How to Know the Land of Your Boyhood

The Tree Swing. $25 swing at Lowes. A step ladder and 7 feet of 39 cent/foot rope. Installation time: 20 minutes.

Log Cabin. Still in progress. Junk wood from the side of Justin's work building. Some steel rods and some motivation. $5 tarp for roof.

The tree climbers kit. Junk wood. Nailed onto our trees. That way... they can climb at leisure and explore.

In the words of Louis L'Amore, author of The Walking Drum, "What boy does not know the land of his boyhood? Every cave, every doleman, every dip in the land and hole in the hedges, and all that lonely, rockbound coast for miles." In my margins I wrote an answer, "the 'boy' of the modern day, in front of his T.V." Is this not the truth?! Do we not isolate our children to our house most the time, or put little or no effort into giving them an outdoor environment? Are we not too afraid of strangers and spiders and injuries to let our children live?! Would we rather them die in front of the T.V. I am not sure we know what we prefer?! :) In two days our backyard has gone from a boredom with a broken trampoline to a wonderland of incessant inclination. I cannot keep my kids inside. Upset? Hardly. I love it. All it takes is a little time outside with them to see what they need. Callie has been begging me to lift her up to the tree branch for years. Duh mom?! Nail in some boards so she can do it herself whenever she wants!! Then they like to swing off the tree branches like monkeys... so we put in a swing. I think this will be used far more than the $1500 Rainbow playground version down the street. We have come ALIVE!!! What an exciting life!