Building a Zipline

So, one day the kids and I were watching a show on PBS. When it got over, a different show came on that was about sightseeing different parts of Texas. We ended up watching it and one of the segments was about a place to go ziplining. Tink was enthralled with it and wanted to know when she could go on a zipline. A few days later, Daddy was out in the yard mowing while the kids were helping/playing outside. After a little while we noticed that Tink had gotten the ratchet tie downs out of the garage and was on the garage porch building her own little zip line between a couple trees. That's when Daddy got the idea to get the proper materials and build a zip line swing for the kids. He did a great job involving Tink in the whole process: designing it, researching it, purchasing the right tools and building it.

The first one we built was in the front yard and made with rope. It wasn't tight enough, but the kids had fun with it until we built the second one in the back yard with steel cable. We realized that we need a different pulley for the one in the back, so the kids haven't played on it since we built it. Plus, our backyard kind of looks like a jungle right now and has tons of mosquitos. We are hoping to get the backyard cleaned up eventually and fix the zipline, but I think it was a great experience for Tink anyway.

I wasn't able to get pictures of it being built or the kids playing on it for the first time because it was getting dark and I didn't know how to get the pictures to turn out quite right.