Stabilizing the feet of step-ladders on muddy ground

It has been wet here in Eaton County.

We got 2 inches of rain in the last 48 hours and the weather-guessers assure us that we will be getting another inch in a couple more days.

Holes in the ground show the water-table is about 6" below the surface.

Pruning

Some of my pruning benefits from the use of a step ladder.

Since our local deer happily browse up to the 5'-6" or 6' line, the productive branches must be above that height even when carrying a full fruit load.

Since it is arduous to pick fruit that is higher than 10' above the ground, that results in all of the "interesting" pruning happening in that 6'-to-10' zone.

Sadly, I am a scant 5'-9" tall.

This time of year the challenge in pruning is finding ground that is firm enough to support the feet of the ladder, especially the skinny legs that stabilize the unit.

The side with the cross-pieces for the feet are much wider than the other side.

 

A leg on the stabilizing side. Taken from the same distance to give you a size comparison. When I am at the top of the ladder, most of my weight is supported by these skinny legs.

When one of the skinny legs starts to sink into the ground, the weight shifts in that direction and increases the load on that foot, further accelerating the rate of sinking. That is NOT a virtuous cycle!

Since Sunday is a day-of-rest, I cheated a little bit and did a tiny bit of carpentry.

My largest step-ladder is 24-1/4" wide on the side that stabilizes the unit.

I found a piece of 5/4" thick, 6" wide, treated, yellow-pine decking in my inventory and cut a 36" length. I added a length of 2X2 to provide a cleat to arrest the tendency of the feet to inch forward.

Why so long? Kalishnikov's Constant: Clearance is good. If 25" is good-enough when everything is perfect and 28" is good-enough when one thing goes wrong...why not aim for 6" of forgiveness on each side?

Yes, I know that I could have added side-cleats to trap the feet but then it becomes ladder-specific. This one is so simple that it will work for all of mys step-ladders. 

I climbed to the top of the ladder and wiggled a little bit. It felt really good. I should have done it years ago. It used scrap wood and took about 15 minutes.