a fun weekend project

I decided to tackle a fun little project this week with the help of my very handy husband: making some new jumps.

First I had to go and purchase the materials. I was thinking I could make three jumps for under $100. Here's a little reality check: not gonna happen. Just the wood and the PVC poles alone were $115 at Home Depot. The jump cups were $8 for a set of them and I got two sets per jump, so that's another $50. And that was just for three jumps.

My Home Depot trip results. Is is possible to spend less
than $100 there in one trip? I don't think so.

Next we had to measure everything out. We had no power at home due to the hurricane that had just come through, but Kenny has a gas-powered chain saw and we used that to do a lot of the cutting.

Measuring out the standards. We started with 4"x4"x8' pieces of wood. Those
were cut in half so that we had two 4' long sections. These would become the
standards.

I measured out the sections of 4"x2"x10' pieces of wood that would become
the base supports for the standards. Cairo helped...of course.

I used a Sharpie marker to mark where we wanted to cut.

Kenny cut the sections with the chain saw.

On the standards, I measured and marked in three inch increments. Later we
drilled 1/2" holes into the standards, which is where the jump cups would go.

At the barn (where there was power!), Kenny used his electric
screwdriver to screw in the supports.

After the standards were finished, we put the jump cups on and I set
the new jumps up in the ring.

Of course I had to try them out!