Rope question

Won't nylon get brittle with UV exposure? Certainly happened with a nylon strap I once had.


Hemp sounds good to me. Although I'd have an adult hop up and down on the swing from time to time.

Such a simple idea, so complicated in execution...

So I did a bunch more online research, including correspondence with a guy who seems to know everything there is to know about rope, and ended up with some really great stuff:





Then came tying it to the clothesline (that we have had looped over the branch where we want the permanent rope/ swing to go) and trying to hoist it up.

Not so fast.

We could hoist it up there fine but it just would NOT go over the branch. Kept getting stuck on the bark or something, absolutely not budging. We did all kinds of stuff -- I made this complicated streamlined thing with duct tape, etc., ain't gonna happen.

We spent a fair amount of money on that rope and love this idea so we called the tree guys and asked how much it would cost to have someone come back, climb up there, and pull the damn rope over. The tree guy said he still liked the idea of an eyebolt better -- healthier for the tree. We'd discounted that because the damn branch is 75 feet up, but if we're having someone go up there anyway...

So we're having the eyebolt installed (one of the tree guys will do it in his spare time to make some extra money, not so bad), and then hopefully we'll finally have a good, strong, long-term tree swing.

Happy ending, installment by installment.

Presenting -- the world's tallest tree swing!!

(I couldn't make the scale line up right, gives an idea though):

Wow! Now that's a swing!

Ain't it though?

One miscalculation -- the tree guy and E.G. consulted and ended up putting the rope in a different place than I had in mind. They thought it would be cool to take off from the stairs. What they didn't think of is that when the kid comes BACK, it's difficult to avoid the stair rails. (Sozlet's smashed her leg a couple of times, I've outlawed that method for now.)

I'm going to build some sort of take-off point in the spring. Right now sozlet mostly takes off from a short (~3 foot) retaining wall. The cool thing is that a lot of ground can be covered while remaining really low.

The other fun thing is taking it up on the sledding slope (picture on another thread) and then going wheee over the neighbor's fence. That's one of the best ones so far, but our yard is basically a big bowl, lots of possible take-off spots.

(You can see a bit of the stair rails at the very bottom of the bottom picture, above.)

OMG!

Yes, indeedie, that is the swing to end all swings.

Soz--

As a good and trusting mother you have certainly given your kid Enough Rope.

She can be the Girl on the Flying Trapeze.

Yeah, that does make me nervous (all that rope!) She's been smart about it so far though.

Figured out how to scale, this is a more accurate representation (harder to see details though):

Your photography hints at skyhooks.