Free Outdoor Stand Materials

[Cannibal]

I had me a thought last night. Sometimes these work out well, other times not so much. This one, however, is on a nice track.

The place Genuine Draft and I are moving into this weekend is on a small piece of acreage (1.4 acres), It used to be a horse pasture and comes complete with a tiny dilapidated pole barn and a small horse barn (cool, huh?). The pasture area of course caught my eye for a hammock Eden of sorts. As I was driving home last night, I kept seeing all these tall dark poles flashing by my window and I thought "Sure do wish I could find some old telephone poles".

Called Xcel Energy this morning to find out what they do with their old poles and if they are available. Lady told me that in Colorado, they do not sell the used telephone poles....THEY GIVE THEM AWAY! So next week I'll rent a trailer and grab the trusty chainsaw and go fetch some free hammock stand poles.

I've got to figure something to wrap around the poles at a certain height because I don't particularly want my webbing caked in Creosote, but otherwise this should be a pretty simple fix. Planning 10' lengths with 3' buried.

Thoughts, concerns?

[angrysparrow]

Old utility poles? Don't bother wrapping them...just grab some large cheap eye-bolts from the hardware store and screw them in. Either clip in a biner, or insert a toggle to hang from.

Even if you don't use them for hanging, I'm sure that you can find a use for a utility pole.

[Cannibal]

Old utility poles? Don't bother wrapping them...just grab some large cheap eye-bolts from the hardware store and screw them in. Either clip in a biner, or insert a toggle to hang from.

Even if you don't use them for hanging, I'm sure that you can find a use for a utility pole.

Duh! Didn't think of that; very good idea.
One eye-bolt for the hammock and a little one for the tarp. Sweet!

[gargoyle]

Might want to go deeper than 3 feet. Frost can lift and heave objects buried less than the frost level in your area. Here in Michigan, we need to go at least three-four feet to ensure that don't heave. Check with your local building ordinance first. Creosote has been a no-no for some townships and cities. But, what they don't know won't hurt, either.
Instead of a wrap around each post/pole, why not install a big gnarly hook...
Mixing in some dry redi-mix concrete to soil works well for solidifying the poles. After setting and plumbing the poles dump in some redi-mix, then some soil, then some redi-mix, etc. till its tight. When it rains the soil/ redi-mix bonds together nice and strong. We used this practice to stand the old t.v. antennas, back in the day.




edit; I gotta learn to type faster. AS beat me to it.

[Cannibal]

Thanks for the tips gargoyle. I've been thinking I should go a little deeper since the poles are 40 to 50' long. That leaves me a lot of flexibility in the lengths I cut. U-Haul has the 12' trailers so with some red bandannas I should be able to transport up to about 14 or 16' lengths.

Shhhhh. The short, left-over, stumps might just be used for a paintball/airgun battlefield. Gotta get that sign-off from Genuine Draft, but I'm a pretty sneaky fella.

[SmokeHouse]

sounds like a man with a plan...

[oldgringo]

Take some friends. You won't believe how heavy those suckers are.

[shrek]

Oh, no!!! Another weekend project for me.

[Ramblinrev]

ummm... a word to the wise... read your U-haul contract carefully. In the contracts that I have signed there is a clause prohibiting the carriage of logs or wood with U-Haul equipment. The weight of that stuff, especially treated logs and more especially creosote treated logs is wicked hard on their equipment. Not saying "don't do it" or even "don't get causght doing it." Just expressing my experience. Know what you are getting into.

[Cannibal]

Good call Rev, thanks for the heads-up. It makes sense too. Maybe I should find a heavy equipment rental place and see if they have beefier trailers. I don't like to tear things up that aren't mine.