Hey guys,
I just wanted to quickly share my story with you and say thanks for all your contributions to the forum. I joined the forum a little over a year ago. This was probably due in part to me stumbling across Shug's videos on youtube, which I still watch as soon as a new one pops up. I'm sure my story is the same classic convert story just like all of yours. I loved hiking and camping but I could never get a good nights sleep on the ground. The first night was always terrible and that next night would be a little better but still not good. After watching youtube videos and lurking around the forum learning as much as I could I knew I wanted to give a hammock a try. My first purchases were actually the quilts. Hammock gear was having their big sale and I talked my parents into getting me a burrow for my Christmas gift and I got myselft an Incubator. Now I just needed a hammock and a tarp. I bought a tarp off the classifieds and ended up making my own hammock. I really didn't intend to do a diy hammock but I really didn't have the funds to buy the hammocks I wanted so I read the diy section and talked myself into making one. I was able to get two sewing machines from my Grandmothers house. One is a new Brother still in the box and the other one is a Made in Japan Kenmore from 1960. This one is a beast. I let my little girl pick out the color at our local fabric store and she was adamant about the bright blue so that's what I went with. Now I think I've had about 5 nights in the hammock on different trips to the Bankhead National Forest and it has been great. I was hoping it would work for me and it has. Now I can lay down and go right to sleep. I also have fun tying the knots and messing around with my tarp. For my next big purchase I would like to upgrade to a Cuben tarp. Right now I'm using a Kelty Noah 12 and it is a little heavy. Anyway I just wanted to say thanks to everybody for the threads and videos. I have enjoyed the forum and it has been very helpful. I'm definitely loving the hammock.