My neighbour has a huge black walnut tree, which sits just on his side of the propery line, but which sends its canopy well into my yard. Of course this means that it drops a good portion of its toxic fruit into my yard too, but that's neither here nor there. My neighbour keeps the tree well groomed and there is one very substantial branch which had great potential for a swing. The only problem was the same thing which made it so attractive, the branch is at least 30 feet in the air...well beyond the reach of any ladder I have seen.
One afternoon, I pulled out a length of mountain climbing rope I had bought in Edmonton during my university years. Don't ask why I bought climbing rope, or why I had been holding it onto it for the past 20 years...its a long story. I think I had about 50 feet, and a started coiling it up and flinging it skywards towards the black walnut, showing off my best Roy Rogers rope wranglin' skills. After a few throws, and much to my surprise, I managed to position the rope in just the right spot to make a jim-dandy swinging rope.
At this point, Andrew and Colin started to get really interested.
Eventually, I transferred Andrew's disk-swing from the old cherry tree, cut off the excess rope and we were ready for business. The new swing is much better than the old. With a good push, the swing can get nine or ten feet off the ground at the height of its arc. That's high enough to hit the soffets of the house if you aim it in the wrong direction. The kids have a ball with it, both swinging and pushing it in a giant circle. It's like having a huge pendulum in our yard.
