Relative Something

The next milestone on the shade sail project has been achieved; the sail is up in the small paddock, hanging from 4 new posts. We aren’t finished with the project yet, as there are currently extra braces in place, and we plan to add some 45° angled supports to the header boards and then cut off the extra length of each header. At that time, we may also trim away the extra post height at the top of the two posts where the sail attaches at a lower point.

Leaving all the extra lengths is just a precautionary decision in case we decide we want to make adjustments to the geometry for any reason. We are leaving the temporary supports in place to allow time for all the earth we dug up to settle around each post.

At first, the holes appeared to be dry at the bottom, but we soon saw water flowing into them. More evidence to Cyndie and me that either the water table is pretty high here or we have a natural spring in the vicinity, about 3 or 4 feet below the surface.

The goop coming out of the holes was like the vintage 1960s playset, “Silly Sand.” That made it a challenge to get the holes as deep as we wanted.

We even tried a sump pump to remove standing water, just long enough to establish a base of concrete blocks and gravel fill. Pumping was only moderately successful.

When all four posts were vertical and Justin got the eyebolts in place, it was time to retrieve the sail from the barn.

I just unhooked one corner at a time and said, “Cyndie, hold this,” for each one. Soon, she had the entire sail in her arms.

Even though there was a slight wind to contend with, the outdoor connections weren’t troublesome to make at all.

A shout-out to the heroes who contributed greatly to my attempt to bring this vision in my head into reality:

• My son, Julian, for his technical expertise in creating a virtual sail for me to play with and see how the shadow would move as the sun crosses the sky.
• Architect (mostly retired), Mike Wilkus, for his willingness to listen to me describe my thinking and offer counsel on possibilities.
• New online connection and friend, Emily Pratt Slatin, for her engineering insights from her career in the Fire Department, dealing with equipment tolerances and code enforcement.
• Contractor, Justin Schneider of HomeWorks Consulting, LLC, for the hands-on skills, tools, knowledge, and experience I lack in this otherwise DIY project.

We are relying on the header boards to counter the pull that the tightening of the sail will apply to the posts. It will clutter the super cool visual of the hyperbolic parabola of the sail, but I chose to angle the boards to offer support to that twisting look. If I change my mind after a few days of looking at the structure, there is still an option to square up the header boards around the top and leave a clean visual of the sail geometry below them.

It was a really long day in the hot sun, which made it all the sweeter when the sail went up, providing some very welcome, precious shade. I think the horses are going to find this to be a very nice addition to their living quarters.

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