A Trellis fit for Jack!

2 trellis' for a natural rustic vineyard!

Yes, the giant, Jack, in the beanstalk fairytale could probably climb this trellis! I've consulted several construction and scouting friends to figure out the best approach to building this, after over-purchasing some large 4-5" cedar trunks for a vine trellis which could have been made with 2" branches. What the heck, may as well make a big statement if you're gonna do it, right? Plus I'm kind of tired of those puny little trellis' that fall apart after ONE season.

The one thing they all three agreed on was using tripods. But I chose to slightly notch and then lash the joint. Here's the basic process I followed:

1. Raise the 3 logs to position similarly to what a tripod lashed trio will end up looking like with the bottom of the logs splayed out to the degree expected. I figured this out by lashing together 3 broom handles first to see where the connections ended up. Mark 2 outer logs on the appropriate angle towards the center log where the notches are to be made. Lower and notch with hand-saw and back of the hammer OR small cuts with a chainsaw. 
2. Lash with sisal rope 3/8".  Tripod lashing with racking turns video by Scout Pioneering is the video I followed. I used sisal rope because of I wanted a natural look at the end. 
3. I considered adding a lag bolt but can't find a good place to go through all 3 logs. So I'm testing this to see if the Texas heat will rot out the sisal in a year. If it starts rotting quickly I'll probably add the lag bolts for some extra support so that I can replace the sisal before it completely falls over. 
4. Add climbing wire by wrapping with a plain wire and using chicken staples (hopefully they mean chicken coop staples and not chicken staples but the box said "chicken staples" so I'm hiding it from my 4H chicken-mom daughter) to secure it to the log. 

One of my friends suggested just lashing with metal wire and the other suggested lashing with a bungee just long enough to get the lag bolt thru and then doing a decorative sisal wrap around the whole thing. If anyone tries either of these let me know how it works out for you. 

I wanted a vineyard in this area of my yard but didn't want the traditional old plain board and wire trellis. I wanted something more rustic that could be a focal point to draw a person's attention here since it's the farthest point from the back porch and many times visitors don't even realize this area is a part of my yard. 

And then...after visiting the nursery and seeing the vast selection of grapes available, I noticed this blackberry vine smiling at me just beside the grapes, taunting me and daring me to not buy my husband's favorite fruit for desert, blackberry cobbler. So, I now have one grape vine and one blackberry. We'll see how these 2 get along.

lashed tepee...

So, after procrastinating a week on this project, I finally wrangled my family into it to have some "family fun and learning".  We had a blast trying to lash 3 heavy logs, all with their own bends and notches to get in the way of the rope. It took us a while and we figured out it was easier with these up on 2 sawhorses which took us off our knees.

My daughter wanted one of her own to make herself a playhouse tepee. It's always a motivator to get her to help if she can end up with a piece of the creativity of her own. She lashed this one together herself with 3 smaller limbs we had.

Well, thanks for following me on another adventure! Thanks Steven & Tabitha for the help!