Checking the tent

I have plans to go walk the entire Slate Trail later this summer. And that means my tent will get some action again. It needs to be in good nick! And I had noticed the previous few times I had used it that the main zip was getting a bit iffy. And if it split, I always managed to close it anyway, but it is only a question of time before at some point you can't close it anymore at all. And that is bad! You want your entire tent to be waterproof. And also, you wanted to be a bit of a blob with not too much purchase for the wind. So I figured it was time to have it repaired. I had a bit of a look on the website of the manufacturer; where could you get a thing like that repaired? And in the UK, there was one address, in Scotland. I contacted them and they said they were perfectly willing and able to either change the runner, or the entire zip, for a reasonable amount of money. So that sounded like a good idea! But I wanted to check. I hadn't pitched that tent in a fair while. Was that zip really as I remembered it? So I pitched it in the garden. And yes, as it was indeed how I remembered it.

One complication I sort of had not taken into account was the cat. She thought it was mightily interesting what I was doing! And as soon as that tent stood, she slipped underneath the outer shell. Oh dear. What it would she be doing in there? Would you be trying to sharpen her nails on any of the delicate fabrics? I tried to shoo her away. If you think of your cat "she really wouldn't do that, now would she" then probably she would.

I then had to get the tent ready for shipping. That involved folding it up tightly. I made sure the cat wasn't in the room. But of course, as soon as I started handling the tent, she appeared, and was way too interested in what was going on. I could imagine her trying to catch moving guy lines, and in the process stick her claws through the material of the tent. So I chucked her out of the room unceremoniously! Oh dear. But soon I had the tent packed up in a reasonably small box, ready to go to the local post office.

I think I also will have to sometimes go away for the night in my other tent, to get the cat used to the idea of me not being home all the time! I haven't spent a night elsewhere since she came to live with me…

 tent pitched; cat already lurking

 two seconds later…