How to keep bamboo condos from falling?

[Jason Piper]

Bamboo condos are hard to keep upright! I have tryed nailing stakes around the bucket, tying them to tree's, bungeeing them to the ground, what else can I do?
Jerry and Darryl's method seemed to work for them but I have a hard time getting stakes to go far into our solid rock here in NW Arkansas!
Does anyone have any Ideas? It is windy here 95% of the time!

[stockdoc]

J.T.,
I have bought you book's and bought you book's. You need to wait until Joyce and me can get down from N.E. Mo and show you how to place your condo's. Would be interested in knowing the velocity of the wind 6-10 feet below the surface.
Had to mess with you a little. I've gone stir crazy here in N.E. Mo with the snow and ice. Checked a ramp on Mark Twain today and still had ice in the water and coulden't launch..

[tarheel]

Use short bamboo??? Not trying to be smart, just thought the shorter ones would be easier to control.

[Jerry Blake]

Bamboo condos are hard to keep upright! I have tried nailing stakes around the bucket, tying them to tree's, bungeeing them to the ground, what else can I do?
Jerry and Darryl's method seemed to work for them but I have a hard time getting stakes to go far into our solid rock here in NW Arkansas!
Does anyone have any Ideas? It is windy here 95% of the time!

Hey Jason:

Have you tried using rebar? Might have to get 1/2-inch diameter and sharpen the ends if your ground is too hard. Lowe's has it pre-cut in about 3' pieces, which work out pretty well.

Another method we used when we built some on a dock was to put 3 deck screws evenly spaced through the bottom of the bucket near the edge into the dock (with the owners consent) with a cordless drill.

Then when we were ready to move them we pushed the bucket over and popped the screws through the bottom of the bucket and took the screws out of the deck. I've thought about using a piece of 3/4-inch plywood or scraps of dimensional lumber shaped in a cross to screw the buckets down to but haven't tried that yet - should work.

I've also thought about making a jig out of 2 x 4s that the bucket would set down in but haven't tried that yet either. The rebar tied tightly around the bucket works pretty well for us but we've had a few tip over. Be sure and tie your rope to each piece of rebar so they can't spread.

We've learned to just leave them be if they tip over after they are built and haven't had much trouble with bamboo coming out. If you try to mess with them you pretty much have to start all over. Wind is a pain when your building bamboo condos. Might have to build them at night when there is less wind.

We have 24 built out at Greeson and our fisheries biologists are planning to help us sink them tomorrow using their Habitat Barge.

[fatboy]

Here is what I do. I bought six of the six foot metal fence posts at the local co-op here for less than fifteen bucks. Find a place in your yard, mine are out in the woods in the back, then drive two side beside about two feet apart. Then, two feet straight up from the middle of those two, drive one, then two feet up from the one, drive drive two more two feet apart, then just one more two feet from the middle of those. It should look like a triangle pointing up, then down, then up again. Drive them down into the ground until the vane just hides in the ground. Next, I use hay baling twine to wrap a circle around the very top of the posts. The posts have tabs the whole heighth of them for fencing clips, but just use the highest ones. Using seven posts, you can build three condos at a time. You have to go over the twine and into the bucket with the boo, but it works. I like to fan mine out quiet a bit. When the concrete cures, all you have to do is cut the string, let it lean over, give it a big hug at the top and drag that sucker out of there. The bucket isn't two feet wide, so getting it out isn't a problem. These condos are work, but they sure work. Hope you understood all that. If needed, I will take pics of my setup. FATBOY

[fatboy]

Not that easy grizz. The buckets fall over because it is top heavy.

[fatboy]

Even if the bucket doesn't fall over, you sure don't want the wind to blow the Boo all over the place while the cement is drying. That is what happened to me before, all the boo, or most of it on one side, which means it isn't gonna stand real nice when it hits bottom. FATBOY

[GRIZZ]

Dig a snug hole in the ground about half the bucket fits into.

Do you guys always drop the buckets with the condo? I was just wondering if you lined the buckets with trash bags before you poured if they would just pop out and you could just drop the concrete in the water and keep the plastic buckets out of the lake.

[Crappie Reaper]

This worked for me just fine JT. I wrapped about 7-8 stalks like a christmas tree, stuck em ina bucket, tied the top off to a tree branch, poured the crete. I left them tied till I got to the ramp. I cut off all the wrappings, went and dropped them off. Year later, water level went down, some SOB moved them all! LOL, guess I gotta drop em a bit deeper next time.

[Jason Piper]

J.T.,
I have bought you book's and bought you book's. You need to wait until Joyce and me can get down from N.E. Mo and show you how to place your condo's. Would be interested in knowing the velocity of the wind 6-10 feet below the surface.
Had to mess with you a little. I've gone stir crazy here in N.E. Mo with the snow and ice. Checked a ramp on Mark Twain today and still had ice in the water and coulden't launch..

Your funny! It's about time you join! Maybe we will dive around the condos to measure the wind speed!
Looking forward to fishing with you this Spring!