For the Kids: An Obstacle Course -- Or a Fairy Circle? ・Barbara Falconer Newhall

obstacle course or fairy circle terraced-backyard-stairway — I built an obstacle course — or was it a fairy circle? — of logs for the grandchildren in our backyard. I rediscovered the neglected logs during a trip down the hill to check on the two madrone saplings in their wire cages, just visible below the oval terrace. *Photo by Barbara Newhall*

The stumpy logs had been sitting there in our backyard for years. They were the remains of an oak tree that had fallen from our backyard into our neighbor’s yard, and I’d asked the tree guys to cut the fallen tree trunk into short logs the right size for a little kid to sit on.

My grandchildren would be coming to visit one day, I figured. Grandchildren like to sit on logs, jump over logs, kick logs and dig sticks into the rotty parts of logs.

So I asked the tree cutters to save the logs. They were in a hurry to be done with the job, so they tossed them in a jumble against a retaining wall.

Out of Sight and Forgotten

And there they sat out of sight and forgotten until a couple weeks ago when I was down in the backyard, checking out the two madrone saplings the grandchildren’s other grandparents had planted in memory of my husband.

On my way downhill to the madrones, I stopped by my stumpy logs. They were buried under pine needles and oak leaves and were still soggy with last winter’s rain. Rot was setting in. My stumpy logs would soon fall apart if I didn’t do something fast.

obstacle course or fairy circle foot-prying-a-log-apart — I used a wedge-shaped piece of one of the logs to pry a big log in half so I could move it. It worked. *Photo by Barbara Newhall*

Up till now, I’d thought I needed a strong male back for the job of moving those logs. But after a little poking I saw that I was plenty strong enough to move them away from the wall so they could dry out.

But how to arrange them?

An Obstacle Course or Fairy Circle?

The grandchildren, now 8 and 5, were just the right age for an obstacle course. In my grandmotherly imagination, I saw them jumping over the sticks and taking giant steps from stump to stump.

I tugged and dragged and rolled the stumpy old logs out onto the terrace and made them into an obstacle course.

Arranged now in a tidy circle, the logs turned magical on me. Was this an obstacle course I had wrought, a place for running and jumping? Or a fairy circle, a place for dreaming and pretending?

I’ll let you know after the grandchildren pay their next visit.

You can see photos of this backyard under construction at: “A Pile of Antique Bricks in My Backyard” and “A Backyard in Progress.” Also, “Blood and Guts in My Backyard.”