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Collecting bones requires that a person sit at one location for hours, depending on just what has to be done. But after this period of time passes, the person moves on to another location. The wind and temperature mandated some sort of covering that could be erected over the collection process. It had to be light enough to be carried and set up without too much difficulty which ruled out fixed structures, but it also had to be strong enough to keep out winds, and it had to be adjustable to rugged terrain, i.e. not on the level. This ruled out tents, at least tents until dad designed his own. Based on his extensive collecting experience, he calculated the size of the area he would expect to need to protect, with a tent, and then set about drafting an 8-leg tent. Its structure was durable aluminum tubing in three diameters so that the legs were telescopes of three segments allowing each leg to be a different length. The skin was made out of at least two layers with a zipper over each of the 8 legs, a zipper in each layer. Mom sewed both of these layers and all of the zippers upstairs in her sewing room using her standard Singer sewing machine. This gallery shows how it fared in the Timp experiment:
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