It is a great irony of life that, as children, we don't usually possess the resources to do really cool stuff - and by the time we are adults, we usually don't want to. As a child I would have given my back teeth for enough money for old rope. Now, finally, I can make all the swings I wish.

So, after level-zeroing this task as my other persona - http://sf0.org/Absurdum/Escape-to-the-Camera/ I finally decided to do this properly.

After last time's rope failure I carefully chose my rope. This time my rope was neither too stretchy, nor too thin.

I chose my site at the same lake as last time, but this time chose a spot which was both high enough that I didn't have to scrape the ground while swinging, and also further out of the line of the beaten path. In the past, while 4 wheel motorbiking through this forest at night, I have struck swings at speed, and do not recommend it.

I had also thought carefully about swing design. The rope is doubled up, so that either strand can fray through and give way without effecting the ability of the other to hold the tree. Likewise, both ropes are tied to a second, higher, branch. This means that if / when one rope frays through, the other will be tied to AT LEAST one branch without slipping off. Finally, I added a branch at the bottom of the loop of rope. This means that the rope doesn't move on the tree so much. In future I would like to add cloth under the rope, further stopping this, but I forgot to bring it today...

Anyway, I climbed the tree, built the swing, and then had a great time for about an hour "testing" it. That swing will last a while.

On the way further down the lake to complete another task I found another, less well made, swing. I tried to fix the swing, but the rope had frayed in SEVERAL places, and failed it's break tests 3 times. Which hurt. Never mind...