Pallet Playground

AJ has been hard at work making a playground for Drew... Drew is one of those kids who just loves climbing things and moving fast. The swings aren't really of interest to him, hence, this is no typical swingset. The catalyst to build this playground was when I found this slide in perfect condition in someone's trash. (I could walk you around my house and point to something in every room that someone was getting rid of for free or was in their trash. Maybe I'll do a post on that. :))

 

 

AJ then built the play structure around the height that the slide worked best at and then added some fun details, but we will go into that shortly.

 

Any of the side boards you see are pieces of some pallets that a bath supply store was getting rid of, it saved us some extra money and we were still able to have the main pieces holding the structure together be sturdy pressure treated wood.

 

 

Even though Drew isn't interested in the typical swings AJ thought it would be fun to add a tire swing, he's a little young for it now but not too young to love putting our chickens in it. Surprisingly, the chicken really liked being in the swing (and I'm not being sarcastic!).

 

But I'm pretty sure the chicken didn't love it when Drew kept smacking him on his tail.

Don't worry, Mom, Drew got a good bath after that. :)

 

 

AJ used a normal drill to make a hole in the free tire (one that our autobody shop downtown was getting rid of) and then tied the thread into a tight knot on the underside of the tire.

 

Have you ever tried to take a photograph of the inside of a tire before? Yeah, NOT easy.

 

Every time we bring Drew to the playground in town he loves climbing up the rope ladder. AJ made his own version and did a couple of different experimental ways of making sure the ropes stayed put.

 

 

The way he landed on to keep the rope mostly secure was to thread it through the perpendicular ropes. He said that he needs to go back and fix some of them but for the most part it is far better than when it was just knots at every rope intersection.

 

AJ was even able to figure out how to make the ladder out of a sturdy old pallet.

Resourceful, or what, right?

 

 

Here is the picture of the top of the playground... it's going to be my job to find some outdoor fabric (that's the part that excites me!) and then AJ will chop the boards to the correct height.

 

In case you wondered where we put it in our backyard, it's over by the chicken coop. Drew loves to stand on the top of the structure and talk to the chickens. :)

 

 

If you missed my sneak preview on Tuesday, here is the little guy giving a pretty good indication of what he thinks of the playground. :)

 

 

What is on your docket for the rest of the day? I've got some grocery shopping to do and want to fit in a three mile walk with Drew Baby, but you know what? I think I'm going to squeeze in a little nap while Drew is napping now... that sounds pretty darn good...