Sometimes it seems like my backyard is as busy as Grand Central Station.
On any given sunny afternoon, chances are good that one of my kids has some friends in the yard.
They might be tossing a baseball, playing volleyball over my clothesline, shooting the giant Nerf dart gun from the top of the fort, or planning a bonfire in the fire pit.
Then you've got the ones who are "just passing through." We're lucky enough to have friendly neighbors behind us as well as right next door. But our block is so large that it's a rather long walk to go all the way around to get to our backyard neighbors' home, just so the kids can play in the yard together. For a while, we'd just lift the kids over the fence.
Both my neighbors and I are vertically-challenged, so hefting kids over a four-foot fence got old pretty quickly. Finally we set up a pool ladder between the two backyards. The kids were free to climb over the ladder so they could visit each other. It looked a little strange, but it served the purpose for five years.
That ladder finally was getting a little rickety from all the use and constant exposure to the elements. So a few weeks ago, my neighbor installed a gate in the back fence. That made things easier, but it's strange to look out the window and not see the ladder there!
As I said, my backyard can get pretty busy. But I wouldn't have it any other way. It would be great, however, if the little boys would remember to put the light sabers away when they're done with their back-porch duels.
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