Building the Tire & Concrete Movable Volleyball Posts

(c) 2011 by Tom King

Way back at Keene Public School, we used to play volleyball on an uneven dirt and rock basketball court with a net strung between two metal poles stuck into a car tire full of concrete. I think that public schools are prohibited from using anything so practical (or cheap) anymore, but if you look you'll still find a few here and there on church playgrounds or gyms. It's likely some kid turned one on its side and rolled it over his own or someone else's foot. One lawsuit and anything good gets banned. Still, these sturdy volleyball goals are really handy and if the folk using it have a modicum of intelligence and supervise their children, they should be safe enough. They are portable, hold the net tight and can be built out of scrap materials with minimal cost.

Materials:

1. Two tires with good tread and no steel wire poking through. (It's worth buying used tires to get good tread. They look better and are safer)
2. Four to six bags of concrete depending on how big the tires are. (Get extras, you can always take them back or make yourself a small sidewalk or some stepping stones or something)
3. Two metal pipes or two 4x4 posts, at least 8 feet tall.

Six Eyebolts with nuts and lock washers long enough to fit through the metal pipes or eye screws if you're using wooden posts

Tools:

• Hoe
• Shovel
• Wheelbarrow
• Drill
• Steel drill bit
• Adjustable wrench
• Plastic 5 gallon bucket
• Tape measure

Step 1
Lay the tires on the ground.

Step 2
Prop the poles or posts upright with the bases of the poles in the exact center of each tire. Tie or brace the poles so they won't move while the concrete is setting or the pole will be loose inside the concrete.








Step 3

Mix enough concrete mix in a wheelbarrow to fill up one tire at a time. Make it a little thinner, about the consistency of fresh made pudding so it will flow easily up inside the tire

Step 4
Pour concrete into the tires around the base of the poles or posts. I prefer to scoop the concrete into a plastic bucket so I can control the wet concrete more easily.  You have to pour slowly so you don't move the base of the upright out of center and it's hard to control that if you pour directly from the wheelbarrow.  Tires hold a deceptively large amount of concrete, so you may have to keep mixing bags and adding them till the concrete fills the tire to the top rim. Mix quickly so the first pour is still wet when you add more.  Don't run concrete over the top rim of the tire or the dried overflow will break off in thin sheets later and make a mess.

Step 5
Let the concrete cure overnight.

Step 6
Remove the braces and check out how sturdy the pole is.

Step 7
Lay the pole over and mark holes for the eyebolts at 2 feet from the ground (for the bottom tie of the net) and at 7 feet 4 inches for women's volleyball and at 7 feet 11-5/8 inches for men's v-ball. You'll be installing 3 eyebolts or screws for tying the net to. 

Step 8

Predrill holes for eyebolts a bit larger than the bolts or a bit smaller than eye screws. If you're using pipes drill all the way through so you can bolt the eyebolt in place. If using wooden posts, drill a hole slightly smaller than the eye screw and a quarter inch or so shallower than the length of the screw.

Step 9
Install the eyebolts or eye screws so the eyes are all on the same side of the upright pole or post. 

Step 10
Roll the volleyball standards into place on either side of the center of a large flat area 30 feet wide by 60 feet long.  String up the net and you're ready to go.

Note on Playing Volleyball:
I always use the women's height for groups of kids or church groups to make it easier to play.  That is, unless it's an all men's group or you have one of those pesky ego-maniac show-offs who thinks it's fun to spike a volleyball into a kid's face to show off his prowess in front of the women-folk. Then, I put the net at full height so they can't spike the ball so easily. Men, even church-going men, are dreadfully competitive.  I've even resorted to using nerf volleyballs and beach balls to reduce the danger to smaller players and to make the game more fun to play.

Safety Note:

Here are Marc St. Angelo's
tire & concrete volleyball poles.
Thanks for pic, Marc.

I called these "movable" volleyball posts and not "portable", because, though you can move them around your backyard or playground, I wouldn't want to haul them across town without a really big trailer and possibly a crane.  There is a lot of concrete inside one of those tires and they are extremely heavy.  To move them around, you merely lay them over on their sides, have one person lift the pole end to guide it and another one or two to roll the tire.  Don't let it roll over your foot whatever you do because, as I said, all that concrete is really, really heavy.  It's pretty easy to move them, though and it's obvious how heavy they are so you have to be pretty thick to want to get in front of one when it's rolling.  Don't let small children turn it over or play "pole vault" with it. I can tell you from bitter childhood experience that when the pole starts upward, a lightweight child can get flung a goodly distance when the pole snaps him off the ground. And if he does manage to hang on, he can pull the whole pole over and conk himself on the head.  I was more curious than bright in them days.  Like anything you have around children, you have to watch them and sometimes think for them. It's a bloody miracle some of us ever managed to grow up in one piece at all.

Pickling your own Jalapeno Peppers

© 2011 by Tom King

Recipe Courtesy of Texas A&M Horticulture Agri-Life Extension: Peppers

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/vegetables/pepper.html

What could be cooler than whipping out a Mason jar full of your own home-made jalapenos next time you’re having nachos at the house?  It’s not hard to do with the proper preparation.  You can buy raw jalapenos at the grocery store or you can grow your own. If you get good at growing them, you can even adjust the way you water and fertilize your peppers and vary the times when you harvest them to alter the flavor and hotness to create you own custom jalapeno peppers.

Capsaicin is the chemical in peppers that gives the pepper heat. Capsaicin has no taste or smell, so if flavor is all you’re after, growing a mild pepper will not affect the taste in the least. The hotness of jalapenos is mostly about macho posturing anyway. I have a hard time believing that having a numb tongue after you eat anything is truly a pleasurable experience.

At any rate, the typical chili pepper usually contains more capsaicin at the top of the pepper than at the bottom. Slices taken near the stem are generally very hot.  Near the middle the pepper slices will be about medium and near the lower tip they’ll be relatively mild – all on the same pepper.

If you’d like to make separate jars of hot and mild peppers, you can always cut the jalapenos in two and bottle the tops and bottoms separately.  Don’t forget to label them as some folk react rather badly to fiery hot jalapenos when you told them they were "really mild". Remember, you’ll be in a kitchen with all sorts of sharp knives and heavy blunt objects, so make sure the jars are labeled correctly.

Here’s how Texas A&M recommends pickling your peck of pickled peppers.

1.  Pick a peck of unpickled peppers - jalapeno type

2.  Using fresh Jalapeno peppers, blanch the peppers for 3 minutes in boiling water. To prevent collapsing, puncture each pepper or cut them in half first and separate the hotter top section from the milder lower half. Slice the blanched peppers and pack a pint jar with them and the ingredients below before cooling occurs.

• 1/4 medium-sized garlic clove
• 1/4 teaspoon of onion flakes
• 1 small or medium bay leaf
• 1/8 teaspoon of ground oregano
• 1/8 teaspoon of thyme leaf (not seed)
• 1/8 teaspoon of marjoram
• 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil (olive, refined sesame, corn)  

3.  Create a brine solution as follows:

• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 9 tablespoons salt
• 2 pints water
• 2 pints vinegar (5 percent)

4.  Mix ingredients together and pour into your jars over the top of the peppers and spices. The jalapenos must be hot when the brine solution is added. The addition of carrot slices adds color to the product. If you’re a guy, don’t tell anyone you added the carrots for color. It sounds kind of girly. Make up something like, “It's an old range cook's trick I learned. The carrots absorb the bitter aftertaste left by the bay leaves.”  Stick to something plausible and manly like that. Jalapenos are enough of a guy thing to get you past the part where you're canning stuff like your grandmother, but not if you start adding junk to make the food colorful. 

5.  Close the containers and set them for 10 minutes in boiling water, screw on the lids, then cool the jars. As the jars cool, a partial vacuum will be created inside, sealing the jars. When cool they can be stored in the pantry unrefrigerated. Refrigerate your peppers after the jar is initially opened.

Super Simple Canoe Garage Hoist

Here's a simple way to hang a canoe in your garage.

1. Screw 4 screw eyes to the ceiling joists above where you want to hang the canoe. Space each pair of eyes about two to three feet apart and each pair should be directly over the the thwarts nearest the ends of the canoe as shown.  Screw a pair of flag cleats to the wall near the front and rear eyes for tying off the ropes.

2.  Tie a large hook and eye to the ends of four 16-foot long half-inch nylon ropes or climbing ropes.

3.  Hook the first pair of hooks just behind the canoe's front thwart toward the center.

4.  Pull the two ropes together to raise the front of the canoe about halfway to the ceiling and tie the ropes off.

5.  Now, hook the aft section of the canoe aft of the rear thwarts on either side of the hull just behind the thwarts toward the center. Lift the rear of the canoe all the way to the ceiling and tie it off.

6.  Now raise the forward section of the boat till it's even with the aft section and tie the ropes off.

7.  Reverse the process to lower it. Resist the urge to drop or raise the first end all the way to the ceiling or floor as it can slip from the hooks and hurt you. It's even safer if you work with two people at once and raise or lower the ends of the canoe together.

(c) 2011 by Tom King