Friday, May 1, 2015

Inside Volleyball

Tia volunteered our house for the end of year party for Kendall's volleyball team. As such, I had the need to get a court setup. We have plans for an outside court, but with the chance of rain still here, I decided I should plan on inside for now.

I had cemented a few posts in buckets a few years ago, but we found they weren't very stable. One actually broke and became a mailbox stand in Tia's horse playground. We had the other, though we needed something more stable. I planned on trying a combination of a tire and bucket a few weekends ago, but rain kept getting in the way.

Finally we had good weather this week and I got out there Tuesday at lunch. First I needed to get a tire.

Photo Apr 28, 2 49 49 PM

We've had a bunch in the yard from previous years of hay storage, and I got one of the thicker ones. Then I started to put some rebar around the poles. I drilled a few holes and put cross braces, as well as some angled ones in the post.

Photo Apr 29, 1 07 06 PM

I'd cut a piece of OSB for the base, and with that in, I added a few braces to support the pole and then started mixing cement. I'd bought 2 bags over the weekend and put them in, but realized I needed more. Fortunately I've had a spare bag in the garage, and ended up using that. 240lbs of cement + water in there.

Photo Apr 29, 4 02 50 PM

The pole sat for a couple days and dried. It's seemed really stable, and Kendall agreed to help me yesterday get the court set up. After school I grabbed the tractor

Photo Apr 30, 5 03 46 PM

I drove it over to pick up the pole, and had a hitchhiker jump on with me.

Photo Apr 30, 5 03 40 PM

We moved everything into the arena and started setting things up. We unrolled the net and started to measure things. The court needed to be bigger than I expected, and took up a lot of the middle of the arena.

Photo Apr 30, 5 18 45 PM

We tied the smaller pole to the frame and added the original poles that came with the net for some stiffness.

Photo Apr 30, 5 47 52 PM

Kendall then started to mark off a court space. As you can see, it's big.

Photo Apr 30, 5 53 09 PM

It ended up looking good and hopefully the girls enjoy it, and keep the ball low. The lights aren't well protected, so this can't be a regular thing we keep up there.

Photo Apr 30, 5 54 43 PM

However we are looking forward and a little motivated, to get the outside court going. Need to remove the playset, mark off a space, add some dirt to level it and then put down sand. The hardest part will be a fence to prevent the ball from leaving the area.

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