More on the hammer bit

So I was asked to go into a little more detail about this whole hammer/tent stakes thing.

We use huge dome tents, called “Drash Tents.” I dunno what Drash stands for, but it’s something mind-blowingly important, I’m sure.

Basically the Drash system consists of a series of geodesic dome modules that are propped up and velcroed together to form whatever configuration the unit needs. The domes are nicknamed A, B, C, or D domes, based on size (something to do with breasts, I’m told).

They are a lot easier to put up than the old slab-sided tents, and we get to use an enourmous rubber bladder (see previous post) to prop up the middle of the dome, and then stake down the sides to anchor it in place.

A call came down to see if we possessed all the parts for these tents, so we broke out the Drash trailers with all the components and began throwing them together.

After an hour of unfolding and bladder-inflating, the order came down to anchor the edges of the dome. You know, to see if gravity and geometry were still true, and if the tent would indeed stand on its own.

Thus the pounding of the stakes.

Here are some images captured by the ol’ trusty cell phone camera.

Here is a fellow troop, pounding said stakes into concrete. A wonderful exercise.

*Tunk* *tunk* *tunk* *tunk* The stubborn concrete yeilds little ground to the tent stakes. We must crush this new enemy!

Many watch, few work

This is a typical setup at the beloved motor pool. Four people work, while 10-20 watch. But the rub is that any more than four people working would just get in the way…so it’s not like they’re being lazy, it’s just that there isn’t enough work to go around. Yet, we wait.

###