Tags
branch, hammock seat, hang, knot, rope
Our son got a hammock seat from his grandparents and we wanted to hang it from the backyard maple, so he could swing and read and max/relax in the yard now that it’s warm.
It didn’t come with rope so my wife and I went to the almighty Tractor Supply. We bought polypropylene rope with a load weight of 420 lbs., so our son would have to do something really crazy to break it.
First off, cool trick: with this kind of synthetic rope, you can melt the frayed ends together with a lighter so it doesn’t unravel:
The tricky part was getting the rope tied to a branch thirty feet in the air. I learned how to tie a double bowline knot, which leaves a secure loop at one end of the rope.
Then I had to get the knot over the branch and pull it back down. Even with a stick tied to the throwing end, this was hard to do. The stick wasn’t quite heavy enough to compensate for the weight of the slack rope, which kept slowing the stick and preventing me from getting it over the branch. I finally did, and then the stick just dangled there. The easy solution was to snap-ripple the end of the rope I still had. Each ripple let the stick fall a little farther down, until at last I had both ends on the ground with the rope looped over the branch.
I slipped the loose end into the earlier knot loop and pulled.
The knot rode up and tightened itself on the branch. It was incredibly satisfying, as good knots often are.
After that I tied another double bowline at the opposite end and clipped on the hammock seat. Our son spent hours in this thing. He had his iPod at one point, but for the most part he was content to hang there, watching the dog and daydreaming. He even went out this morning when it was cold enough to need a puffy vest. Total success.
