I've been dying to sleep outside in my hammock since I got it - but having a mostly tree-free back yard makes that hard. Thursday I built my TurtleDog stand to solve that problem, and last night I got to give it a try! The predicted low was 64 - so that didn't sound too bad.
Setup was this:
1) ENO Doublenest
2) Harbor Freight camo tarp
3) No sew poncho liner underquilt
4) Superman Snuggie as my top quilt
5) ENO Underbelly containing a synthetic down blanket as a backup TQ
Quick pics - story to follow:
I made the decision around midnight, so I set everything up in the dark - which surprisingly went pretty well aside from putting the tarp on the "wrong angle" at first. I wanted to have it asymmetrically hung with more coverage over my head/feet, and I had it reversed.
Got into bed around 1:30 - it was still around 70 out, so I went in with shorts, a t-shirt, and some wool socks. Laid there listening to the bullfrogs in the swamp for a while and must have fallen asleep for a few minutes because the next thing I new I jumped awake because of an ambulance going by!Lucky for us they hang out at the gas station on the corner in case they get a call. After that I noticed mosquitoes had discovered me. I foolishly had forgotten to apply bug spray to the exposed areas (head, neck, face, arms) and did not have a plan for a bug net... so around 2:30am I gave in and snagged the bug spray. I made a "bug shield" by spraying down a shemagh (THIS if you don't know the word) with some Off and using it as a head covering.
That worked great! I slept soundly until almost 5... when I woke up very cold. I checked the temperature and found this nice surprise:
Luckily I just had to reach under me and pull out the synthetic down blanket that was in the ENO Underbelly, and I was back in business!
Slept soundly until 6:45 - when it was too bright to sleep anymore... then made my way back inside to catch another couple hours of sleep in bed
Overall it was a really good experience! I definitely need to make my bug net that I've been planning on making, but the shemagh trick worked pretty well. I was surprised at how warm I stayed even when it got colder than expected - it was actually 56 at 6:45 when I finally woke up, and I had only minor CBS. I also was happy to learn that a Snuggie - as silly as it is - works pretty darn well as a top quilt!
Anyway - that's my story!
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Originally Posted by TheFarmerCamper
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