13th March 2008

well this post is really about the 12th march but I am sitting here way past midnight doing this instead of getting a decent sleep.

Wehave had some rubbish weather this week. apparantly we are in the midst of a hurricane but where we live we did not get full force of the storm. This is it! Awesome to see, us being homeeducators tend to be fascinated by this stuff.


We received a little damage, a few tiles and a damp patch, but our trampoline gave us a scare. It was lifting right off the ground despite being weighted down with bags of gravel and what not. With memories still fresh from the last trampoline incident we were not going to take any chances, so at 1 am yesterday morning hubby was out there pileing stuff on to the legs. Amazingly this morning it was still in the same place despite the 70mph winds.

and the last trampoline incedent ..... Well it was freaky, we have a full size trampoline complete with safty netting. We just got it last summer and the children absolutely love it and spent all summer bouncing on it. On the strength of what the shop that sold us the trampoline had said we left it built up for the winter. Well one afternoon whilst it was too wild for the children to play outside they settled down in the TV room to watch a DVD. Meanwile the wind whipped the trampoline into the air, flipped it over and set it on a journey ...
First of all the trampoline hit the garage roof, it knocked some tiles off and the guttering. Then it continued to blow and it bounced right over the top of our washing line which was probably 6 foot high and it hit the back of our house feet first and got stuck. My eldest looked us as the trampline was hitting the glazed wall of the TV room and he almost fainted with shock. Bt some fluke the windows did not break and the children were unhurt, despite being a little shocked.

The trampoline was wedged and it took four adults using full strength to get it unstuck. When we got it out and the right way up it was evident the force of the impact - the frame of the trampoline was bent! Now we are talking a strengthed frame here - you know the circumference of the jumping mat, all the springs are tensioned on it and it takes the weight of a couple of adults easy. So now the trampoline has two feet on the ground and two off - it still workd but it just doesn't look the same.