This post has been a long time coming and will finally round up the Jungle Fort major construction which has lingered on for many months. Overall everything has worked out great and my children have been enjoying it immensely. With all the major construction out of the way the final safety fixings will complete a very enjoyable job and a great learning curve. Many of the openings have had grab handles installed which is a very easy fix. The grab handles come in various colors and have inch and a half long lag bolts with washers to keep them securely in place. The placement of the grab handles was based on the reach of my children when scaling the rock wall or climbing the ramp. The grab handles at the slide entrance was also based on the children sitting ready to slide down, so you can see this is all dependent on arms length and for me it had to suit my daughter as she is the smallest.
I found when fixing the grab handles the use of a pilot hole for the bolts and a little grease on the thread made it easier to ratchet the bolts into place and also prevented the timber from puckering up when winding them in tight. This ensured the handles ended up with a nice flush fit eliminating any rocking effect from ill fitted handles.
These handles from Detailed Play Systems are made from a high quality plastic and seem to be able to take plenty of abuse from the children, even though they are very smooth they offer plenty of grip with finger ridges inside. I would imagine that they have been tried and tested for being outside in the elements but only time will tell if they will crack or become brittle. I have tried pulling on them and they have been very secure but they are very slick so any moisture on them will increase the slipperiness of the surface so I have made a mental note to warn the children to be extra careful on those damp days.
All in all I have fitted a total of four sets of grab handles to all the openings and I’m glad I did as they hang out of the entrances calling to each other, much to my anxiety! (Continued)
This last Christmas, one of the presents my young children received from their uncle was a starter kit for fishing and being the type of person that he is he let them open it early. Now this wasn’t planned but as they were going fishing to the Irvine lake what better time to christen the gear. Jackson, my son had a “Spiderman rod and reel combo” at four feet six inches long and his sister Madeline had a “Barbie rod and reel combo,” all of two feet six inches!
I had been fishing at the lake maybe once before with not as much as a bite but hey, maybe they will have some fun and it’s out in the open with plenty of fresh air. The children’s lake where they would be fishing had been restocked for a special “tagged Fish” event that would span over the entire Christmas period from December 15th through January 6th with the opportunity to win prizes for each tagged fish that were caught. This would result in each tag being exchanged for a spin of the “prize wheel” and the prize being determined by where the pointer stopped, in addition the child’s name would be placed in the draw for the grand prize which was an Xbox 360. These prizes ranged from a free days fishing to fishing lures and the grand prize draw set for January 6th at 2 p.m.
(Continued)
With the dividends of the picnic bench being enjoyed, now was the time to partly enclose the space with the rock wall. This rock wall would enclose the back face of the Jungle Fort and also provide a wind break. Our property is fortunate to be only one and a half miles from the ocean and at around eleven o’clock each day the wind picks up and there is a steady breeze. This is a great relief during the summer months but as the season changes and the winter months approach it can get a little chilly so this rock wall will provide a welcome refuge for my children when they sit at the picnic bench.
I had decided to split the vertical rock wall so that it had a high section and a lower section, by doing this it would satisfy both my childrens skill levels and also provide an easy access to the back of the fort platform. The plans had provided both a vertical wall and a sloped climbing wall but as our space was just with six feet of clearance from the vertical wall, an angled alterative was out of the question. (Continued)
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Finishing all the main players on the Jungle Fort has certainly taken many of my weekends but the satisfaction of this construction shows on my childrens face every time they play on it. The one main outstanding item that is missing is the climbing wall but this can only be installed after I’ve fitted the picnic bench.
I had already cut to size the pressure treated lumber rather than using the WPL (wood polymer lumber) so as to keep the look consistent. This would be used for the seats and the table top. The first phase of the installation would be to secure the supports for the seats and the table top to the uprights of the Jungle Fort. These supports would be secured by 5 inch by 3/8 inch galvanized lag bolts. I had decided to counterbore the position of these bolts so that the head would not be protruding from the material after tightening, even though it would only be by a small amount. The instuctions only called for the lag bolts to be fastened into position. I later found out why, with the counterbore the lag bolt would be tightened and it would burst through the other side of the upright. this would entail cutting off the offending point with a hacksaw and then filing flush with the timber. This was an unfortunate oversight by myself but the end result left no sharp edges, it was additional work but I was pleased with the result. (Continued)
My big push is on to erect the next stage of the playset, this stage should go reasonably fast as all the preparation has already been done. I’ve already installed the additional upright that the Monkey Bars will bolt on to, the only additional item is to drill the main corner upright for bolting the left upper rail of the Monkey Bars to the Jungle Fort.
The length of the Monkey Bars from the Jungle Fort is eight feet with a height of just over seven feet. This gives a good workout for my son who just loves the Monkey Bars, even though as a three year old he had an accident that resulted in eight staple stitches being used to close up a gash in his head. This accident was the result of him trying to do the Monkey Bars at his pre-school group, he would persist in trying to get across to the other side and slipped, hitting his head on the step. Fortunately my wife was at hand to take him to the closest emergency medical center. This mishap had not phased him at all, in fact he’s more determined than ever, the very next week he was back on the bars.
(Continued)
After some eighteen months I decided to try my luck again and sell the Welsh Lovespoon that I had made on eBay. The previous two or three attempts had resulted in a no sale but then again I had placed a reserve or too high a price to start with but I was hoping to get a little return for the amount of effort that I had placed into the carving. This particular spoon had taken me about four weeks of my lunch hour to complete, some 28 to 30 hours in total time, I would guess. It was a theme that I had designed around the Welsh dragon, the Welsh language and a Celtic cross, a theme that I had seen in seperate carvings on other sites. My goal was to incorporate all three items into one carving and see how it would turn out.
Looking back, it’s still probably the most intricate of all my carvings to date because of the lettering and the detailing of the dragon. This carving was also the biggest to date, some fourteen inches in length. I felt after completing the carving it gave a good representation of a Lovespoon that you would expect to purchase from Wales if you were to go there for a visit. (Continued)
Friday, September 21, 2007
In my previous post on my series of constructing the Jungle Fort I spoke about the discrepancy with the slide that was ordered with the main hardware back in April of this year. It was only when I started to assemble the slide that it dawned on me that the slide was in fact different to the one that we ordered. With that knowledge I emailed the company Detailed Play Systems together with images of the slide together with the original order email from April 21st 2007, the email I sent was dated September 18th 2007, nearly five months after the fact. (Continued)
Thursday, September 20, 2007
What an eventful week, little did we know that we would have a new puppy this time last week but now he has settled in, it’s as though we have had him forever. That first day, Monday after my wife collected him, resulted in an instant phone call enroute to our home. In the background I could hear the telltale sign of a puppy who is unclear as to what has just happened, that crying from a small puppy who is in the traveling crate at the back of the truck, on its way to our home. That small puppy weighs 12.5 pounds, not bad for a 7 week and 3 day old pup.
These dogs are known to grow to 160 pounds and over so it’s important that the growth is controlled to prevent any growth related problems. We had already decided to take him to a vet that had been recommended by Karrie Cook, one of the members of the Newfoundland Club of Southern California who we are members of and have been for the last twelve years. We have always had that unsatisfactory feeling with our previous vets who we felt had very little experience with big dogs so it was quite refreshing to get some kind of recommendation. I guess it’s just the generalization of all animals and no specific expertise on one that we were looking for. We wanted someone who was passionate about the dogs that we like and according to Karrie he deals with a lot of Newfs, especially rescued Newfs. The appointment has been set up for our visit to the Arbor Animal Hospital in Irvine so it will be interesting to see the difference in service. (Continued)
Monday, September 17, 2007
With the safety on top of the decking pretty much assured now, my main focus was to enable the children to be able to get up there. I had earlier on decided to eliminate the ladder configuration and replace it with a ramp, I felt that this would be more in line with the theme that they would use the structure for, a pirate enclave as such. We had saved the pirate flag that Jackson had made for the previous swingset, it was from one of my old black T-shirts. He had painted with my help a yellow skull and crossbones on it and this would be reattached to the new fort after everything was done. The marketing from the Pirates of the Carribean together with all the paraphernalia that goes with it had sparked his desire to make his own flag. Once finished it had been flying from the old swingset for over a year before we had to dismantled it. Although looking a bit tired I’m still surprised that it’s in reasonably good condition but a repaint will certainly spruce it up again.
The ramp material had already been precut, sanded, coated with green preserve and then coated with redwood stain. The first test for me was to collect all the labeled parts for the ramp from the remaining pile of lumber. There had been a vast change in the size of the pile because a good deal of the material had already been assembled but there was still enough left to make it awkward. The two main rails were laid out on the lawn as this was the only place that was free enough to maneuver the length, together with the slats that would line the inside of rails and act as a support for the boards that would be the gangplank. (Continued)
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
It seems such a short time ago that we had to euthanize our pet Newfoundland after nearly 12 years of loyalty. He had been suffering with limited mobility for some time until he slipped on the tiled floor making him virtually paralyzed. Even though he regained a little mobility the majority of the time was spent aiding him with the help of a harness.
That was nearly twenty months ago, he was a Landseer, a black and white version of the traditionally black colored Newfoundland. We at that time still had his older half brother and his health was just as poor but already stricken with grief we toughed it out knowing the inevitable for him was only months away. That time came when he had continual bleeding from the mouth with it being diagnosed as cancer of the jaw, at 13 years and 1 month his ability to withstand any treatment was out of the question. His mobility was already restricted, appetite was none existent and he had to be helped with any normal functions by using a harness. Our once majestic animals had succumbed to old age and both had died within six weeks of each other leaving our household unusually dog free. That was a hard first three months of 2006 and only now can I start to talk about it and still not in much detail because of the feelings that I have. Call it soft but that’s how it is when you have animals that are part of your family. (Continued)
