kids and hammocks

[tagg]

Tagg - before spending any $ for a kids hammock you could borrow one of mine. I have an ENO double and several diy hammocks. My girls love the ones I made for them. They are 7 and 4. You could even make your own. If you need me to I would be more than happy to help. Just let me know.

thanks, chickenwing, that's a generous offer and you're just right down the highway from me. i'll be in touch sometime.

as a side note, this forum has the most helpful members. when i first joined and had all of the typical newbie questions, i received offers from several forum members to come try out their gear for myself. i took swamp fox up on his offer, and he set up two hammocks and a bunch of tarps, underquilts, etc. at a local park and let me try them out. i went home that afternoon and promptly ordered my blackbird. brandon really should have paid him a commission!

[tagg]

...my younger one is always in his own hammock under my tarp. He's probably old enough to hang under his own but he likes hanging under mine, and it's easier to set up one site.

wow, i didn't know this was possible. how do i do this? do i have to find four trees really close to each other, or do i find three trees and tie one end of each hammock to the same tree and the other ends to separate trees that are close to each other? i think he (well, really me) would feel a lot better if we were under the same shared space.
i'm assuming my SWT will be plenty big enough for two hammocks??

[clntstime]

i use a SWT and it covers 2 hammocks great, BUT, i do have side pull outs. 2 on each side they make a HUGE difference!

[hangnout]

I would start out under the same tarp. My daughter and I use the same tarp with bridge hammocks and gathered end. On the last trip I hung the BB and a Clark UL and I could reach into her hammock to check on quilts etc. You can hang from larger single trees but I have almost always found a triangle of trees that work.

The important thing is to make it their trip the first few times so that they enjoy it and learn the basics. I started out with just the camping part then added the hiking.

Below are some links to threads about trips with my daughter. There are some pics and video of 2 hammocks under one tarp

http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...ad.php?t=15715

http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...ad.php?t=16507

[Strapped-4-Cache]

Both of my girls saw my Blackbird and immediatley wanted their own. I've experienced similar wants/needs from them, so I made some for them to try out first instead of purchasing more expensive models.

My oldest loves hers and wants me to string it up all the time, but the youngest hand't quite gotten the hang of hers yet. She wants it up, but will only sit in it for a moment before getting out and moving on to something else.

Honestly, it only takes a bit of work to make one out of the Wal-Mart $1.50 fabric. The Wal-Mart near me also has no-see-um fabric for $1.50 right now, so I could make a bugnet sock fairly easily if she needed one. For about $15.00 or less I could have a complete camping hammock for my oldest.

I haven't had time to make huggers yet, but I've got plenty of seatbelt webbing lying around. Just have to make time to create them.

Here's a shot of my two girls and a friend hanging around in our front yard this afternoon in our home-made hammocks:

[Just Jeff]

wow, i didn't know this was possible. how do i do this? do i have to find four trees really close to each other, or do i find three trees and tie one end of each hammock to the same tree and the other ends to separate trees that are close to each other? i think he (well, really me) would feel a lot better if we were under the same shared space.
i'm assuming my SWT will be plenty big enough for two hammocks??

Any of those will work if the trees are set up right. I usually just hang the hammocks off different sides of the same tree. You can search the forum for more info...lots of folks have discussed this. And there are pics of it on the link I posted earlier. Hope it works out for you!

[Satty]

I'm glad to hear I have some time that I can co-sleep with my 4 year old. I am hoping to take him along in a couple of weeks. Unless he grows overnight.

[nickelanddime]

wow, i didn't know this was possible. how do i do this? do i have to find four trees really close to each other, or do i find three trees and tie one end of each hammock to the same tree and the other ends to separate trees that are close to each other? i think he (well, really me) would feel a lot better if we were under the same shared space.

I put a ring on the whipping of each end of my (and my girlfriend's) hammocks so that we could tie up to the same trees and use hiking poles as spreader bars. I'm about 50 lbs more than her so she gets in first and when I get in mine it rocks her up in the air a little. I think Hogn8r came up with that one, not sure, but I like it.

[Just Jeff]

I think Youngblood posted the first "strut system" of using a wooden rod (2x4?) over on yahoogroups, and that grew into the mods of using hiking poles to separate the hammocks. I've thought about doing that but haven't yet. Now that Joker is getting older it might be time to get a roundtuit and make it happen.