The tent disaster lasted much longer than it should have.  As I told you all before, Ron located what he thought would be the perfect tent on a Canadian company’s website.  He placed the order and then waited for confirmation.  Nothing.  He waited a week and then called them.  They finally acknowledged receiving the order  but still did not sent an email confirming the order was being processed.  Another week went by and Ron called again.  Not sure I buy their story of having email troubles.

Finally last week they advised Ron, after a few more phone calls, that the order was being processed.  We should expect a call soon from the shipping company to arrange delivery.  The call did come and we made plans accordingly.   Of course,  our plans did not work out so well. Ron got a call at 11 am telling him that the tent would not be delivered.  It was still in New Hampshire.  If Ron wanted to pay $460 more for “expedited” shipping they would get it to us sooner.  Of course they also wanted him to sign a form agreeing not to hold them responsible for any damage, sight unseen at that.   Thank goodness we have unlimited calling on our cells as he spent quite a bit of time on the phone.  Both with the tent company and the shipping company.

On Tuesday he finally agreed to be at home at 2 pm the following day as there was no way they could guarantee arrival after 3:30 pm.  Annoyed but resigned. No way for him to win this one when he really needed the tent.

The truck drive was the same one who delivered the pawpaws and elderberries last year.  But he didn’t arrive until almost 5:30.  So much for Ron needing to take an hour off work so he would be there in time.  More annoyance.

Ron and I loaded it onto our trailer and then headed to THF to drop it off.  We would all meet after work on Wednesday in order to get started putting this thing together.  When we got home, Ron was immediately on the phone with nephew Jesse and brother Don.  Jesse is expert at putting things together so he was much needed.

On Thursday Ron headed out to THF after work, Jo met him there and I was the last arrival. Of course, Ron called me just as I was leaving work and asked that I head to the house instead and pick up the chainsaw.  Apparently they needed to cut down a few trees. They were in the way of our new tent.

By the time I arrived, they had the entire frame set up.  Of course, Jesse was not happy.  The first part of the instructions suggested the tent be set up on slab.  No mention of the best way to set it up on a forest floor.

The decision was made to wait until Friday to get the cover on.  Both Ron and I had taken the day off.  While we were picking things up, I decided to try and damage myself again. I tripped over a tree root and went crashing to the ground.  Smacked my hands, knees and head pretty good.  Ron made me sit down and drink some water until he was sure I was alright.  He wanted to take everyone to dinner, but I was not up to it. I headed home to take some aspirin.

The next day, Ron and I head out to the farm with a full load of supplies, including his newest toy.  A jackhammer.  He bought this in order to plant the lavender starts we ordered.  You all know just how many rocks we have at THF.   We are so over dealing with them.  And wouldn’t you know it, Jesse got to try it out for the first time with our tent setup.  We were supposed to set anchor points in order to hold the blasted thing down.  Of, course no amount of sledge hammer use was getting the job done.  While the jackhammer busted through the rocks like magic, the blade was just not long enough to do the job.  We will have to get back to that part of the process.

Getting the cover on was actually the easy part.  Then we had to lace the ends up.  You can see the grommets on the right hand side.  They were on both ends and went up sides, across the top and down again.  This was the hardest part.  It was a struggle to get the strapping under the frame, all the while keeping it from twisting.  We were all so happy when it was finally done.

We cleaned up the area and headed home.  Still had quite a bit to get organized at home for tomorrow.  Have notes all over the place to make sure we don’t forget anything.  Like the mushroom spawn.  That would mess up the whole day.

After a beer for Ron and glass of wine for me, we are done for the day.  We really need to get a solid night’s sleep tonight.  A lot of work tomorrow, but with lots of friends and some family on hand, we will get it all done.  For those of you who cannot make it tomorrow, we will be planting lots of lavender mid May.  Will be looking for volunteers then too.