Monday, May 22, 2006

Hammock is Fixed

A while back a friend helped me dig a couple of holes so I could put some 6x6's in them to support our hammock. When we moved into the house 4 years ago, one of the first things we noticed was the lack of trees large enough and appropriately spaced to support our hammock.

Well, as it turned out, the holes were just slightly too close together, and when I first sat in the hammock my posterior touched the ground.

I've been thinking for a while on how to fix this. I've had friends suggest elaborate ways of getting the hammock operational for adults (the kids had no problem with it--Madeline even figured out that if you twist the hammock over and over several times then the ropes get more taught and thus the hammock hangs higher off the ground), but I was pretty sure there was an easy (or at least easier) fix.

Here are the pictures of my simple solution, though with only a 7 1/4" blade on the circular saw I couldn't cut all the way--or even half-way--through the 6x6's. I cut one side, then the other, then finished off with a hand saw (which I discovered was either dull or just couldn't handle pressure-treated wood).

And here is a close-up of the cut I had to make. Note that the hook is now on top of the 6x6 instead of on the side. This has two results: the hooks are further apart so the hammock is more taught, and the hooks are higher off the ground so adults can use it now!

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