Quoted message said:Erin brought it up with her mom this morning as they stood out on the back deck. Her moms is of
the opinion that if I help tear down the old shed (falling apart and a hazard) and offer to
maintain the area of the course that Erin's dad may just go for it. He would fully understand what
I'd be talking about... and although he'd probably avoid the platforms himself I think he'd enjoy
the smaller jumps and obstacles.
Now, to see if I can recruit some people for a few weekends. We'll need to tear down the shed and
relocate its contents, uproot some remaining blackberry bushes and then the fun begins... cut some
trails, build some platforms...
My dad bought me my Sugar as a "going back to college present"...the only hook was that I help him
clear one corner of the yard of sticks, bushes, and other detritus, and move our shed back there. A
few hundred feet. Shed-moving seems to be a universal theme.
Quoted message said:
A problem we've thought of though is that neighboring houses have a good view of that area and
we're afraid local kids may try to help themselves
to
Quoted message said:the course when no ones home. That's no good. We'll have to make the platforms mobile so we can
take them down when not in use.
There are some kids with BMXs near by, but we're in a pretty laid back place, and they'd probably
come up to me first...I'd ask their parents, and make sure they know they could get hurt. If the
parents know what's up, they shouldn't get mad at me.
Quoted message said:There used to be a rope swing back there over a small ravine area we used
to
Quoted message said:play on. Then local kids found it... didn't want the insurance liability
or
Quoted message said:any other problems so the easiest thing to do was cut it down.
In the neighborhood where I grew up, we had the sweetest swing ever...a collaborative effort between
all the different waves of kids that ever grew up there. All the launching spots were platforms
built between trees, ranging from 8 to 20 feet high...they were all interconnected, so you only had
one ladder to climb to reach them all. It looked like Ewok village. One day, some kid Ray moved in.
He was the biggest sissy and tattle-tail who ever lived. Seriously. So this kid Rusty was back there
swinging by himself (a good toss could get the swing stuck around the lowest platform, enabling
one-man swinging). Thinking he's alone, he spits off a platform. It accidentally hit Ray's foot - he
had been too shy to say hi to Rusty (after living two houses away from him for over a year). So Ray
goes home, tells his Dad people are spitting on him, and his Dad runs down there, with a chainsaw,
chases Rusty out - chased out an 11 year old with a CHAINSAW - and cut down ever portion of that
swing, even the trees holding up platforms. It was the saddest day of our young lives.
Chris (we made Ray's life hell after that, though)
