The old playset is gone.

[elfs]

Every year for the past three years Omaha and I have been promising ourselves and the kids that we'd get them a new swingset. It's not that the old one (which has appeared in several photos here over the years) wasn't servicable-- it was, sorta-- but it was old, it was starting to rust, and its biggest flaw was that the original owners had built it too close to the Retaining Wall Of Doom. Yamaraashi-chan is now big enough her feet hit the retaining wall when she swings. But every year for the past three years, certain legal bills have piled up in the Spring, draining our resources, and denying Yamaraashi-chan and Kouryou-chan a place to play.

Ruins

This year, Omaha and I swore, no more. We've bought both the wood and the kit, and we're going to build the damn thing. But first, we had to tear out the old one. This was harder than it had looked at first: bolts were rusted solid, some so badly that we had to break them off with the sledgehammer. It wasn't as sad a job as it sounds, and even Kouryou-chan helped, finding 5/16 and 3/16 sockets for the ratchet as we worked, ferrying tools around, and generally getting in the way, but the way kids will.

When I tore the standing posts out of the ground, I was stunned by how little support there actually was: four cement coffee cans, no more than 18" deep, were all than anchored a rectangle frame two feet by six feet to the ground. I think my kids were in mortal danger every time they dangled from the trapeze bar.

Anyway, it's gone now. Omaha and I filled in the holes, and we've plotted out where the new set is gonna go. It's huge compared to the old one. But we'll figure something out. And I get to play handyman, with drills and saws and stuff, for the next week or so.

Comments

[marketeer]

That coffee-can-full-of-cement thing is pretty standard for many do-it-yourselfers. When I was about 10, I was swinging on our backyard swingset and noticed that one the legs was pulling out of the ground every time I went forward. You're smart to replace yours with a nice wooden one (I think they look much better anyway).

[fallenpegasus]

Make an announcement with lots of lead time for "Playset Day". It sounds like a great opportunity for a social work party!