn't stop us from following their food philosophy; mo is mo but errrrrrrr I do know what my space limitations are.

[Cory Hess]

Re: Rules for your campsite?

Wow. I have never considered that rules would be necessary

This is kind of where I'm at as well. If somebody isn't fun to camp with we just don't camp with them anymore. It seems super weird to me that somebody would make a list of rules for other people. I probably wouldn't ever camp with somebody like that.

[toedtoes]

Re: Rules for your campsite?

I see the rule setting more of an establishment of expectations.

If you have the same folks camping each time, you've developed a system that works between you. Everyone has found their "place' in the system.

If you have new people joining in all the time (Joe brings Sally this trip; Susan brings the Conners next trip; and so on), then the system gets messed up. Newcomers don't know where they fit, so they sit off to the side trying to be unobtrusive and stay out of the way. Some are normally shy and are afraid to offer help - although if you ask them they'd be happy to do so. Some are just plain lazy and won't do anything unless commanded to do so. Some don't know how to help - they've never camped and don't know how to wash dishes without a kitchen sink, etc. Some see you doing things so efficiently that they are afraid they'll just make more work for you by helping (and many folks TELL them to just leave it to them, so they have become over-sensitive to trying to help).

Setting the "ground rules" lets folks know right at the beginning what is expected of them. It also lets newbies ask "I've never camped before, how do I get hot water to wash the dishes?" without fearing the exasperated "oh, brother! Don't worry about it, I'll do it!"

[NYCgrrl]

Re: Rules for your campsite?

I see the rule setting more of an establishment of expectations.

Agreed past the no shoes or food in tent thingies. I view most get-togethers as social gatherings that don't need much in further explanation. Still the older I get the more people of various ages seem to forget basic etiquette.
I can get peeved and disown em or just explain the ground rules; I rather explain the ground rules clearly and disown em later if need be.

Later this summer I'll be gathering with a large group of David Bowie admirers for a long weekend, many who have never primitive camped before. Trust me they need rules so if nothing else some of em don't have Woodstock flashback.

[a65hoosier]

Re: Rules for your campsite?

Usually it is just 2 or 3 of us (immediate family). We've been doing this so long that certain good camping practices are always followed. We all have our set-up and take down chores that we just "do". lol...we run like a fine military unit. But again, this is a little camping team who've been camping together for 25+ years: me, wife, 12 yo son, and every once in a while...the 19 yo D.

When we have extended family camp with us (annual summer get together), there are certain things we go over with everyone (no food/shoes in the tent, no running in camp, no swinging burning marshmallows around/etc.). There really isn't much, but more of a reminder of the unique hazards in a campsite (fire pit anyone?, trip over guy lines) present and the reasons why doing certain things isn't a good idea.

Earlier when the extended family got together camping, we used to have group meals (usually breakfast & dinner) and group clean up. After a while, it just got to be too big of a hassle (menu planning, people forgetting to bring their items, randomly changed/substituted food) so we switched to each family "bringing your own food and pots" and "clean your own dishes/utensils". I still bring all the stoves needed, provide a tripod grill, and a couple of tubs for washing...but each family is on their own to plan, bring, and whip up their feasts....and cleanup any "stuck on" wreckage from said feast.

[NYCgrrl]

Re: Rules for your campsite?

, no swinging burning marshmallows around/etc..

Gosh, yer no fun..........

My first sleep away GS camp stay as a kiddo involved a flaming marshmallow falling on my hand (taught me a lesson about the consequences of greed); a wasp sting on my eyelid and my inability to comb my hair properly. Not sure why at the end of the trip my mother decided to claim me at the train station.

[a65hoosier]

Re: Rules for your campsite?

lol...NYCgrrl...I'm fun, but putting out a burning marshmallow stuck on your coat is not fun. I can still see the flaming comet of marshmallow headed towards me....and......"splatt", right on the front chest pocket, still burning. Wrecked a new coat and burned my hand trying to swipe it off. Sigh. The creation of a new rule. lol

[NWCamper]

Re: Rules for your campsite?

Cory Hess: To each their own. But there's no question that things have gone more smoothly after setting these rules into place. And really, it just covers basic common courtesy and camping etiquette. I'm not about to tell someone when they should go to bed or the "proper" way to wash their dishes or anything (now THOSE kinds of people are no fun to camp with).

Toedtoes: Exactly, thank you!

NYCgrrl: Wasp sting to the eyelid?? That made me flinch!

Edited to include a missing "or".

[toedtoes]

Re: Rules for your campsite?

I started camping with 4-H - hence my personal rules:

1. if you don't want it stolen by Artesians, hung up the flagpole, frozen in a jug of ice, or used in an act of embarrassment at campfire, then you keep it hidden in the bottom of your sleeping bag.

2. always sleep with your sleeping bag over your head and tucked underneath - otherwise you WILL wake up to indelible marker on your body and the above mentioned items in #1 above taken from you while you sleep.

Those two rules got me unscathed through 9 years of torture.