Natural Playground, Part Three - Construction!

Hello! It's been such a crazy busy week around here, I haven't had a chance to do daily updates on our natural playground progress, like I wanted to. So now you get to see it all in one go, like Magic! When last I wrote, it had all been staked out, but no ground was broken. The first thing the guys did was to start lifting the sod.

Once they had gotten a fair amount of that done, within a couple of hours, they had all sorts of machines running at once.


Building the hill


And digging the trench for the path.


The fabric got laid down, and they were already ready to put in the sand!



We made our walking posts with old telephone poles, and they started to dump gravel into the pathways.





They spread the gravel out nicely, and lined the path with the boulders we had brought in. It was starting to look very nice.

That night after they left, though, we went on the path and realized that the gravel we had been using was going to be totally unsuitable. It packed down into an almost solid, pointy death-trap road. It was the kind of gravel they put under asphalt.
I woke up at one in the morning that night, from a nightmare about kids getting hurt in the playground, and tossed and turned all night long about what to do. I came downstairs at three in the morning to do some internet research, and learned that what we really needed was pea gravel. Then I spent the rest of the long, restless night, fretting about how I was going to tell these guys that they had to take up all the work they had done so far, remove that gravel, and somehow replace it with pea gravel. After, of course, we somehow found someone who would be willing to donate that much pea gravel to us for free. So that sucked.
They all took it really well, though, and figured it out. Later that morning, the old gravel was coming up (the top couple of inches, anyway) and the new gravel was going in.



We couldn't have asked for a better crew! (Thanks Brian!) It took a few days to get the gravel fixed up and the boulder edging in place. But before I knew it the woodchips were going in, and it was really starting to come together.


The hill got sod, and a sprinkler, and "Keep off the grass" signs.


And then it was just plugging away at putting the boulders in place. That was a lot of rock to lift! We had some helpers - Monica and Ross did a shift, and Jai and I fit in a little bit of time - but still that was probably the most time-consuming part.



Once the woodchips were in place, our big boulders could be delivered,



The log edging could be placed,



And our cut-log bridges could be built.



And that's where we're at as of this afternoon. The whole thing is almost done! There are still some finishing touches to go in - the hill slide will need to be dug into the hill, we will need to build some benches, and put in the big granite stepping stones (old stairs from Town Hall) and the "house of logs." The boat that we had was just too rotten to put in, so we still need to source out an old wooden dory to bury in the sand pit. The crew is done now, though, and we'll be on our own for those finishing touches. Hopefully we can get everything in place in time for the Grand Opening Sept. 18th! The kids just had to demonstrate that it's already fun:


Griffin and I were down there this morning, so I could plant some ferns in the fern circle, and by the time I was halfway done, there were five other kids, and three other parents all gathered around the sand pit. It's definitely something that this community needed. I'm still amazed at how quickly everything has been coming together. Everyone we have approached so far about donating time or materials has been completely supportive and happy to help. I'm a little awestruck about the whole thing. What can I say? Hopefully documenting it all here will inspire someone else to think about doing a natural playground in their community, or even a small version in their own back yard. Go for it - it's totally do-able, and totally rewarding!
That's it for now - I'll keep you updated as we progress towards completion. Thanks for reading!

Natural Playground, Ahoy! (Part 2!)

Hello! Wow, it's been a Crazy week around these parts, with a Capitol "C"!!!! So my little idea for a natural playground in the park behind our house, which started out as a tiny little sketch on a scrap of paper, has blossomed, and almost grown fruit already. Turns out one person really can get a lot done all on their own, but ten people... ten people, well. Here's a bigger drawing of the basic outline:

As soon as the idea was put out there into the realm of possibility, people began to really get behind it. Our friend Lloyd managed to get ACL Construction to donate the use of all their big machines (backhoes and such) and the ACL guy, Colin, managed to get Tim Rice of Rice's Contracting to donate all the gravel that we need. Lloyd's company is donating all the boulders we need. A fellow who's wife I met down in the park during the kid's camp, Linda and Paul Joudrey, are donating the use of their logging and milling equipment, and the lumber. Public Works is donating the woodchips (I think - gotta go check them out this afternoon) and Club 400 might be donating the slide. And the whole thing starts Monday. Yes, this Monday! Whew - I can hardly believe it!

Ambre, Monica and I went down yesterday with the chalk machine from the ball park (you can see the trail from our house in the photo at the top - oops!), and a bunch of string, and chalked out all the lines (an adventure in itself - the three of us, with five children under five between us - kids and string and chalk?!?! but we did it - somehow!) Colin sent some guys down last night to stake it all out, with lovely colour-coded stakes. Town Council rushed it through, with some help from the CAO and the Town Rec Co-ordinator. And that's where we're at. How exciting is that?!??!

Griffin and I spent almost the entire day down in the park yesterday. And our evening culminated in a lovely concert put on for free by the Concert Band of 14 Wing, Greenwood. It was just lovely - Griffin had a great time listening, and dancing, and clapping, and racing for the stairs.

The Gang's All Here

Hello again! So, I haven't totally been avoiding making new pieces, and thought I should share the latest one. It's the biggest one yet, both in terms of number of people, and in size. I had a lot of challenges with this piece, but finally hit on the right combination of driftwood, after Griffin and I took one last trip to the beach to see what we could find.

And there you have it. I know I've said it before, but these pieces are just so much fun to make. And the Gallery keeps telling me that they're getting an excellent reception, which at this point is really just a bonus (but a darn good one!) More to come soon, I hope.

And in the meantime, we've been having yet another Long Weekend, thanks to Jai's saved up overtime, and once again we've spent almost the whole thing being very social little butterflies, which is just super fun. Summer's such a social season here, after everyone kind of hibernates through the winter (unless you happen to hang out at the local Curling Club, that is!) And at the end of every weekend, I think we could have gotten so much more done, but I wouldn't change a thing.

Summer in the City

Hello Again! I can't believe it's been a week already - we're already into August! We had an excellent August long weekend - we drove down to Halifax to spend it in the Big City, with my parents. And normally when we go to the city, I have a list of things I want to get done that can only happen in the city (a list of places I need to shop, in other words!) but this time there was no list. Instead, we spent more time visiting, and did all sorts of fun, free activities. We hung out at the new library that was put in about two blocks away from my parent's house. It had a gorgeous kids section, and Griffin had a blast in there. It made me really wish for our new library to hurry up and get finished already (drywall went in on Tuesday!)

And we spent tons of time at the beach. My parents live about fifteen minutes away from Rainbow Haven beach. It's beautiful and sandy and warm-ish (the water on the Atalantic side is a lot warmer than the Bay of Fundy side!) And it was FILLED with other kids doing the kinds of things kids do at the beach... sand castles, buckets, holes, waves... oh, Summer!

Sand is just SO FUN!

We went back to the beach a couple of times, but I found myself thinking I'd probably be there every day, if it was fifteen minutes away (instead of two hours!)

We also hung out at the playground by my parent's house, and Griffin went down the slide by himself for the first time. And there was a big family bbq to top it all off. Seriously big - I bet there were at least thirty people there - Errol's family is huge! And the whole three-and-a-half days we didn't spend a dime. Of course, it helps to have some generous family members to stay with. They even picked up some things for Griffin - a brand new (and very stylish) hat:

And some awesome new go-fasters, to maybe encourage him to take those first couple of steps. Modelled here by Paddington Bear:

All in all, it was an excellent weekend!

Natural Playground, Ahoy!

Hello again! Thanks so much everyone for sharing some of the things your families do to save money - it was so nice to get your comments, and thanks also to everyone who phoned to tell me their ideas. What I love most about all this, is that most of the ideas are really quite simple and easy to incorporate, and really a lot of things we should all just be doing anyway. Hopefully in another couple of weeks, I can add some more things to the list. For now, though, I just wanted to stop in quickly. I don't even have any new photos uploaded or anything. Some weeks I'm so on top of all this, and some weeks I'm just not. It seems like we have had a busy week, visiting with friends and enjoying being outside with Griffin as much as possible. He started giving kisses earlier this week, and has been kissing Jai and I with abandon. It's the sweetest thing... ever!


And in addition to all the things we normally try to fit into a week, I have taken on a new project. For years now, I have been lobbying town hall to try to get a playground put into the park behind our house. The sad truth is that the only playground in town is situated on the elementary school grounds, which is far from ideal (half of the classrooms look out onto the playground, and you just can't go there during school hours.) Anyway, maybe this will sound bad, but our town council is made up of older men, and they have less than zero interest in putting playgrounds anywhere. Our town recreation officer has just been kind of shrugging his shoulders and telling me that if I want it that badly, I will need to design it myself. So I did. Finally.


It's a natural playground, made of boulders and logs and sand and stone and wood. Plus a hill. The place where they have agreed that I can put it is among a nice little stand of trees, so I have designed a little dry stream bed (otherwise known as a gravel path) that winds through the trees, with stepping stones and log bridges and fern beds and sand pits and boats. And my preliminary sketch got approved! Tomorrow I am getting together with another local Mom who does cartography and geographical mapping in the hopes that she can help me transform my tiny sketch into a beautiful presentation. The day after that, I take on the World! Just kidding, but it is pretty exciting. One of the first things Jai and I realized about living in a small town is that one person with a vision can really make a difference. There's a lot of work to do, but maybe, just maybe, that person can be me this time. Wish me luck!

Living Frugally (Lauren's Top Tips)

Hello! I don't often write about really personal things like money on here, but I thought this might be something that we might like to look back on one day, so I would like to document it. And since I consider this blog kind of like a diary of what's happening at a particular moment in our lives, here goes! I did write a bit last time about how we are going to be needing to budget ourselves very carefully. Basically, my maternity leave ran out at the end of April, and since then we have entirely spent all of my savings (even though we thought we were being pretty frugal.) Now, since I don't really have a job to go back to, and there is no child care available anywhere in town, we are trying to live off of the money the government sends out to people with young kids, at least until I can (hopefully) get my photography business off the ground. Jai's salary covers all the bills, and the mortgage, but there's not enough left over to pay for anything else. In other words, our shopping budget for the month is about $340. It cuts what we were spending by about half. But still... should be possible, right? Here's what I've learned so far (a top ten of tips, shall we say?)

1.) Make up a menu. We try and do our grocery shopping every two weeks, so we have been making menus for two weeks at a time. This step alone can cut your grocery bill drastically. Partly because we try to

2.) Use Meat wisely. For example, we figure we could buy two chicken breasts, or a whole chicken for about the same price. We roast the chicken one night, make stock from the bones, use the leftovers in quesadillas the next night, then use the stock for soup the night after that. One chicken, three meals.

3.) Use your local farm market. Buy as much as possible at the local market, it's better, fresher, and cheaper. No down side.

4.) Stick to the list when you are in the grocery store (or market.) If you aren't going to use it in the next two weeks, you don't need to buy it. Look at the flyers when you make up your menu, so you can take advantage of sales, and then Stick to the List.

And 4b.) Don't go grocery shopping when you're hungry! This is just asking for trouble.

5.) Get to know your local librarian. We go to the library a lot. Griffin is entertained by the colouring centre, and I get to hang out and browse, guilt free.

6.) Stop buying magazines. See 5 - the library has a great selection of magazines, for free, for anyone to borrow - and there's no guilt factor if you read through the whole thing right there, then put it back on the shelf (unlike at Pharmasave, where you can get a couple of dirty looks from the clerks.) And, as an added bonus, when you're done with them, you just bring them back, so they don't build up in piles around the house.

7.) Watch t.v. on-line. Most stations now have many of their shows posted on-line as streaming video. There's way less commercials, and you can watch them when it's convenient for you, and cancel your cable.

8.) Buy toys at your local flea-market. Just because we're broke, doesn't mean I don't want Griffin to have lots of fun toys. But it's not an issue when you can buy awesome wood toys for 75 cents (see below), or a paddington bear stuffie for $1.25. Last week we picked up some stocking stuffers - seven Hot Wheel trucks for $1.00!

9.) Hooray for popcorn in the hot air popper! Seriously, it's ridiculously cheap to make up a giant bowl of popcorn, and it's just as tasty as any bag of chips, any day.

10.) Bake your own treats. I've been trying to do this at night (it's just too hot during the day right now.) It's totally worth it. I make enough to freeze some, and we can snack on delicious treats like cheese biscuits and peanut butter cookies all day long.

And, why stop at ten,

11.) Use your local U-Pick. Pick it yourself and pay about half price. This means you can get twice as much, and have enough to preserve (our favourite way to keep fruit is to turn it into fruit roll-ups in the dehydrator, but most things freeze really well, too.)

12.) Hang stuff to dry. I'm one of those people who love the idea of the laundry line, but not so much the reality. I never think of it early enough, and I find the whole thing a little awkward. But that doesn't mean I don't want to stop using my dryer! Jai and I found an antique drying rack at a local garage sale. It's perfect for me, I can put it wherever I want (out in the sun on hot sunny days, or inside by the stove on wet days), and if I need to, I can hang stuff before we go to bed at night, which is usually when I think about laundry.

And, the surprisingly effective,

13.) Bring water with you wherever you go. I'm one of those people who often doesn't drink enough water. As a consequence, I don't notice that I'm thirsty until I am really thirsty. Like, I need a drink right now, or I feel like I might die, kind of thirsty. Which used to mean stopping at the nearest store and buying something to drink, or the nearest cafe or restaurant, where we might end up buying food, too. If you have water with you, not only can you avoid places where you will be tempted to buy a four dollar drink, you can probably wait until you get home to eat, too (which will help you stick to your menu.) We've been using a jar, filled with water. It's glass, so you don't have any of the icki-ness associated with plastic bottles, and it's got a lid that seals (no spills), plus Griffin can drink out of it, too (he has trouble with bottles still.) And you can't beat free for the price - some of those aluminum water carriers are pricey.

Last, but not least,

14.) Say Thank You. If someone offers you something - gas money, dinner, or some kind of help - don't turn them down, just say Thanks.

All right, now I know there's more stuff out there that we could be doing, so if you would like to add anything to the list, please leave me a comment. These are all pretty basic things, that make it relatively easy to maintain the sort of lifestyle that we're used to. I'll try and share some more next month, maybe, when we've been at this for a little longer!

Weekly News

Hello. We had a bit of a sad week this week, with the passing of Webster the Bunny. He was a good little bunny, who had a very eventful life for a bunny. He will be missed by all of us, but most especially by Peanut, his best friend in the Whole World.

And, although that was certainly the saddest, other things have been happening this week, too. Griffin got his own little wading pool, which is a great hit, and seemed like an absolute necessity in this wave of heat we've been living through.

It was the last purchase we will be making for a little while, as we realized that our budget needs to be scaled back drastically. We had already started on our way to doing that, but realized this week that we will now need to go a lot further. I'm pretty sure it is theoretically possible to live on the amount of money we have left over when all the bills are paid, I'm just not totally sure how to do it. Jai and I have never been rich, but often been comfortable, and we're just not used to every dime counting - literally. We don't buy ourselves big treats very often (no televisions or sofas for us!), but we do like those little treats - the ice cream cone, or the Tim Hortons coffee - that add up so very quickly. It will be an interesting challenge to come up with ways to figure out what's really essential, and what will be considered a treat. Some things are obvious, but we're going to have to go a little beyond the obvious, this time. So if anyone has tips or stories to share about living frugally, I sure would love to hear them!

And I'll leave you with this little video that Jai took a week or so back. If things get really bad, we can always put Griffin out on the street, with his little hat in front of him :)

Word of the Day: Soggy

Hello! We're in the middle of a torrential downpour! It's Crazy Rain. And it's HOT, and Humid. Yuck! These are the days we need to try and remember when it's the middle of Winter, and we can't WAIT for Summer to arrive. So, anyway... what to do, what to do. Luckily the Little One is napping merrily right now after our stroll through the rain (had to dig out my raincoat AND galoshes for that one.) Since we can't go out and enjoy the World's Smallest Sandbox, I decided to build one inside. So, I'm proud to introduce: The World's Second Smallest Sandbox! Well, Noodlebox, to be more precise.

We got this idea at one of the parents and tots groups we went to in the Spring (sadly, they all finish for the summer.) It's super fun, and a lot easier to clean up than sand. Griffin's been having a great time climbing into it, and pouring noodles over his feet. And, yes, he ate a couple, but whatever, he eats the sand, too.

Yesterday we went over to the Reid's and took some photos of baby Morgan, six days old. It was my first newborn shoot, and it went pretty well. She slept through most of it, and only pooped on one of my backdrops. Not bad! She's so adorable, and I got some pictures that I am very happy with.

Plus, I got to try out my new prop - check it out!

I saw it at "Treasures," our local consignment shop, for only $20. And I love it! I had gone to find a basket to put babies in, but came away with this instead.

While we were there, Griffin and I perused the toy section, where I found the cutest little soft duckling. Griffin liked it, too, and played with it (and sucked on it) all through the store, while I browsed. Turns out it was a $45.00 collector's item. I thought it said $4.50! We sheepishly turned it down at the checkout, but didn't quite get away with it, as the poor thing was awfully soggy! (Oops.) Luckily the man was very nice, although I'm sure he'll be keeping a closer eye on us next time!

Well, gotta run - enjoy your day (and stay dry!)

Peekaboo!

Hello! Gosh, I have some pretty weeds! I have to try and enjoy them, because they are definitely the healthiest plants in my garden. (As in, I didn't have to bend over at all to take this shot!)

We've been Busy, Buzzy Bees around here this week. Griffin's friend Ella got a new baby sister (hopefully pictures coming sometime soon - she's a total cutie!) I got a haircut. Griffin picked up several new words (including useful ones like "cracker" which we've been hearing a lot.)

And we did a photo shoot with my friend Erin and her two beautiful daughters. It went really well, and was a lovely way to spend the day. You can see a couple of the pictures on the Lauren Kaye site, if you're interested. They have an amazing yard for kids, including a sailboat, a hill to climb, a Proper sandbox, a teepee, a swing and a hammock, a deck with stairs to go up and down, a screen door to open and shut and crawl through, and a wading pool. Griffin was in heaven. Not to mention two little girls who were happy to entertain him as much as he wanted. He was fascinated with them. And I just couldn't resist this picture, it was such a cute little scene:

He is just LOVING playing Peekaboo these days. He'll hide behind anything - a girl's skirt, the table top, the door, or, when all else fails, just a couple of his fingers. We'll say "Where's Griffin? Griffin, where are you?" and he just giggles away. The reveal is always very dramatic and exciting, and often involves hand clapping.

Anyway, I should run - hope your week will be full of exciting surprises, worthy of handclaps and giggles galore.