On an old sailing ship, a yard is one of the horizontal supports for a sail, and a yardarm is the outer end of a yard. At one time, it was considered acceptable to have a drink once the sun was high enough to be "over the yardarm." This site is for fun projects that happen when the sun is over the yardarm.

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The word "yard" also has a less innocent archaic meaning, which (I suppose) is based on the fact that the yard on a sailing ship sticks out perpendicular to the mast.

In New England, "to yard" also means to pull hard on something. An acquantance once rescued an older woman who drove her car into the ocean. He told a reporter that to get the woman out of her car, he had to "yard on her pretty hard!" Actually, what he said was probably more like "ah had tah yahd anah pretty hahd."