diy – Page 5 – Peacock Orchard

A brief tire hill slide update

The tire hill slide is perfect. The grass I planted on it is filling in well and I am very happy with the results. Obviously the grass on this is a month old and I need to fill in lots of patches before it looks as lush as I want it to be.

However, I thought I would share a few pictures of it.

This is a view of the steps up to the top of the slide.

Front of the slide. I’m not including pics of the terraced area because it needs a bit of work still and I’m not happy with it. I’ve planted spreading plants there and I hope they take over as right now it is more dirt than grass on that side.

The hill slide looks like a jewel when surrounded by nothing but dirt. Of course, we did plant clover everywhere so soon this will all look lush and green! The clover planting will come in a later post.

Playground Projects

Last year I did several things in the yard for the kids. I put a tractor tire up for the kids to climb on.Which quickly became the preferred method of using the slide.

I made the sandbox referenced here.

I put up a post and bucket pully (that I now have to move).

And I planted quite a few tree roots to try to get some shade cover going in there. These are cottonwood roots that were sprouting. I dug a trench around them, used the tire for wind block and mulched with paper.

I also took down some unsafe railing on our deck. That is a saga for another time as it is still a work in progress.

This year I hope to fix and add much more to the children’s playground. The broken slide has already been taken care of as seen in this post. So now to add to the fun.

I am excited to add a Tetherball court. I am going to make the tetherball pole moveable so that it can also be used as part of a future badmitton/volleyball court. This project was inspired by some Pinterest browsing that led me to this blog.

A new swing set is being constructed this year, the poles and design will be planned for the addition of a clubhouse next year. Temporarily I have simply removed the broken section of the swing set. Son is not happy about this as it included the glider portion.

This is a picture of the swing set just after install. The poles on the right side are badly damaged from a run in with the tractor.

Spools are going to be used for all sorts of projects but the first is going to be spool cars with this Steering Wheel. I found a design for these cars here. The kids are painting their own cars and I’m excited to see how it all comes out.

I am hanging a Basketball Hoop on the post that the bucket pully is on. Our son has shown a marked interest in throwing things and I hope to refine his technique so he stops knocking things over inside.

I am unsure about establishing a music station outside. The kids have a variety of musical and sound making objects indoors that they do not show a lot of enthusiasm for.

I do think I’ll be using some spools to make a mud kitchen though, as seen here.

I am also excited about building a scale near the sandbox. I believe the kids will love that!

I am also trying to figure out how to hang these Baskets for various toy storage around the yard. We have dogs who love to eat any toys left out and kids who love to cry about it. This Organizer is absolutely brilliant for next to the sand pit. I will be able to hang the digging tools from the hooks at the bottom. I love it! I am excited to get them up and in use. We are currently using a large laundry basket for toy storage and I hate carting it around. Plus, to get to the toys at the bottom the kids dump the entire basket out and the mess is massive. So, smaller, off the ground storage is going to be key going forward.

We removed some broken, hanging gutters last year. I plan to try to incorporate them into the sand/water station somehow. I’m still working on that concept.

So stay tuned as our backyard gets turned into a kid centric playground!

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Playground slide transformation

Our little playground did not survive the winter well. The swing set is badly damaged and the slide supports broke completely off. My children LOVE sliding and I heard a lot of “Fix it Mommy!” from my oldest. I also had this giant pile of tires that was not going to be able to remain in the playground because of black widow problems. So I killed 2 birds with one stone and used the tires as the structural support for a new hill slide.

As my husband used the tractor to cover the tires in dirt I stripped the slide of any remaining screws and supports and hunted down some tools. Armed with a variety of shovels (my helpers always require their own shovels!) and a rake we went to work grading the hill and installing the slide.

Son was energetic in his digging but daughter was much too distracted with the chickens scratching around near the fence. I think I found the right angle for the slide.

Hmmmm. No. I think it is much too high.

Better! Though I’m sure the poor sea creatures didn’t like their trip down the slide.

Now off to hunt for rocks to be used as the steps. I loaded Daughter into the wagon and Son energetically hopped onto his tricycle.

Success. I was able to grab quite a few rocks of unknown origin, the one Daughter is sitting on was the largest I could carry.

I rocked the stairs up but I just don’t like it. That large piece of cement rip rap is not working for me. What to do….

That’s the ticket. Gravel on the top of the hill and the large cement rip rap has become a designated art piece. The kids loved painting it! While they were busy painting I was busy terracing the back side of the hill. I don’t want a rain storm to cause massive erosion. Now I have perfect planting terraces.

I spent some time thinking about what I wanted to plant here. Grass, of course. But I want plants that are going to repel bugs and rodents as well. So I believe I have settled on a few varieties of mint, lemongrass, feverfew, lavendar and safflower. We shall see how they grow!

Tire Sandbox

Tires are a material I really love. Free, versatile and fun. So when I saw this Pinterest post I knew I had found an ideal sandbox idea. So I started collecting tires from a local tire shop. The first step was cleaning them. I used simple dish washing liquid and a car scrub brush. Then I cut the ones that I needed to cut in half. I did this with a linoleum knife Like this one for the sidewall, and a metal cutting blade on a regular circular saw for the tread.

I painted all of the tires with regular spray paint. I just bought cheap stuff from Wal-Mart.

I used about 2 coats per tire. The larger tires required an entire bottle of spray paint. Now, some of the tires did not take the paint well and flake something awful. I’m just living with it.

Next I laid out my tire pattern and dug holes for the halved tires. I did cement these tires in. I then stacked the whole tires, filling each with dirt as I did so. I was ramming dirt into the interior of the tires but even so there has been some sagging where I did not fill them enough. I’d suggest using a sledgehammer. I found the tires to be a great way to keep Daughter entertained. She wasn’t able to walk at this point and wasn’t very good at standing. The tires were perfect for helping her with this!

Son was just entertained.

Once I had my tires stacked and ready I laid landscape fabric on the ground, tucked it into the tires and began adding sand. It took a lot of sand. I had bought 6 bags to start with and it barely covered the bottom of the sandbox. I think we are about 20 bags in. This would work great if the stupid dog seen in this picture didn’t keep digging in the sandbox.

Anyway, the sandbox has been working well. We have had bug issues. Black Widow mostly. I have to check everything before I let the kids out to play. I am going to fix that issue with cob this year.

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