OUTDOOR HANDICRAFT
Camp Furnishings—Dressing-Table, Seats, Dining-Table, Cupboard, Broom, Chair, Racks, Birch-Bark Dishes, etc.
Camp is the place where girls enjoy most proving their powers of resourcefulness.
Handicraft in the woods.
Details of the outdoor dressing-table. Comb-racks of forked sticks and of split sticks.
It is fun to supply a want with the mere natural raw materials found in the open, and when you succeed in making a useful article of outdoor things, the entire camp takes a pride in your work and the simple but practical and usable production gives a hundred per cent more pleasure than could a store article manufactured for the same purpose.
Be comfortable at camp. While it is good to live simply in the open, it is also good to be comfortable in the open, and with experience you will be surprised to find what a delightful life can be lived at camp with but few belongings and the simplest of camp furnishings. These last can, in a great measure, be made of tree branches and the various stuffs found in the woods.
Dressing-Table
A near-by tree will furnish the substantial foundation for your dressing-table and wash-stand combined. If you can find a side-piece of a wooden box, use it for the shelf and fasten this shelf on the trunk of a tree about two and one-half feet or more above the ground. Cut two rustic braces and nail the front of the shelf on the top ends of these supports; then nail a strip of wood across the tree as a cleat on which to rest the back of the shelf; fit the shelf on the cleat and nail the lower ends of the braces to the tree; strengthen the work still more by driving a strong, long nail on each side of the top centre of the back of shelf, diagonally down through the shelf, cleat, and into the tree.