Hammocks For Haiti

[gargoyle]

go for it Harpo, it would be an excellent way to use the donated fabrics and teach kids.
SandyK did you read this?

[pgibson]

Hey Gargoyle, Arrowhead is in for a spool of 7/64 amsteel, Redden is in of 1 or 2 and they are going to hit Samson up for any help they may be able to through in.

Suspensions taken care of for a bunch of hammocks

Also, Mac on the kid ones at least for little kids-baby to toddlers up to 3 or so, The Bushman Hammock Chair would work well and stretch the fabric a little farther. Cut 60" wide fabric at 48" intervals, hem all edges and then make small channels on the 48" sides. Yah it is small but it is plenty of room for my 3 year old to lay down in. Whipping or knotting will use up a bit more fabric than the channels so you can get away with cutting it this wide for little kids. I have some grey uncoated 1.1 that latter in the week I can get going on these little ones.

Let me know if I can do anything else Gargoyle.

[gargoyle]

Great news Paul thanks.

[Harpo63]

Sandykayak is sending the materials over to us at the school to sew hammocks. Cool. Im going to follow Jeffs tutorial with pics. easy for the kids to follow.

A couple questions...

Any instructions on making the netting material? suggestions?

We got nylon and netting coming. If anyone has whipping material they want to send, pm me.

Should we add ridgelines?

Definitely will take pics of the kids working on that!

[Shug]

This is terrific stuff ....... I ma doing a benefit soon but would like to add something to this as well. Will look and see what when I get home........
Shug

[vitamaltz]

I know a certain Walmart that has true olive green sil for $1.50! I'm not sure how many yards there are, but I'll pass by it on the way home from Mt. Rogers and I'll buy them out. Normally there would be more cost-effective materials for this purpose, but I doubt I'm gonna be able to find much better than that.

[NCPatrick]

If anyone has whipping material they want to send, pm me.

Can we whip them with zip ties? That's how I make mine for myself. Think anyone will mind?

[vitamaltz]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/wo...s/22haiti.html

The photo at the top of the article shows the local topography, current shelters, and the wood that's being used to support the tarps. Most of the article deals with the shelter issue.

[nacra533]

Mossie or midge tarps seem to be fairly simple in design, here's two

http://www.songofthepaddle.co.uk/for...=midge+netting

http://www.wildnisabenteuer.de/gear/dtarp.htm

There's also the lifesystems type which can hang from a single or multipoint above.

If someone has experience doing something like this or good DIY design and could post a couple drawings/tutorial for a net/tarp, this seems like an ideal project to begin a coordinated effort with. If nothing else, it will keep the mosquitos off of them.

My guess is before long, "Shelterbox" and other similar disaster relief tents/boxes will start showing up once the civic clubs start getting in gear and can get relief in. I know Rotary Club (both my local club and Rotary International) are supporters of Shelterbox and Lifestraw for exactly this type of relief effort.

[BrianWillan]

According to the NY Times article linked above, UN troops from Brazil are leveling ground in preparation for the construction of a tent city.

I realize that the original contact person in Haiti requested hammocks, but unless there is sufficient places to hang hammocks, wouldn't tents be a more practical solution? Shelter Systems has relief dome tents of size large enough to sleep many people and are ready to ship to disaster areas.

http://www.shelter-systems.com/relieftents/index.html

Perhaps this would be a more viable solution for the displaced people in Haiti.

Cheers

Brian