Thursday, August 21, 2008

Playground-Part 1

Grandpa Airplane thought LAD needed a swing set. OK, no problem, we had been thinking of getting him something for the backyard, besides the toddler swing hooked onto the clothesline pole. So I shopped around online a little to get an idea of what was out there. I'm not sure you can just by a simple "swingset" these days.

So off we went to Lowes.

Grandpa splurged and LAD made out like a bandit, again.
This is what the finished product looks like, well sorta.

But first we had to do a little yard preparation.

Break out the torch, and the clothesline poles are history. Randy started to try to dig them out, after about 5 minutes of digging, well scraping the dirt away from the 2 foot diameter concrete base, he decided it was a lost cause and gave up. We suspect the poles probably went in 3-4 ft deep, no digging that out with a simple shovel and foot.

Then came the extra large evergreen tree that hasn't been trimmed since we've lived here (10 years). The two Lloyds started hacking at it, and it actually doesn't look too bad now (just don't look tooooo hard). Then there was the clean up.

I think LAD made about 5 trips to the firewood pile with his wagon loaded down! He's a very good helper. And it later took him a 4 hour nap to recover from it!!!

More to come!

5 comments:

Ma said...

I always thought those clothesline poles were lightning rods. Of course, this is Iowa.... Good for LAD, he's getting a taste of WORK. Maybe he'll be a pilot instead. How long was Grandpa's nap?
Some wife made her husband build clothesline poles that would LAST. Would you want them built to any lesser standard? In Iowa soil, they would be leaning. In Missouri, you wouldn't need concrete, just the rocks. Was that before dryers?

Ma said...

footings 2 foot diameter, 3 feet deep... for a CLOTHESLINE? You sure they aren't tiedowns? Can I havem? Send them home in the motorhome. I'm surprised G'pa Airplane didn't dig them up. Maybe you could sell them on ebay to an airport!

Ma said...

It's easier to dig a hole, than to dig around a hole.

Janet said...

Wow...this is going to be a BIG project! I'll bet daddy needed a nap, too! lol

Ma said...

Say, if you cut down a clothesline pole, will it sprout little clothesline poles at the base?