Town's End- Big Guy and Luxury Bridge update

[Beemermcr]

Respect your choices, your commitment to family, commitment to quality. Still loving mine, nightly!

[Brommeland]

It's good to hear from you, Bill. I'm glad that the worst is behind you now. Take this advice from a guy who was married to his business (and regrets it) - take time to enjoy the little ones. They seem to grow up overnight, and once they turn into obnoxious teenagers, you'll never have the chance for a "do-over"...

[snwcmpr]

This reminds me of a saying that I heard.
"No one, on their death bed, wishes that they had spent more time at work."
But, how do you pay the bills?? Worthwhile endeavors.

[Johnny Gunz]

Bill, no explanations or updates needed, but it shows the kind of person you are You've created an outstanding hammock line, so do only what you can do without killing your passion, or yourself! Take care of you and yours first and foremost. I love my Biggy Deluxe and new customers will discover its well worth the wait. Take care amigo!

[Just Bill]

Thanks Slugger, BeemerMcr And the infamous Johnny 'pole shooter' Gunz chiming in from Margaritaville, lol!
And to those of you who reached out privately as well.

Gary- hope things are looking up on your end.
To both Ken and Gary... A few years back I wrote a short story about sorting out a few of those issues.
The Heady Topper.pdf
Here's a link for those of you who prefer- https://1drv.ms/b/s!Apygyt54yYPwg8Bkapoh7hqBIkQycA


There are two ways to give yourself a raise... make more money, or need less money. We did a bit of both.
My wife has spent her career in early childhood development, so when the time came she was the natural choice to stay home.
As they age.. that's more my turf so we hope to switch roles both financially and as parents.
Besides the fact I love helping folks get outdoors, making some gear while kids are at school would be a perfect job once we make the switch.
And exposing kiddos to nature (and the great folks at group hangs) would be a fine way to do things so it's a good fit all around.
I doubt it would ever be a serious money maker or primary breadwinner, but it would be an acceptable second income for a stay at home dad that would let me balance all the things that really matter.

Anywho... Three moves and two rehabs since I wrote this tale and I'm getting closer... but likely a few years to go.
Life is never smooth, but we can always try our best.
Hopefully I can get a few more of these out sooner than later for my fellow hangers who need a little time among the trees to recharge.
Hang in there!

[BananaHammock]

Well for all of those that are on the waiting list, the stuff sack doubles as a neck pillow D6BB14D3-D72B-48C7-984B-A041A53144AF.jpg
29B6F549-C250-4CE7-B1BE-214393B13D65.jpg
CB418B69-E5A9-4522-83BC-AC643271AC66.jpg

[Johnny Gunz]

That's awesome! Thanks for sharing that BH!

[Slugger]

Went on the John Rock hang this past weekend near Brevard, NC in the Pisgah National Forest with my BGBH. Hiked in about 1.4 miles to the campsite. My BGBH performed great! A lot of people looked at the hammock and liked it. I consider myself very lucky for stumbling upon this hammock in these forums and getting one as it is the most comfortable hammock I've owned. My UGQ Winterdream 12 tarp has the double internal pole mod and provided 100% protection from the rains we experienced. I had both sides of the tarp pulled down low for rain protection and the hammock never bumped into the sides. A perfect tarp for this bridge!

20180719_141404.jpg 20180721_085050.jpg

[Just Bill]

Garrett- nice discovery with the stuff sack!

Slugger- You've got that rig down pat! Love that overhead/overview shot as well. Besides the stunning enchanted forest itself... I'd love to get to visit with the crew down there at the John Rock hang. Lots of good people and great ideas coming from that group.

Since everyone is sharing pictures... had a nice weekend spending some time teaching my little guy to paint as I finally got to move onto the one room in the remodel I really wanted to work on!
Shop 2.0.jpg

Hoping to finish up the final coat of paint on the floor tonight.
Probably going to take this week into the weekend to get the rolls of fabric and rest of the shop in place... but seeing a cutting table in place is getting me itching to get back to it for sure.

The kiddos sorted the bridge poles with care:
poles.JPG

And all necessary supplies have been obtained:
Supplies.jpg

Even got to unpack a few boxes of hammocks:
Gathered ends.jpg

Right before I closed up my shop I had a flurry of activity burning up odd fabrics and completing anything I could... I had meant to hold a garage sale of some sort but never got to it as the shop went to the garage and spare time to take care of that evaporated.
So once I get a chance to unpack everything and spread it out I'll try to get a flyer of some sort typed up. There are probably 40 sewn channel netless gathered ends of various sizes, colors, and fabrics on that wall and a few more boxes to go through. I'm hoping to get those cleaned out in the $20-$40 range depending on the fabric... there is a rack of splicing made up too if folks need it.
For fans of HyperD 1.6 and 1.0... the bulk of those GE hammocks are that material as I switched to the hybrid for my primary fabric moving forward.

Not shown are the 20+ bridge bodies waiting to get final suspension, QA, testing and pole sets made up so they can find a home.

More than likely... In mid-august I'll start reaching out to those who have emailed me and start catching up on the backlog as they get completed.

I need to run some numbers for final retail pricing on the bridges but I'll get that going as soon as the shop itself is complete.
As mentioned before... I'll clear out the backlog of those who reached out before I officially 'open'.

Until I get organized and have stable output I'm not taking any pre-orders or deposits as I don't feel it's right to 'sell' something if you can't promise a reasonable delivery date.
If you'd like to send an email feel free and I will add you to the backlog list and reach out as product becomes available... but the website itself will remain 'closed' for the foreseeable future.
To be blunt- I'd rather spend the time I have working on sewing these up so putting effort into the website itself probably is going to lag behind for the rest of the year.
I will try to shoot a quick video once things get better organized to outline the basics (Price, what you get, weight, specs, etc.)

The only testing that didn't go that great thus far was the Hybrid 1.2 'Happy Medium'.
Some of those were wearing prematurely so I'll have to revisit that before I go much further with them... It may not prove worth the effort though.
The dynaglide based model was about 12 ounces, the 7/64" amsteel based model was 13 ounces. The Hybrid 1.7 model with Amsteel clocks in around 15.5 ounces... so pushing for those last few ounces may not be worth it in that model. I may need to revisit the Micro Bridge size in 1.2 or 1.7 rather than pushing lighter fabric into a medium size if I hope to hit much more than 175lbs. So a sub 1lb trail worthy model in medium (standard size) looks very promising... but the truly SUL version is looking like it's crossing into stupid light territory at this time.

Things remain good with Ruta Locura although I delayed testing the trekking pole conversions because of my time commitments.
With some volume I hope to include Carbon Fiber poles in the Upcoming Happy Medium's base price and offer the trekking pole option at a reasonable rate.
Overall all the carbon fiber pole sets that went out for the luxury and medium sized bridges have been doing great so I'm very happy about our efforts on that front.

Josh remains willing to produce CF pole sets not only for my bridges, but for Ridgerunner's as well... so every bridge user is benefiting from this testing.
The poles will likely not be on his website for the general public but he will produce them if contacted directly.
They may get added to his site in the future with a link back to the relevant discussions we had here so that everyone understands the limitations, risks, and proper use with Ridgerunners.
I will handle any sets for my products directly if someone wants an upgrade and the model and user weight works out.
As of now the Luxury is safe to 200lbs, the medium at 225lbs with hopes to push that further in the future once a more formal way to test them takes place.

I have 5 sets of the trekking poles 'in hand' and will be working on getting them out this fall to testers with hopes of expanding in spring to more folks if all goes well.

Really want to try the 'Agon' that Goobie was testing in hybrid 1.2 as well as two other dramatically different hammocks I hope to get out in testing in the future.

I'm really excited to keep up the Big Boy and Luxury Bridges as my main focus... but I can't discount my long distance hiking and ultra light minded friends either! Especially as mass producing the 10 ounce Micro bridge will be an issue, I'd like to be able to offer something in a weight class geared toward light weight backpackers too and I have some possibilities outside the bridge designs to pursue.

Slowly but surely!

[Slugger]

I'm really excited to keep up the Big Boy and Luxury Bridges as my main focus... but I can't discount my long distance hiking and ultra light minded friends either! Especially as mass producing the 10 ounce Micro bridge will be an issue, I'd like to be able to offer something in a weight class geared toward light weight backpackers too and I have some possibilities outside the bridge designs to pursue.

Slowly but surely!