Jacobson hitting tree

We had been talking about ordering the Joe Mauer Quickswing for the boys or something like it or Bryce Harper's swingaway. We hadn't done it yet but I knew if we had something like that, they would be out there all day hitting. They bounce tennis balls off the ground and hit them, that is, until one went into the road. I had this great idea and Braedyn and I discussed it on a trip to the store.  Leave it to mom:)!   a country girl would come up with this idea:) It was Charlie's job to engineer it and hey maybe we could even patent it!
In our garage Charlie has a tennis ball hanging down from a string with a drilled hole thru it so he knows how far to pull in all the way. Get where I am going with this....
My idea was to take that string, which I knew we had a lot of, and put it thru a baseball! He would need to drill thru the baseball and figure out how to string it thru and make it tough enough to withstand hits. Then take the tallest ladder we have to the front tree in the yard and hang the stringed baseball off the V of a branch and somehow make it stay put and withstand the boys hitting. This way they hit it and then they have to hit it again in motion as its coming back at them...He thought it was a great idea too and I knew he would be able to put something together. He did of course!
He did the above with a little trouble getting the string threaded thru the baseball so we used a shoestring to put thru it and tie that to the stonger stuff. He has created a "pulley" system with a really LONG nail and that is where it is harnessed to and this way if we need to adjust to a certain height of a hitter we can. There were a few hiccups as they were hitting it and it would get caught in some of the branches but now they have figured out which way to hit so that doesn't happen. Charlie climbed up the ladder to try and trim a few of those down but was afraid they would come back and hit the ladder sending him to the ground. Eventually they will hit them enough there won't be any branches to hit.
They love it and are out there for hours hitting away...I just sit on the front porch and watch:) I have to observe making sure Jordan doesn't get in the way...
All three of them like to get in on it. Before this they would pitch to each other and get frustrated and then of course if I tried to pitch to them, I never did it right, so this way they can go out there whenever they want.
So now all we need is that tire swing hanging down from another tree for them to practice throwing a football or baseball :) then we'll have all three sports covered out here from basketball, hitting, and throwing!

figured we'd use a ball that had seen better days!

all I heard that afternoon was "ting" "ting"

Jordan had to get in on the fun!