Stupid little trick

[RanchMan]

Ok, I'm sure I'll be made fun of for this one, but thought I'd post anyway.

I have a gap-fence across a section of my property (too lazy to build/install a metal gate I suppose) Anyway, I want the fence tight when closed, but want it tighter than I can do it by hand, so I have a piece of rope about 6' long that I loop around the stationary post and then around the post for the gate. By looping around several times, I get a good mechanical advantage and can pull that sucker tight to secure it.

The problem is that the rope gets "tacky" when damp, and since we had precip, it was like it had super glue on it - I couldn't shut the gate.

The right answer is to replace it with poly rope or something that water doesn't affect, but since I didn't have any, I was left with a dilemma. I thought about it a while and since there was a jar of peanut butter in the truck (to make a sandwich with), I thought it could "grease my wheels".

Anyway, I slopped on a big spoonful on the fence pole and wrapped the rope around it. The rope slid so easily I almost fell backwards! I was able to close the gap with very little effort. Of course now the only problem is that I have peanut-butter flavored rope...

 

[Bird]

/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gifThat's great, RanchMan; hadn't heard of that before./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif What I'm accustomed to seeing is a short chain or wire attached to the stationary post with a piece of pipe or stout stick for leverage around the gate post.

 

[Egon]

The mice are really gona like you.

Egon

 

[BWa]

You are going to have a short rope real so ..like when all the critters find the rope ......Lol
Bill G.

 

[RanchMan]

I actually plan on replacing it with a "naturally slick" rope next time I go to that part of the fence so I don't have to keep the jar of peanut butter in the truck. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Golfgar4]

Which brand of peanut butter did you use /w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif? You might be able to contact the manufacturer and sell them your idea for a new marketing gimmick. It might open a whole new market share they never even thought of /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif! Make sure you get royalties /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif.

 

[cowboydoc]

Ranchman,
Good resolution to the problem. Bird is absolutely right though a really easy way to close that gate is to get a chain and attach it to the corner post and then attach the other end to a pole about 2' long. Then you can use the pole as a lever to close the gate.

 

[RanchMan]

Jif -

maybe something like..

"You should always keep a jar of Jif handy. Hungry? Make a sandwich that will take you back to the days of your youth. Something stuck? Use Jif as an industrial strength biodegradeable lubricant. Whatever type of jam you have, Jif is the solution - " /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Cowboydoc/Bird - I might give that a shot - seems less troublesome than the rope.

 

[Golfgar4]

Not bad! But you might want to consider removing (or at least changing) the words "industrial strength" from a sentence that discusses making a sandwich. For some reason, the 2 don't seem to go together well /w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif. "Food" for thought!

 

[dmccarty]

RanchMan,

Was the peanut butter the crunchy or extra crunchy variety? /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Ahhh! It most have been regular old SMOOOTTTTTTHHHHHHH peanut butter! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Sorry, just could not resist!

Later...
Dan