An old freind of mine let me borrow his very old concrete mixer made of cast iron. The cast iron had a crack and failed so it was no longer going to be a concrete mixer. But I had this big thing so either it was do a dump run or make something out of it.
For some reason this is what came to mind. How about a teeter totter ... that spins.
It works well but it's as scary as I hoped it would be.
The base is set in concrete.
I like trees. I like being in trees. So I made some platforms to enjoy them.
Notice the fireman's pole on the left. Weeeeeee
Now this is my ropes course. There are susupended steps between platforms, a swing, a rope ladder, and a rope climb.
When I went to high school we had something called the Bronco Bars. I've never seen anything like it anywhere else (though I'm sure they are out there).
The Bronco Bars were parrallel bars with hills. Ours had 2 medium sized hills and one big one. It was a significant physical challenge.
I saved pipe for years so I could make one. I no longer can do it though.
If you can afford buying 2" plumbing pipe and fittings it will almost build itself. Mine is of all welded construction.
I had some scrap wood laying around after I rebuilt my deck. Soooo what to do with it. How about a play structure for the (at the time young) kids?
You might not be able to tell but this is about 20 feet in the air. No way I could get to the top with a ladder to connect everything. So I built a V and then pulled it upright. Then I backed up a mobile home to it as a work platform and attached the rest.
When I was a kid we had a horseshoe pit. It was ok but I got bored of it pretty quick. When I was older and in my own place my aunt bought me a horseshoe pit kit. I had no desire to install it. But many many years later I had a thought, what if I built them on a hill?
So now you have an uphill throw that's kind of hard and then you have a downhill throw which is completely different. It's worked out well and isn't nearly as boring.
Bats like to try to make a home in my house. So I made them a bat house of their own. See if you can catch the theme.
When I was a kid a threat I heard on shows was a parent saying they were going to take their kid out to the woodshed. The threat being they were going to beat the kid with a branch of wood.
I'd never seen anything like this actually happen but I always liked the sound of that threat. So when I built a storage shed for my firewood of course I had to name it. That way the kids would know where to go.
Have you ever seen a hamster wheel? It's so the pet rodent can run around inside their cage. I thought it would be funny for a human sized version. They were throwing out this spool for wire at work so I framed in some steps and hung it.
It works really well. No bearings, just a little grease and it spins as fast as you can go. I hung ropes above it so you have something to hang on to.
As I mentioned I have a lot of trees that have been taken down. Trying to figure out another thing to do with the wood I came up with an arch.
Even though it looks like it's awkwardly stacked each log has 2 metal pins connecting them to the one below it. Now it would stand like this but it was very tippy. Someone might have been able to get it to fall somehow. So I made a metal frame on the back side and notched it into the arch.
