Weights

I can't say enough about weights, carry them with you always! You never know when you're going to have wind and having them will give you some peace of mind, not to mention keep you, your fellow vendors and customers safe! We really needed them yesterday and I was happy to have them, even though my old tent is steel and heavy all by itself. The new tents are mostly aluminum and quite lightweight, even more reason to have weights! I was going to take some pictures for you yesterday but as not many people were using weights, I only have a picture of my own weights. It's not a great pucture but I hope you get the idea. It's made from PVC pipe (I should have stock in that stuff!) and filled with cement and has a bicycle hook permanantly mounted in the top. My husband made me a set of 4 of these and they are awesome, I just hook it to the top rod in the corner, secure with a bungee and I'm done. I have seen vendors use a bungee chord attached to their table, which is better than nothing, but bad for two reasons, if the wind is big enough, it CAN flip your table over I have seen that happen, potatoes on the ground, such carnage! :-) Also doing it this way still gives the tent quite a few options, it can go in a few diffent directions, as many as the bungee will allow. There are quite a few ways you can do weights, do a search, maybe Flickr will have some good ones, but the thing to keep in mind is you want something that doesn't take up a lot of room, make a big mess ( as in using sand ) or cause a tripping hazard for anyone. Believe me if there's a way to trip over something I'll find it! In addition to your weights, you can also bungee yourself to the tents that are next to you, it will give all of you more weight and make it harder for the wind to do its evil deed! I do remember one time at Jack London Square Market many years ago (before I had my awesome weights) a crazy windy day, and they get some spectacular wind there, there was a line of at least 5 tents bungeed together and you know that wind made all of the front legs rear up! I fear had we NOT done that some of the tents would have been in the water! Anyhow, be smart, be prepared, keep your weights with you! (I feel like David Horowitz "don't let anyone rip you off!")