Today I bought 12 bolts of fabric. I think those 12 bolts, combined with the two I already had and what people bring, should give us a full 90 hammocks for the first time in the Hammock Hangout’s 10 year run. I am super excited! Please bring your fabric and your hammocks so we can be sure to reach the goal!

14 bolts of hammock making fabric

Here are three different ways to make a hammock, starting with the easiest:

1. And the easiest of them all. This one requires more fabric, but that is it… wish I would have thought/heard of this a few years ago:
   http://www.instructables.com/id/Instant-Hammock/
   Two issues not mentioned in the instructable are:
   • fabric should be at least 12 to 15 feet long
   • edges may need to be hemmed if it doesn’t have a tear stop or is of itself tear resistant fabric
2. this is the type I was making. Easy to do, but requires a sewing machine. (site sucks, instruction are below the fold!):
   http://www.uniqueprojects.com/projects/hammock/hammock.htm
3. No material needed, but the most work:
   http://www.hammocks.com/howtomakeyourownhammockarticle.cfm

We have plenty of the heavy rope to type the hammocks to the polls with.

Hammocks inside the Hammock Hangout, BM 2003

Check out Deidre DeFranceaux new website: deidredefranceaux.com

The website features Deidre’s sculptures as well as a bunch of the painting:

Click on the artwork to see more.

Deidre also goes by the name Deige…and yes, Deidre is the corrent spelling, not the more common Deirdre

This web site was made by Paul de Jong Web Design

Thanks to Evans at NIMBY the crow’s nest is looking good!

The bottom is now reinforced

The entrance has been installed

Some extra safety was added and reinforced

And finally the flag pole holder has been installed

There are many improvements to the Hammock Hangout this year. I am actually doing everything I said I would in my Borg2 proposal…even without funding! One of the most notable additions this year will be the crow’s nest! Yes, there will be a crow’s nest on top of the Hammock Hangout this year!

That cage will be 42 feet off the ground on top of the main center pole. To get there you will need to climb a rope ladder through the center opening of the parachutes.

It will be very ‘hairy’ to climb to the top so we will strictly limit access. Since safety comes third in the list of hundreds of things that are important at Burning Man–just after costumes, of coarse–there was some extra safety equipment that required. The first being 3/8″ steel airplane cables to replace the rope guide wires.

We will also be top-roping everyone who climbs up the rope ladder just in case. Once the climber reaches the crow’s nest s/he can clip in to a safety strap attached to the cage. That is what the second carabiner is for in the photo.

There are a few people working on reinforcing the crow’s nest so it can be welded to the top cap of the Hammock Hangout. You will see more on this topic as the project unfolds.

It is amazing how much rope it takes to build the Hammock Hangout. The scale makes even the little things add up. For example, hanging the hammocks. Each end of a hammock takes a rope through the end and that then goes around a pole. It takes about 15 feet of rope for each end of a hammock or 30 feet of rope per hammock. There are 90 hammocks, so 30′ x 90 = 2700′ of rope. In other words it takes half a mile of rope just to attach the hammocks to the poles!

There is also:

• 1200′ of rope and/or steel cable holding up the center pole
• 4200′ of rope holding up the grid of 36 12′ logs
• 10,000′ of parachute line holding the edge of the parachutes

The design of the hammock is simple. You start with a ten foot piece of relatively strong fabric that is somewhat tare resistant.

Then you reinforcing the long edges on both sides of the hammock by folding it over and preferable sewing some parachute line into the edge to keep it from ripping.

I put some extra reinforcement on the ends for the loop and Now fold both ends.

and make very sturdy attachment on the edges.

When I started things were rough, but practice makes perfect.

Sometimes I think I a crazy for doing this, but then again I have never regretted it after the fact…so I guess that makes it all worth while. There is some definite short term pain for long term gain. The biggest pain for me is financial. To off sett that ‘pain’ this year I am asking everyone who camps with me to contribute $50.00 to this years Hammock Hangout. It is not required, but it is good karma points:).

Just so people can see where the money goes I have an approximate budget. I will correct the values as the exact numbers come in. The estimated numbers are denoted with a tilde ‘~’. All the none tilde numbers represent money I have already spent. Here is the overview for 2005 so far:

These expenses do not include the 8 roles of parachute line, the solar lights or decor items that Richard has generously contributed to this years Hammock Hangout.

It also does not include and of my regular Burning Man expenses or the 75 hours of lost wages that I will incur during the set-up and clean-up phases. That does not include the 48 hours lost during the event.

Please make your $50- camp contribution payment if you are part of the Hammock Hangout camp…or if you are a lover of the Hammock Hangout! There are three options:

1. make a PayPal donation using click here
2. send a check to 2126 15th Street, San Francisco, CA 94114
3. Hand me $50- or whatever you decide to contribute

the new hh blog

This year (2005!) the Hammock Hangout will be located at 2:00 and Ego. We will be next to Borg2. There are many surprises this year…details in coming blog posts. Come see us out on the Playa!

To see the complete story of the of the building of the Hammock Hangout in the 2003 photo journal. click here.