A few people have asked lately for some photos of how the new handpump, the dry creek bed and the new sandpit all fit together.This is how it looks from the old sandpit.
And down to the path and gate.
You can see down the front of this photo some paving – that was the edge of the “made” landscape in this area previously – it was the edge of the existing sandpit with sparse grass growing beyond to the fence and down to the left to the path in from the gate. This area was fairly underused previously.
The handpump (and new rainwater tanks) came first. They begged for a creek bed to sometimes benefit from the water that we could pump from them or to just link with it anyway.
We also put in a bridge. Very simple (and cheap)- but it still works as a bridge in their play!
We are still waiting for sandpit storage cupboards alongside the wall of our building to be able to store some of our loose parts – in the meantime, milk crates are useful.
The children’s play has extended in so many ways, and all in an area that had been pretty much unused before…
but not any more!
Whoa that does it Sherry and I are definitely coming to visit you guys in the new year! I would LOVE to see more of your playground!… So jealous about your water pump!!!
Donna 🙂 🙂
You know you’d be welcome anytime! 🙂
Where did you get the pump from ? How is it connected to the tank? Underground?
Hi Petrea
the pump came from the local council which owns the kinder building and land and continues to contribute to our work in ways such as this – I think it is a bilge or boat pump but not 100% sure. They put the tanks and pump in at the same time so were able to do the plumbing then – underground. We had about 3-4 good years use out of it – that’s quite good apparently before it needs to be replaced – sand is the enemy and a bit hard to avoid with the pump between 2 sand pits. I believe the children were quite good about it but sandy water poured down the hole at the top, and vigorous pumping has worn out the ? washer? something anyway. They are getting us a new one which they will put in – I find the installation of some items much harder to manage than the purchase, so I am grateful to them. It will be wonderful to have it working again.