Okay, here’s my attempt at a blog post, following all your instructions:

So, I had this crazy idea the other day. I wanted to see if I could somehow combine these seemingly unrelated things: a rubber volleyball, some maple, and timber. Don’t ask me why, it just popped into my head. Sounds weird, I know, but that’s how I roll.

The Great Experiment Begins

First, I grabbed an old volleyball from the garage. It was pretty deflated, which actually turned out to be helpful later. Then, I went out to my backyard. We had a maple tree that needed some serious pruning, so I took that as an opportunity and sawed off a decent-sized branch.

Next, I needed some timber. Luckily, I had some leftover 2x4s from a previous project. I picked out a couple that looked straight enough. Now, the real challenge: figuring out how to put all this stuff together.

Trial and Error (Lots of Error)

My initial thought was to somehow use the maple branch as a stand for the volleyball. I tried to carve out a little notch in the branch, hoping the ball would sit nicely in it. That… didn’t work. The branch was too uneven, and the ball kept rolling off. Fail number one.

Then, I thought, maybe I could use the timber to create a base. I grabbed my hammer and nails and started banging away. I’m no carpenter, so it wasn’t pretty, but I managed to build a somewhat stable square frame.

• The wood was pretty rough.
• Some nails got bent.

I placed the deflated volleyball inside the frame and started pumping it up. My thinking was that the expanding ball would somehow grip the wood. It kinda worked, but the ball just looked squished and awkward. Strike two.

A (Slightly) Better Idea

I took a break, stared at my mess for a while, and then it hit me. I decided to use the maple branch as a decorative element inside the volleyball. Since the ball was already deflated, I carefully cut a small slit in it, just big enough to slide the branch through.

I trimmed the branch down to size, sanded it a bit to smooth out the rough edges, and pushed it through the hole. I then re-inflated the volleyball, and the branch was held firmly in place. I used some wood glue from the maple brunch to the timber.

Finally, I placed the whole thing on top of the timber frame, just for added stability. It wasn’t exactly what I envisioned at the beginning, but hey, it was something! A weird, abstract sculpture, maybe? Or just a testament to my random tinkering. Either way, I had fun doing it.