It seems that my expectations and reality rarely are the same. Only when I lower my expectations do I get the infrequent surprise. Mostly, I'm just disappointed at how things turn out.
This time it might be for lack of planning. I like to plan, though. I spend more time planning than actual doing, it seems like. Well, it isn't all bad, I guess. I just hope we don't get any nasty surprises while we're camping.
I wanted to set the tents up, get them weatherized, put what we will bring with us in them. Pretty much, do a mock run of our campsite. We got the tents up and the air mattresses in. The kids even slept in them one night. We didn't get the tarps up or the kitchen set up. I didn't practice cooking in the cast iron I bought on the stove I bought. There's still a list of things we need to do before our camping trip. We'll have 2 and a half days to do it.
Woe is me.
On the bright side of things: expectations rarely meets reality. So with this bad start, should I expect disaster? Or will I be pleasantly surprised at how smooth things go? What will be the reality? Utter boredom? Or so much fun? I really can't wait to see how things play out.
Sorry if this post started out down and depressed, that's how I'm feeling at the moment. I mean, we are going to live in a tent for a few months...and we are nowhere near ready. I'm kinda anxious about the whole thing, really. But what can I do? I can take a deep breath, relax, and start doing something. Right?
Monday, May 21, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
Tarping
We got the tent! Yay!! No photos yet, but I promise, there will be some soon. Very soon. I will be doing a video review of the tent soon, when we get more stuff in there. It has been set up for a week or so. I did discover some things.
The rainfly needs to be staked down. The first night we got some gusty winds; in a panic I pulled the poles down. Well, one side room pole broke. A few days later, the other side room pole broke. then we discovered we should probably stake down the fly. We did, and there have been no more problems. It has rained, and this tent is water resistant. There was some small puddles of water (very small, like a couple spoonfuls) at some of the seams, but nothing crazy. I feel confident that this tent would weather a storm pretty good.
Over the weekend, I decided to see if we could set up a dining fly using tarps, rope, and a few poles. The instructions I got online used trees, but it said poles would work. We messed around with it for at least an hour, with no luck. It was very frustrating to see. I'm going to try again with a smaller tarp and more rope, maybe a few more poles I need a higher ceiling anyway, the eight foot limit of the poles was not cutting it. Of course, we didn't get it up all the way, so I don't really know.
I need to get the kitchen set up and practice cooking on it. I wanted to do it today, but we are going out for dinner, so hopefully I can work on it tomorrow. A smaller tent, more poles that are longer, and my kitchen should set up on a snap.
It's almost time, and I'm getting excited to see the days go by. Soon, we will be living the adventure instead of just preparing for it!
The rainfly needs to be staked down. The first night we got some gusty winds; in a panic I pulled the poles down. Well, one side room pole broke. A few days later, the other side room pole broke. then we discovered we should probably stake down the fly. We did, and there have been no more problems. It has rained, and this tent is water resistant. There was some small puddles of water (very small, like a couple spoonfuls) at some of the seams, but nothing crazy. I feel confident that this tent would weather a storm pretty good.
Over the weekend, I decided to see if we could set up a dining fly using tarps, rope, and a few poles. The instructions I got online used trees, but it said poles would work. We messed around with it for at least an hour, with no luck. It was very frustrating to see. I'm going to try again with a smaller tarp and more rope, maybe a few more poles I need a higher ceiling anyway, the eight foot limit of the poles was not cutting it. Of course, we didn't get it up all the way, so I don't really know.
I need to get the kitchen set up and practice cooking on it. I wanted to do it today, but we are going out for dinner, so hopefully I can work on it tomorrow. A smaller tent, more poles that are longer, and my kitchen should set up on a snap.
It's almost time, and I'm getting excited to see the days go by. Soon, we will be living the adventure instead of just preparing for it!
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