Tire Swing

Six years ago, my brother-in-law Kevin and I hung this tire swing.... Well, Kevin did anyways. The rope finally gave gave way, so this year it was my turn to give it a try. It doesn't look that high from below, but when I got up there, I found out otherwise. I don't mind heights when I feel like I've got a safety net - like rock climbing or parachuting. It's when I'm way up, and I'm way exposed to some serious potential pain that I'm a little more hesitant. I threw the rope over a branch above me to give me a hand hold to walk out on the branch and then shimmied the rest of the 10 feet to the point where I needed to tie the rope, about 25 feet off the ground. The branch was only about 3 inches in diameter, which doesn't give you much to grip, so I had my feet wrapped around it as I tried to stay perfectly still. I tied the rope and then used some steel brackets to lock things in place, tied the tractor tire on the bottom and away we went. When the kids were younger, all three of them could fit on it. Now they're limited to two. At it's highest point in the arc it it gets up about 12 feet in the air.