I've mentioned to all my HF friends that I was working on a new hammock stand and was encouraged by both of them to post pictures.
So most of my hammock-in-yard pictures are taken from a pair of trees in the front yard. This is not optimal for a number of reasons, but I don't have but two pair of trees in the yard I can hang from, and they're both out front. I've set up hammock stands, but there's always the set up and tear down time. I've been wanting a stand I can put in the yard and just leave there. My Better Half has certain ideas about what is acceptable as a permanent yard fixture and what is not.
So I figured if I put in a permanent pole I could use it and a tree. So I bought myself a 12' long 4x4 post, figuring if I put half of it in the ground, then the half that was above the ground would be securely enough anchored to not topple over. I'm a cautious engineer, right?
So I got a set of post hole diggers and set to work. Naturally I hit a 3 inch diameter root about 8" down, and naturally its orientation was more down than across, so naturally I had to go get more tools to deal with it. In this case a 70 lb digging bar that has a point at one end and a chisel at another. An hour or more later I was through the root and on my way. But aghast! At about 2' down the spades of the digger were so far down that when I pulled the handles apart to close the spades and bring up the dirt, they wouldn't close enough. With the digging bar and my hands I could deepen the hole to about 33" but then I was running out of arm to pull the the loose soil.
th-post.jpg
Hmm. 33" is not 72", and I was concerned that this was not deep enough to really anchor the post with a hammock attachment 5' or so up. So I packed the pole in with pea gravel, sat down, and had me a think.
Bracing! That's it. I need to brace the pole in a way that it stays up. Since I had the pole hole digger anyway, I put in a couple more poles, some cross-pieces, and braces.
th-crossbeam.jpg
Well, as long as I had the support structure in place, it wasn't much more trouble to put in a floor and guard rails.
tr-setup.jpgth-jp.jpg
So my braced pole serves to support one end of the hammock, and a nearby tree supports the other.
th-dmb.jpgth-feet.jpg
BTW, the strapping on that tree is a 12' long piece of 1" heavy duty strapping I got from strapworks last year. Very nice strapping, albeit heavy, but perfect for this job. That's a Big Tree. If you look extremely closely at the suspension on the feet picture you'll see the hitchless cotter pin I've employed (at TeeDee's suggestion) for the Marlinspike hitch on the cord that connects suspension to hammock (in addition to the one at the tree). Luv dat Marlinspike hitch.
Anyway, now I have a one-tree hammock stand in the back yard with dual use as a "tree house" for my 7 year old, thereby satisfying my Better Half's constraint about what may be a permanent fixture in the yard. I'll still have to use the front yard for fooling around with tarps. Or sink another post. But I've had my fill of sinking posts for a while.
Now that that's done I can start to think about new DIY hammock projects.
Grizz
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