It was the start of the school holidays that made think how to occupy them.
What was needed was something different to keep them interested.
There are only so many ways you can use existing play equipment.
It was the old broom handle that started me thinking.
How many ways could you use it apart from firewood.
We keep some useful lengths of rope, which would surely come in handy.
I could practise my knots and lashings.
In fact it would be a good time to teach our children a spot of woodcraft and get them to cooperate doing something useful at the same time.
The first thing we tried was a trapeze and since we had a tree in the garden it was easy to set up.
It was important to find a horizontal branch since otherwise it would not swing straight.
We had had this problem when making a swing since one side of the swing wants to move at a different rate to the other.
The trapeze did prove quite strenuous.
It was not to be compared to a circus act of course, but the pull on their arms was more than they were used to.
It was good exercise and having made sure that it was strong enough we encouraged them to treat it like a horizontal bar and lift themselves over.
The boys treated it like a genuine trapeze but girls preferred to sit on it and swing.
I thought it a bit uncomfortable to sit on but they did not seem to mind for a short time.
We tied the rope to the pole using a rolling hitch.
It is better than a clove hitch since it prevents the pole rotating under load.
A clove hitch, however, worked much better if each end was tied in the opposite direction so that the tendency of the pole to rotate cancelled out.
It was a technique we used for other equipment such as a rope ladder.
The problem of finding a tree with a horizontal branch occurred with many ideas.
One answer was to find two branches that had sections at the same height and tie the rope to each.
The main disadvantage here is that a trapeze or swing move in the direction of the trunk.
This either limits the swings (which could be safer) or it is necessary to move it further out on the branches where they are less strong.
And so of course father tested out the strength of them before the children were allowed to try.
I am pleased to say I have not fallen yet! After we had constructed about a dozen ideas with the pole it was time to look around at other things.
We realised a plank of wood left by the builders could be useful.
The plank proved even better because we could also devise pastimes for our toddler who had just learned to walk.
At that age quite simple thing simple things are an adventure.
The only problem is sharing amongst five children.
We would need more than one plank to satisfy them.