When we moved into our home, and finally owned land, I had a hunkering for some sort of a Jungle Gym, climbing frame kind of a thing… and I just kept the idea lurking in the back of my mind. Whenever we visited someone with one I asked where they got it and so on – oh and did I mention research: I googled, I phoned and I wangled – not in a frenzied, desperate kind of a way… just in a mild kind of relentless way, and all the while looking for a bargain.
Remember I have to run this past the father person and frivolous expenditure is definitely not on the cards… Well I finally found it, the bargain that is. Some one told me you can get the kit from the local poleyard so I suggested a trip in an innocent kind of a way…
And yes you can buy kits at a fraction of the price of ready made ones and just think of the fun of putting one of these babies together…
Have a look at them: How cool is this? You can plot and plan and pick and choose, it can be as simple (none of that) or as complex as you like and well in a word: totally awesome. The only requirement seemed to be that you know the alphabet… you know place A with B with C and so on… How hard can it be?
Not to mention the family bonding time – I have the dream: kids, fathers, hammers, nails, plans, projects – focused fun. Notice the mother person is not actually part of the dream – hmmmm, even when I look really intently she just doesn’t appear in the dream. Oh, there she is – on the side holding a baby… thank goodness, a genuine excuse… She is not lazy mind you just – no, not part of this dream. (Just keep in my mind my project capabilities, that I wrote about in the coffee machine post.) In fact, just this once, I think she should stand back and let the eager family members have a turn.
I wish I would get it, but I just can’t admit defeat and accept that when it comes to anything requiring something called woodwork, well I am totally rubbish. No. I said it, but I still don’t believe it!
Now it does very clearly state on the website and at the store: Please note that all material is supplied loose. Well they are not kidding… a truck arrived and after telling the kids for days that their jungle gym was arriving – it did… and to be honest I momentarily lost my nerve… This was going to be a bit of a burden to explain to the father person… they left us with a pile of well, in a word, timber. Poles and planks and stuff… well the stuff was a ziplock bag loaded with about a bazillion nails – oh and didn’t I have a lot of crafty ideas for those…
So now we were proud owners of a pricey pile of planks, two weeks before Christmas… the budget expended and well a larger project than I had ever anticipated for the father person’s annual leave…
Well after days of thinking about this and a lot of short eager people bouncing around the dream and before it became one very expensive junk pile, systematically being redirected into other little projects around the property I needed a plan.
Luckily we were putting in a fence at the time and I asked the guys who were putting it up if they could perhaps dig the holes and place the poles that needed concrete – you know as a special favor (and please don’t charge me anything – I am after all just a feeble mother of many)… Well they could but they were very sorry that in order to do that they would have to build the frame, else it would never be level. Oh that would so spoil the fun of a family project but well we couldn’t have it skew – horrors and so we wouldn’t mind actually if they could manage to build the frame.
So we had a frame and thirty thousand bazillion planks to hammer onto it… project enough – actually project more than enough… A lot of eager maniacs with weapons of destruction (hammers) and a father person on his annual leave…
Notice the pile of lumber in the background behind Hood #4 and days of hammering… I relented and provided heaps of support in the form of lemonade, well I had to contribute. What else could I do?
Eventually, they finished it… there were so many planks, we still have no idea where they belonged that they turned it into a bird hide… hideously ugly – but the hoods were ecstatic.
Our crow’s nest was complete, higher than the house… views forever…
You are totally concealed when you are inside.
But you can see out.
It is the spot for endless games, feasts and chilling out…
Not to mention I have never again suggested the father person do anything other than sleep on his annual leave. Well I did once suggest a trip to the beach, but decided against that – and that is a whole other story. Let the man rest has become my internal mantra – he earned it after all!
And here is the most wonderful thing about this entire project: The mother person can hang in the hammock there for hours with a book of choice and no-one ever thinks to look up there – sweet bliss!