Our Plastic Camp House Experiment

My family has a small place in Lampasas where we go to get back to nature once in a while. My girls like to watch the wildlife and go hunting during the season. Sometimes we stay late and watch the stars come out before driving back. Once in a while we will put up a tent and camp overnight. Sometimes we want to be there to hunt the next day or do some work and do not have the camping gear with us so we have to drive back almost two hours home, then get up early the next morning and drive the same trip back.

We have often talked of putting a cabin there but finances and other issues have kept us from doing so. The other day my wife and I were at Home Depot getting some supplies and saw one of the portable buildings that is made out of recycled plastic. They look kind of like a large gingerbread house with double doors, shuttered windows and even have a skylight. We thought that one of those with an electric light and fan would make a great camp and we could put some cots or bunks inside so we could spend the night at the place whenever we were up there and wanted to stay over. To make a long story short we bought one and all the stuff to put it together. My brother, myself and our wives spent a whole day getting a site level and putting the building together. It had four steel tubes on the side wall that tied into two rafters and the rest was an all plastic assembly or plastic screwed with metal screws. Any way late that afternoon we had completed our new camp and anchored each corner of the floor with a spiral landscape spike. We were very proud of the little plastic house and looked forward to using it. It had a ten year warranty on materials so we thought we would get a lot of use out of the cute little building.

Four days later a Texas summer storm came through and dumped some rain which we desperately needed. It also brought some high winds which were to be more than we bargained for against a plastic building. The next day my uncle called and told me that our new camp house was blown all over the place. We drove up and could not believe our eyes; the little plastic house was completely destroyed. I guess the plastic clips that hold the corners are just not that strong and once the wind got a grip it ripped it apart. Nothing was salvageable as all the pieces had cracks and breaks. They may work great for a backyard storage building but I would not put them anywhere they are not shielded from a direct wind. It was an expensive lesson but one permanently learned. Looks like I will be camping in a tent this year. Wild Ed

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