26 Industrial-Sized Play Structures

Yes. A Play structure.

I just bought another one.

If anyone knows me, they already know that I OWN a place structure of industrial-sized proportions. Why do I need another one, you may ask…

Good question.

I asked it myself.

It all started when my husband sent me on a mission to find a slide for the pond. It sounded like fun. So I looked and found this industrial-sized play structure, with a great slide and a bunch of platforms and a fireman’s pole and…

Well… That just sounded like a bunch of fun to me…

When you add water…

and a cliff… (just a small one)

and a stack of kids, and giggles and laughter… and a few hot dogs…

We don’t get regular holidays… we live on a farm… we gotta make it fun, somehow…

sigh…

It’s not practical.

Beyond the fact that it was a “good deal” and “I could potentially flip it and make money or at least, sell the steel for a profit (Yes, it’s all steel, with 2 fiberglass slides that look great and NO, I am not a Star Trek Ferengi whose civilization was built on earning profit as a sole meaningful goal in life, superseding all other endeavors.), I struggled with the idea of having, now, 2 play structures of industrial sized proportions.

Why 2?

Here’s the struggle. Although I know that this is over-the-top and not necessary, I see potential in derelict play structures and how it can create connection and a place where families (yes, plural, not just MY family) can connect and develop deeper relationships, which seems like a gift and a curse all at once. (the play structure potential, not the family connection) I see the potential for over-the-top fun and family time and tag and jumping into the water and happy-sandy-tired kids… Fortunately, my husband (the driver and 1/2 of the muscle of the operation) and my brother (the other 1/2 of the muscle of the operation, who’s family just might benefit from my play structure compulsion) see the same potential because they are really just big kids with driver’s license and a bit of grey hair, or… no hair, respectively. We needed the truck and horse trailer to move the thing, and it was by God’s grace that those two played Lego all their growing-up years because we need their spatial-awareness skills developed as a child to pack that steel-baby into the trailer.

What’s my point.

This is extravagant.

Not expensive, mind you…Second-hand stuff on Kijiji is great… but it IS extravagant…

The Back Story (Gen. 3)

Adam and Eve were in the garden. They enjoyed everything good that God gave them and then they messed it up. It wasn’t an accident. It was 100% purposeful and willful.

God in his grace, kicked them out of Eden, so they couldn’t mess up (on purpose) anymore with dangerous stuff, like the live-forever-fruit. He gave them real-life daily consequences.

But gave them more.

He gave them hope.

He promised them a child that would save them from the enemy, who would kill the enemy once and for all. (Gen 3:15) Not only that, He said For all who accepted this, he called children of God. (Rom. 8:14, 16).

God committed to restoring a relationship that He never broke.

God committed to such a degree that it’s wasn’t just life that He gave back, He gave His whole self. EVERYTHING. Everything, so that we could be adopted into His family and never have to be separated from each other again.

As a mama of adopted children, that is the greatest gift I can give them, outside of teaching them about Jesus. All I have, all I have ever worked for, my whole being is dedicated to giving them the essence of who I am. My kids have ALL OF ME. I chose them.

John, Jesus’ BF, says it this way:

I can’t write “I love you” extravagantly the starry sky, like God can. But I CAN write “I love you” to my kids, nephews, neighbors, and strangers turned family… in steel, called a play structure.

So, I think my next over-the-top project is to take down the 8 waterslides near the city that have been derelict for well over 30 years. My plan is for the land owners to straight-up give them to me so I can put them up at the pond, too. Maybe I can write “I love you” in waterslide tubes too… Think I’m kidding????