I recently became a big believer in the flat earth theory, specifically when it comes to constructing the 20-foot-long playground in my backyard. You see, I have these adorable gremlins dwelling in my home, energetic wildlings who the manufacturer (aka their mother) recommends be kept outdoors as much as possible in the summer. Hence the playground. But the backyard slopes and dips, making an unsuitable landing spot for project, which is why I needed flatter earth.
The erroneous part of my theory is that this would be an easy project to undertake alone. I rented an unwieldy rototiller for the day, exhausting every muscle fiber in my body biting into clumps of grass and cement-like clay. A few subsequent post-work evenings of shoveling and smoothing got me to this point:
I bought a cheap $10 bubble level to see how I did, trying to reach a grade point as close to Blutarsky’s as possible (0.0 ). I placed the orange plastic level on a flat board as recommended by YouTube and later by every guy 20 years older than me, and came to a realization. Every other step in measuring and building requires exact tools, fasteners, and dimensions, but for the very foundation, I was guestimating.
That’s kind of crazy.
Rick Sanchez said it best on the subject on Rick and Morty:
“I dabble in precision, and if you think you can approach it with your sad naked caveman eyeballs and a bubble of ****ing air, you’re the reason this species is a failure and it makes me angry!”
For a backyard itself, it really isn’t that big of a deal. It will be when I finally finish the playground (almost done after a three weeks) and stake it to the earth. That’s where you need precision. That’s where a bubble might not cut it. Who wants a crooked swing? Is that the sort of thing I want to teach my daughters? Absolutely not.
That’s why I’ll be using a 48” e105 Series TrueBlue Digital Box Level from Empire Level to get an accurate number, not an air bubble. The company was nice enough to send us one to try out after it was nominated for an NED Innovation Award this year, so this I think will be a great use case and increase my dad rating for a while.
Because this project was so exhausting, I’m probably never doing another again, so I won’t need this level. It’s about $160, so it would be a terrible waste for it never to see action again. I know our readers like free stuff, so we thought we’d give you the chance to try it next. Just fill out the form below and we’ll randomly select the next owner.
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