After two years we're glad to be out of tent

Angler Kim Gross with us beside dining tent, tent and shower. Charles Howard photo

After spending most of this summer and part of last year's in a tent while we worked on our cabin project, Brenda and I are thankful to have hard walls and a roof to live under from this point forward.
Last year it took us most of a week to make a clearing in the dense bush just to pitch a tent. It was then that I realized the materials I had hauled in two years earlier to make a foundation for the dockhouse could be used to make a platform the exact size of the 10x14 tent. So we made the platform and pitched the tent on it, six inches above ground. This gave us a smooth, dry floor in the tent and worked well.
Besides the rain fly for the tent we also covered it with a white tarp. This kept us snug in the fiercest thunderstorms.
We had a separate screened-in dining tent in which I built a sort of counter for our coolers and food boxes. Our propane cook stove sat upon a folding metal stand.
In the tent we slept on folding cots with air mattresses. They worked pretty well as evidenced by the fact that two 67-year-olds with bad backs didn't have any major issues.
We just got lucky with the bears. Although we were immaculate in keeping our garbage and food locked up I know that you can do everything right and still have problems. We had none.
One of the biggest advantages of the cabin, besides solid walls, is that we can have a wood stove. A tent is basically the same temperature as outside.