The Pirate Crow's Nest and Mast

 So what to do when you are a pirate skeleton stuck in a graveyard? Put a crow's nest up to look out for those pesky, barnacle crusted trick r treaters, that's what! Here is an image from the about 80% complete mast and nest:

Not counting the flag pole, the mast is 12 feet tall. The platform for my 3' tall pirate skeleton is a round chalk board that used to have a rope on it for hanging on a wall that I found at Hobby Lobby. It's 15 or 16 inches in diameter, so a perfect size for this. I was originally planning to build more of a basket style nest, but decides this was good enough. What does a skeleton need a safety rail for, anyway? I used a hole saw to drill a hole the same diameter as the pipe and then attached it using 4 L-brackets. Since the only weight on it is going to be a 3 foot tall plastic skeleton in a pirates outfit, this should be sufficient.

The mast is made from a 10 foot long, 2 inch inner diameter PVC pipe, a step down coupler and a 2 foot length of 1.25 inch PVC. I used sand paper to rough the surface up and get rid of the printed marking on the pipes and then put 3 layers of oil based stain on it. Irregular motions, and cloth swipes help create the illusion this is a wooden mast. If you wanted to, you can go the extra mile and take a file to the pole first and then sand it. I wasn't feeling that energetic. Once the stain dried, I sprayed several coats of matte lacquer to protect the stain. I may go over it one more time with a grey colored stain to weather it. The flag pole is lashed to the mast using sisal rope from Amazon. I will be using that same rope to attach to 4 eye bolts to serve as anchor lines (I have 4 dog chain screws to attach them to - It gets windy here...) I also have 2 decorative rope ladders to hang on either side to complete the look. 

To set this into the ground, I will be using a 2" outer diameter PVC pipe hammered in the the ground at least 18 inches. More if I can (again, Texas. once you get past the clay, limestone is not far below). the mast then slides over that, then the ropes provide stability. Once that is in place, I will string a set of Halloween lights up one rope ladder, around the base of the crows nest, and then down the other rope ladder. I will also have a small spotlight on top to illuminate the look out and flag...

So that is the mast and crow's nest. the bulk of the work took up most of a Saturday, but it was also a lot of waiting around for the stain to dry. If you have any suggestions for changes or a different approach to building this, please let me know