On 15/05/06 9:03 PM, Grant Erwin wrote:
We grow strawberries, and the birds get a lot more than we do if we
don't net the beds. This year Karen built a raised strawberry bed about
3x10', and she now wants to put bird netting over it. It has to be
something you can also take the netting off of so you can work on the
bed, pick berries, etc.

I was thinking of a sort of quonset hut arrangement with some long
skinny whippy bendy things bent into half-hoops over the bed, and we
could just lay the bird net over the frame. I was thinking of something
like the stuff they make mobile ham antennas out of. Only problem is I
don't have a clue where to buy it. Green bamboo would be nice too, if it
will bend in a 3' diameter, doubt it would. I was thinking of heavy
electrical wire, but I don't have any, and 100' or so of say 6 gauge
copper would run some do-re-mi.

Ideas?


As well as playing with metal I build large kites of all types. We kite
builders use a lot of carbon fibre and fibreglass spars to create curved
structures. For your application 1/8" or 3/16" solid fibreglass rods
would be ideal. They are light weight, flexible, weather-proof and not
overly expensive. You could even use vinyl tubing to make 'T' fittings
so that you could connect the 'half-loops' to a rectangular base section
or to make connectors to join sections together (if you need tips on how
to do that just ask).

Here is a link to a supplier I use for all my spar/fitting/cloth needs...

http://tinyurl.com/f9jp2

...the above link will take you directly to the solid fibreglass section
of the catalog.

HTH

--
Larry Green
EKF Newsletter Editor
EKF Co-Webmaster
http://essexkites.studio1.net