Day 230-Ode To Ladder

LAdder, LAdder, LAdder, LAdder. 

Why do I love thee? 

Let me count the ways!

I love thee to the depth and breadth but mainly  height

To that cave I can reach, which without you may be out of sight 

 And where mountain herbs huddled impossibly 

at Land's Ends in   i d y l l i c    Grace

I love that with thee we can level to herb gather 

for everyday's quiet needs to a youthful Face

 I love thee freely, so we might visit thy neighbour's wife;

Who's jealous husband has locked her Way Up 

in a mushroom  h o u s e  all her life

  

But mostly, I love thee purely,

For no matter how f  a  r the mountain high

Even when my  eye  meets the  sky

With thee, I'm exactly where I want to be.

How I Made My Rustic Ladder

This rustic ladder has to be one of the easiest mini to make.  You only need 1 material, fairly sturdy twigs. The tools are as shown in the picture. First, I cut 2 twigs to the same height , these will make the sides of the ladder. Then I cut the steps to a length I am comfortable with.  Mine need six steps. Make sure they are of equal length of course. 

For the perfectionist, you can use a ruler for this next step. I was too lazy so all I did was to put the 2 long twigs right next to each other and align the holes which I created with a simple round file (the tool with the orange handle in the previous pic). I made a dent on the twig and then dug deep but gentle because otherwise, the twig may break.

 For the steps, I shaved the ends with a fine chisel (best thing I bought from Daiso last month, thanks to Cindy!) like that in the picture above. Then I put glue at the 2 ends and in the holes of the long twigs. 

Here's where I fit the ends of the step into the holes. One by one, till I make six. Don't be afraid that the steps might not fit because it is so easy to just shave a bit more off the ends or if it becomes too short like one of mine, I just cut another step. After all the steps were fitted, I varnished the ladder with a matt finish. This ladder was finished in less than an hour.  Maybe that's long for some of you but it's pretty darn short for me! 

Truth is I really do love ladders. I have 3 in my home.

The really useful one which we use mostly to hand our rags to dry. I think it is a universal use for ladder when it is idle. 

This is the disused but cute  one which I just don't have the heart to throw away. I even wrapped the rusted bars with rope strings. I used this one once to take pictures of my minis.

Then we have ta-dah, the completely useless one which has been leaning against this window for the past 3 years and more. For the photo shoot today, I put 3 pots of plastic plants to give it some hint of usefulness. 

And this is the tag that's still hanging on the ladder since 2007!

What to do? 

I love ladders and sometimes 

for no other reason than the fact that they look pretty.