A Day in the Life of CozyBones Farm - The Fun and Struggles of Setting up a Bell Tent

Within a week of envisioning the future, I knew that I had to find some alternate housing for future WWOOFers. I was looking for some beautiful, roomy, and economical solutions. Sita introduced me to lotus belle tents, the which I immediately fell in love with. I mean…who doesn’t want to live in this???

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Or this???

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However, I looked at the price tag - around $2,000 - and thought again. I was sold on getting a belle tent, so I started searching for more economical companies. I finally found one for $700 on eBay that was listed as waterproof, fire resistant, heavy duty cotton canvas, and 14 feet in diameter. I ordered it the next day.

I scanned around for a good place to set up the tent. I wanted somewhere close to the house, but far enough away that it had privacy and space to landscape around. I decided on the space behind the table, nestled close to the trees, and measured a 14 foot diameter circle. The land was not completely level, about an 8 inch drop from the highest to lowest point. Ryan, Sita, and I took out our pickaxes and started to level the land, pickaxing the highest point and raking that soil over to the lowest point. We then stomped down on newly moved soil to compact it. The leveling was hard work, and we were pickaxing and raking for about 2 hours.

After leveling the space, we thought about drainage. We didn’t want the bottom of the tent to get soaked whenever there was a heavy rain. My dad suggested that we get some wood chips that we had lying around and lay down a 5 inch layer. That way the rain would have somewhere to seep down to rather that sitting on top of the clay soil. We spent a few hours hauling over wheelbarrows of wood chips.

In the picture below we had just finished wheelbarrowing over the wood chips and Ryan was lying down to feel how level the ground was. We also used an actually level to make sure he wasn’t going to be sleeping at an angle.

And then the tent arrived in the mail!!! I was buzzing with excitement.

We began to unfold the beauty:

It was pretty easy to set up with two people, but with one person it would have been a struggle. It involved staking down the bottom diameter, then popping up the middle pole, staking down the octopus arms, and then popping in the curved stakes to hold up the walls.

Wahoo - it’s up!!!

Ryan moved into the belle tent along with our new WWOOFer, Isaac. They put a divide with beautiful tapestries in the middle of the tent and cut one of my old carpets to size for the flooring. We hauled the mattresses in, and they had their new home! Both Ryan and Isaac said that they slept like babies in the tent, and loved the outdoor cozy feel and circular structure.

Ryan then began to dig a trench around the sloped up side of the tent in order to catch any heavy rains coming down and provide space for the rain to seep into the ground rather than under the tent.

He and Isaac filled the trench with scrap wood and twigs and covered it with wood chips.

They were enjoying their stay in the tent for about two weeks, but alas everything changes. And so the rains came…And so came our troubles.

The tent was supposed to be waterproof, and it kind of is. However, we are talking about cotton canvas here, and no matter how treated it is with waterproof spray it is not going to be 100% non-permeable. The issue was that the rains came, and so we closed up the tent during the day to keep it dry. However, it became humid inside and the moisture grew on the walls just from Ryan and Isaac sleeping inside of it during the night. Then, a small layer of rain drops started to sit on top of the tent and the biggest problem was that there was not any sun hitting the tent during the day. It is almost winter now, and the sun has moved south of the tree line. So, the moisture inside was combatted from popping a fan inside and opening up the windows and door every day for airflow. However, the moisture from the rains on the outside was never evaporated off from the sun, so the canvas stayed damp outside all the time. What happened then? ….MOLD! Uh oh.

I tried scrubbing the mold off with vinegar, but it was in the canvas, so after false hope and much research, I tore the tent down. It is now sitting in a wheelbarrow ready to be treated. I am going to soak it over night in a water and bleach solution to kill the mold. Then, I am going to set it up in another location. This location is further from the house, but it gets sun during the day, which I now realize is vital for the life of the belle tent.

And so it goes. RIP to the first life of the belle tent. You will soon have your second life.