Save the squash!

Well, as luck would have it one of my squashes has made it (knock on wood) through the squirrel onslaught. The trouble is that it is in the most ridiculous place, way up in the air on a bean pole. I was certain that if it got too heavy it would break the vines that are keeping it alive, so a little help was called for.

Ashley's Book of Knots to the rescue! This book has every knot ever dreamed up (and then some) so I figured it would be a great place to go for advice on how to make a net. I thought a little hammock would be a great way to keep the squash supported while it grows without risking it rotting away if it sat on a soggy cloth or some other contraption.

Lo' and behold, I was right (about the net part, not about the soggy part -- although I am probably right about that too).

The first step is to cut some string. I used 5 strands (they get folded in half when attached to a lead string, so you get 10 lines in the end). Make them pretty long, because they will get reduced to about a quarter of their length after they are folded over and knotted up.

Tie an anchor line across two supports (I used the picnic table). Then loop each string at the half way point.

Put the loop on the anchor line and feed the loose ends around the anchor and through the loop to make a lark's head type of knot.

Tighten it up (very useful that the camera focused on the patio stones).

And do the same with your other 4 strings.

Make an overhand knot a little way down the second string from the left.

Then take the string to the right and make an overhand knot the other way round so that it goes through the loop of the first knot. It should look like this. (The first one is the toughest!)

Tighten them up, and voila: first knot! Then do the same with the next pair of strings, and continue along the row to the end. When you reach the end, go back the other way, but alternate strands so that your next row of knots is under a space as opposed to being under an existing knot.

Once you run out of string, tie the last row off to another lead string (I guess this should be called an end string), and you're done! This won't win any beauty contests, but it should do the trick.

Then came the massive struggle with the beans, the bean poles, and the squash vines to get the damned thing attached, but it worked and looks pretty cool if you ask me! Now I know how to make a net -- I am sure this will be a useful skill post-Apocalypse for catching mutant shrews and stuff, so I figure I killed two birds with one stone here (provided I can still buy string).

The Ashley Book of Knots is a great reference. I think it would be cool if someone did a blog about it, like Julia and Julia, where they make every knot in the book. They could call it Arthur and Ashley or something. It won't be me though. First, I am not named Arthur, and second there are around 4,000 knots in the book so you'd need a year of 10 knots per day, which strikes me as nuts. I'd be 80 before I got to page 10.

ANYWAY, there you have it! Fingers crossed that the evil squirrels don't find our airborne delicacy!