channelling macgyver

I have to confess that I had a teenage crush on the, much older than me at the time man named Mac Gyver. This post is dedicated to him - the man that could make anything out of anything!

As kids my brother and I liked swing ball. I wanted to see if the kids would like it too but didn't want to buy one only to find that they're not as keen as we were.  I thought it would be pretty simple to make. It turns out it wasn't. The one in the photos is version 3 as my first two attempts kept ending up with the string wrapped around the pole, which I think is why the real swing ball sets have that spring shaped thing on the top. The old metal handle I found in the garage helped hold the string out and further away from the pole- which reduced the amount of times the string got wrapped around. I think my man MacGyver would be proud of me!

The pole for our fancy swing ball is an old broom handle. The base is an umbrella stand. The metal bit at the top is an old drawer handle (I think) and I just used a long self tapping screw to attach it to the top of the pole. I used plastic string as I thought it would be stronger, put a tennis ball inside one of T's odd socks (we have plenty of these) and tied it to the end of the string. I just guessed the length. M loved it and it didn't take her long to get the hang of it. T was more interested in his bike today but I'm sure he'll give it a go tomorrow.

I'm off to play that cool theme song again.