A while back Bruce had the idea that we could use the palm trees in the front yard for something more fun than squirrel and woodpecker havens. That idea came to fruition today after a few weeks of planning, trials and adjustments. Here’s the story.
Last weekend we bought 300 feet of rope and sent Bruce up a tree to install the first version of the wires and pulleys.
We knew in the final version the wires would have to be higher, but we wanted to test out the process. This is about as far up as I’m comfortable with him going. Luckily, he feels the same way so we didn’t have to have that fight.
Once the wires and pulleys were secured, we headed to the backyard to make the web. The boys “helped.”
From humble beginnings …
… a web was woven.
Next we carried it out front and hooked the top ends onto the pulleys.
And up it went.
Not bad for the prototype!
But down it came because, well, people need to walk up the path and the last thing we need is some kid [Ezra] trying to climb it.
So, back to the backyard it went while we called in the big guns: Finch Tree Service.
Some things are just better left to the professionals. Who rope themselves to the tree.
Meanwhile, we made some more adjustments to the web, tightening the joints.
And adding the spider. Finn chose the placement.
Pretty soon we were ready for Spider Web v. 2. Finn was in position to help with the pulley.
It went up just fine and the top ropes were secured.
Then we needed to tighten the middle ropes. Only one problem: we couldn’t reach one of them. Oops.
Yeah, that’s going to have to come down.
Soon enough, it was back up and Bruce tied the middle ropes tight.
Looking pretty good — almost there!
Finally, we got the bottom ropes tight and there it is!
Of course, we weren’t quite done. We needed lighting!
While this feat of engineering was definitely a family project, it was only finished because of Bruce’s talent and incredibly stubborn persistence. I, for one, do not have the patience to see something like this through. Lucky for us, we have Bruce!