Hey Hi, New to premies and permaculture as a whole and this is my first post. My wife/partner, two kids (6+4), pup recently moved from NJ to VA and are beginning our first year of mostly observing on our property. It’s tough to not hit the ground running but we’re doing our absolute best. Luckily there is a decent sized raised bed garden to keep us occupied as well as a multitude of learning opportunities as we fumble our way through stewarding a much larger property then our previous lives were built into.
That said, I do have one project that I’m not waiting on and that’s the start of our jungle gym, playground, climbing corner. Most of our motivation for the move was centered around lifestyle pivot and what kind of life we were presenting to our kids. This is something I feel can grow with them, allow all of us to learn, and utilize mostly materials found surrounding us or already owned by us.
First phase is fairly simple but on a tight(ish) timeline. Build a platform to connect our slide to. I’m already a few days into this portion and hope to have it finished by May 18 when we’ll have some friends over to play for our 4 year olds birthday.
Steps:
1. Pick Location, Research wants/possibilities
2. Sketch Design (rough drawing)
3. Clear area as needed of downed limbs and unwanted debris.
4. Pull and prep materials from recently downed trees (power-line maintenance) as well as owned 2by stock.
5. Build
A small note that I will be using some PT 2by that I have from a previous project that made the move with us. I’m not positive my feelings on this use for the material yet as I’m quite early in my permaculture journey and quite low on knowledge and opinions. I won’t be using any touching the ground and perhaps it will even be changed out later on as I grow my skill sets.
I’ll also be using a few activities that we would like to add like a zip line, rock wall, and slack line which will most likely be purchased. We just like them and I’m ok with that.
I’m also making it a goal to involve the kiddos in as much of the process as possible. I.e. looking at fun inspiration on Pinterest, helping me sketch ideas, clearing the space, digging holes, collecting logs. So far it’s been a blast even as they dig the first 2” and I finish the next 22” of a hole haha.
Without further ado…. Some pictures and process. I’ll update as I can and when I remember. Thanks for having me. Here’s to many more!