The Great Grape Get Together

[Pumpkin Becki]

Thats what I was thinking as it will be the second week of our holiday but dont want to have to move our large tent and all the stuff too often lol.

Yerss, I know what you mean!!

[Two_Sheds]

So, sensible spacing of tents is a must for happy camping, please.

we just got back from camping at an official site, and the rule was: 6 metres from any other tent, in case of fire (not in case of BO)

Sadly, Sarz's field is over 6 hours drive from us, so we won't make it. Great idea though.

[BarleySugar]

I was also wondering how long we could stay, as we will be coming quite a long way and would also like to make the most of the break. (and the petrol usage ) We could try booking into somewhere else for a time, but like others, would like not to have to move the tent too much.

[Scottishnewbie]

I've just caught onto this one and to save me reading through nearly 200 posts - cna someone just drop a quick where we're up to post please?

[Farmer_Gyles]

where? when? etc etc etc???
(i don't want to read through hundreds of posts either!)

[di]

There's another thread FG that's been stickied(Grapestock 2010)...all the details are in the first post,if you're interested pop your name down on that one.This one's more for chatting about it,the other for those sorting it to get an idea on numbers.

[Glutton4...]

You LAZY pair - lust read the blimmin posts lol!

[Hilary B]

That's a point, we couldn't go without the dogs! Neither especially well behaved, nor too much the contrary, but accustomed to being confined to car when necessary (not as much of a temperature problem as most, we have a wide-opening roof to the car, with dog-guard across the opening).
I think we would be planning on B&B, and hope there is dog-walking territory nearby (without livestock, and reasonable chance of finding the odd half-hour with no other dogs there).

[SarzWix]

How long?: I don't know, this is something I need to sort out with my Dad, don't forget this is practically in his back garden I'm hoping it will be ok with him to stagger arrivals and departures over the weekend and we will all be there together hopefully for the Saturday evening/Sunday day. I also need to get the toilet quotes sorted out.
To be honest, I haven't been totally on the ball with this for a week or so - it's the end of the holidays and I have 3 kids to get kitted out for school amongst other things

Dogs: Again, this is in Dad's back garden, so if a dog is likely to bark continuously, or fight with any other dogs there, then they may be better left at home/kennels. I'm not going to have my dog there if other people's come, because she'll be a pain, so please think carefully about it.

Help!: I still haven't managed to do a sum and work out how many can fit in the field, pleeease can somebody mathematically minded have a go at working it out? Somewhere back in the thread is a pic with rough dimensions and somewhere else in the thread I have posted average and maximum pitch sizes...
Pretty please?

[Farmer_Gyles]

we just got back from camping at an official site, and the rule was: 6 metres from any other tent, in case of fire (not in case of BO)

i've done 2 camps this year:

sea scouts centenery in nottingham - tents were only 4-5 feet apart - normal scout rules on spacing didn't seem to apply for that week!

weekend camping at proper campsite - no pitches marked out, but were allowed roughly 7m x 7m - no official notice about how far apart to pitch tents, so in theory, they could have been very close - there was plenty of room tho, so space wasn't a problem

[Hilary B]

How long?: I don't know, this is something I need to sort out with my Dad, don't forget this is practically in his back garden I'm hoping it will be ok with him to stagger arrivals and departures over the weekend and we will all be there together hopefully for the Saturday evening/Sunday day. I also need to get the toilet quotes sorted out.
To be honest, I haven't been totally on the ball with this for a week or so - it's the end of the holidays and I have 3 kids to get kitted out for school amongst other things

Dogs: Again, this is in Dad's back garden, so if a dog is likely to bark continuously, or fight with any other dogs there, then they may be better left at home/kennels. I'm not going to have my dog there if other people's come, because she'll be a pain, so please think carefully about it.

Help!: I still haven't managed to do a sum and work out how many can fit in the field, pleeease can somebody mathematically minded have a go at working it out? Somewhere back in the thread is a pic with rough dimensions and somewhere else in the thread I have posted average and maximum pitch sizes...
Pretty please?

PM me the sizes and I'll do the arithmetic this afternoon.
If we B&B, our dogs will only be on site (in the car) while we are actually 'meeting' and while they do bark at other dogs, they give up and go to sleep after a while if nothing new is happening.
There is no-one 'at home' to leave them with, and kennels are out for a few reasons, one being that that weekend is a busy one for the only kennels I would ever use (our girls are getting too old for unfamiliar ones).
I appreciate the problem, but if we can't bring them, we won't be able to come.

[jackie j]

Perhaps it would be better to use the camp site that you mentioned sarz, and just use your dads barn to meet. That way all the problems about bringing dogs, how many tents, toilets etc wouldnt be a problem. I am all for meeting and camping at your dads but the practicalities of it might be too much for you to sort out. We would probably come the weekend before if we could stay put in the same place, and make a holiday of it as well.
I am also willing to help in any way I can.

[SarzWix]

Hilary, if they're just going to fuss a bit and then settle, I'm sure they'll be fine.

P. Becki has kindly done some sums for me, and we reckon we can fit in around 45 cars, and 40 tents, allowing 7m x 7m per tent. Some may be bigger, and some may be smaller, so we'd have to be sensible about leaving adequate space around each.
That will also leave a good amount of room for the actual gathering of people, gazebos/barbecues etc.

I've just got off the phone from the loo hire people. They recommend that we should have 4 toilets, this should be enough for up to 100 people, from Friday night to Monday. They are self contained, which means less pressure being put on Dad's (private) water supply. The cost would be £250 for the whole weekend. Divvied up between 40, this works out at about £6 per group/tent. Not too bad! Of course, we might not have that many people in the end, and there may be other costs too, but that gives us a rough idea.

[Hilary B]

How far away is the alternate camp site? It may be necessary to use BOTH places if distance permits!

[HeyWayne]

Ok peepholes.

As mentioned in my original post - the reason for starting/suggesting the get together so far in advance was that I appreciated there would be a lot to sort out. That doesn't mean we have to get it all sorted now of course.

For starters we just needed a good idea of how many people to expect so we could start making plans. We're now at a point where I'm confident we have a good idea of numbers (give or take drop-outs, last minute changes etc).

Whilst it would be great to get as many people together as possible (the whole point of the thing), I'm sure we can all appreciate that if, as currently planned, it goes ahead in Sarz's Dad's field we need to be mindful that this is being done as a "favour" and we should ask ourselves what we would expect ourselves if we'd given up the use of our field to a bunch of relative strangers.

We (Family Wayne) don't have a tent, but if we did I would be mindful of camping in it as Bean seems to be a bit of a light sleeper, and can be really grumpy if woken and is capable of making a right racket - which I'm sure plenty of other grapes would not appreciate at 2 am. We will therefore probably find alternative accommodation for the greater good of fellow Grapestock attendees.

To quote a good friend - let's not sweat the small stuff just yet.