the weekend and found objects

Found Objects:
Four 15' long cedar beams.

Location:
Originally, in the ceiling of our family room as decorative beams for a faux mountain lodge look. (you should have seen the room before we painted the wood paneling.) The most recent location has been in our back yard.

Different Uses:
One beam was made into an edge trim to separate the grass from the tomato garden. The others had been transformed into an intricate balance beam system that looked like a challenge from Survivor. Yes, these were the beams that were placed on an incline that took you to the top of the slide of our swing set that Ewan fell off of and broke his arm.

Permanent Use:
A sandbox. My boys love to play in the sand. This was the weekend project. After putting on some tunes for outside work, I took the remaining beams and got out the power tools and constructed a 6' X 8' box. My master craftsman award goes for the intricate notches that I cut on the ends of each beam so that they would overlap with the intersecting beams. My little buddy, Ewan, was there every step of the way, jumping right in with the measuring tape and being a good helper. We had to measure and draw lines as guides for cutting the pieces and then he would retreat to the top of the deck and watch from above when it was time to cut.

I really am amazed at his doing and helping qualities. I don't think I ever had the zest to jump in and help get a job done. Maybe, I had it once, but became selfish and lazy.

Every step of the way, there he was doing. It's tricky. Eliot was just as interested, but he is too young to help in any way and he got in the way. I had Vernal take him inside. But it is tricky - to balance getting the job done, managing a little guy who wants to help but most likely gets in the way, and not loosing your cool when the trials of the job catch up with the hours and the guy that might be in the way.

I had to remind myself, that this is not a race and to try to look at this project through his eyes and understand that this is the essence of being a boy. A place that I was at so many years ago - being so young, but believing you are so big and can do anything. Working with your dad and making him proud, to get those much needed words of affirmation that will hopefully give you the confidence to carry you through life.

We worked for a few hours on Saturday and then Vernal and I went out that night.

Sunday afternoon, I fought the urge to take a nap and headed to the backyard to finish the job. All the beams were cut, so the next job was to dig out about 6" in the ground for the box to fit in. Again, this was job that Ewan could not stand the thought of not helping. We both have shovels and we are digging a way making a big pile of dirt.

I said it was tricky...there was one point that Ewan was knocking dirt back into the hole that I was trying to clear and I got on him a little. Instantly, I could tell that I hurt his feelings and I had to save him quickly. I said I was sorry and gave him an important job in the hole. That seemed to cheer him up quickly.

Finally, we get the hole wide enough, so we set the beams in place. Ewan helps me carry them; he jumps in place right underneath the beam and gets his hands on them. I drilled a couple of lag screws in each corner and the back filled the dirt around the perimeter so that the box is almost flush with the ground.

As I am doing this, Ewan instinctively becomes barefoot and starts playing in the big dirt pile that we accumulated. Is there anything that better defines a boy than being barefoot in the dirt? It is bathtime, but he deserves to savor this moment. He got out his big Tonka bulldozer and is pushing the dirt around and creating an nice flat incline up the hill and then riding down on the wheels. He can take a bath in half an hour, because this mound of dirt won't be there forever.

So, we finished the project except of the sand. We'll get that this week.