the aluminum stakes are almost all the way in the ground (about an inch away from the curved part)the tree is around 12-14 ft tall. base, i'm not sure of (the nodes don't go all the way to the ground) (standard smart strings, each string is 40 nodes long)taut, they are THE guy wires of the tree. there is nothing else holding the mast up.
Found them in walmartfairly cheap, in the outdoors / tents aisle.i'd say i put them in about a 30-45 degree angle from vertical.