My Homemade Hammock Setup

Hello Everyone,

I thought I’d take a few minutes and write up a quick post about my hammock setup I use when I’m out in the woods. It’s a pretty basic setup, just a hammock, tarp and bug netting. The hammock is four yards of rip-stop nylon with an overhand knot tied on each end. It attaches to the trees with two 1“ thick tie downs with the hooks removed from the ends.  That way I can run the tie down around the tree, through the loop and pull it tight. I then just tie it off to the hammock. Tied properly, it has never slipped or fallen.

The tarp is a homemade 10‘x10‘ tarp made out of some sort of nylon material I bought on clearance. It gets strung up above the hammock on a ridge line and staked down on the sides.  The bug netting is just a military surplus cot net that is tied off to the ridge line and around the tie downs loosely.  this allows easy access into the hammock and closes it up around you when your in. That’s it, it takes about fifteen minutes to setup, add a blanket and an inflatable pillow and you have an very comfortable place to sleep. Sleeping in a hammock is great but it does require some practice to get it setup to your liking. As always, before you're in the woods try your setup at home and get all the bugs worked out of it, it will make for a much more pleasant experience in camp. If anyone has any questions...let me know!
Thanks for reading and I hope our paths will someday cross in the woods,
Chris (N.E.V.)