A while back, we shared some stories about the various creatures which roam the woods and fields near our offices here in Maine. And, we solicited photos and stories about your CedarWorks swing set and the pets and/or wild animals (no, not your kids) that use it.

I recently received these great photos from Debra White who is president of Winslow Farm Animal Sanctuary in Norton, MA. Debra had contacted us earlier this year about a Serendipity swing set for her unique organization. As described on its website (www.winslowfarm.com), Winslow Farm is a “stay-for-life animal sanctuary dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation, and care of mistreated and abandoned animals”. In addition, the farm aims to “promote the prevention of animal mistreatment through quality educational programs and events, and to advocate the preservation of wildlife habitat.”

As we had understood it, the swing set was to be another great reason for the young visitors at Winslow Farm to have fun while being educated. We believe that this is what Debra was planning as well. But, apparently, Mervin the goat had other ideas (he was a kid once too, right?).

We still don’t know who has more fun with the swing set – Mervin or the human kids. But it really doesn’t matter as long as the swing set continues to get good use, and Mervin continues to prefer tin cans and goat chow over cedar.

It’s not often that residents of the Pacific Northwest need to add water to make an outdoor activity even more enjoyable. But, Beverly van Buuren of Seattle, WA shared with us how her son found a way to do just that.

“I am not the type of person who would email companies,” Beverly wrote in her email, “but the kids were having such a blast and so happy that I thought you guys might appreciate seeing your great products in real-life action. This was my son’s idea (the boy in the close-up), with the helmets and some ground rules being mom’s requirement. It was nice to have an activity for them in this heat that was fun, safe, outside, and at home! The day was a record-breaker for Seattle – 104 F.”

Thanks for sharing, Beverly. And, if the kids ever get too hot (or too cold, or too wet), maybe we can interest you in one of our Rhapsody indoor playsets!

Those were the menu choices at our Summer celebration. It was a long overdue thank you for the hard working folks here at CedarWorks, but I don’t think anyone minded the wait. And like so much else during this past year of national economic uncertainty, we just ignored the things beyond our control (in this case, atrocious weather) and made the best of the situation. In both instances, the outcome put a smile on our faces. read more »

Yes, we are. And right on time I might add.

It has been almost exactly one year since I challenged the small but very talented team here at CedarWorks to create a completely new line of playsets for inside the home. And today, precisely as scheduled, we are excited to introduce Rhapsody, the first wooden play system designed for indoors.

The goal for the product line was rather straightforward: create an indoor playset with all the same winning characteristics of a CedarWorks outdoor playset. Thus, the new line would need to be strong, safe, fun, beautiful, modular, and environmentally sound. But, to achieve this, we quickly realized that we needed to start with all new materials, construction methods, manufacturing methods, and visual designs. We needed to start from scratch. read more »

This was the subject line of a nice email I received recently from one of our customers. It reminds me of how fortunate we are to be in a business that makes people really happy. I am sure there are lots of great companies that sell fasteners (y’know, nuts and bolts) that rarely, if ever, get a happy customer letter. We, on the other hand, get lots and lots of them.

This letter, from Liza Beaty of Bollingbrook, Illinois, happened to strike a particular chord for me. It speaks of exactly what we hope for each time we ship a swing set off to a new CedarWorks family. Liza’s letter began with “For 11 summers…” then shared the following memories:

“…our family enjoyed our CedarWorks swing set. Our 3 children, several cousins and countless neighborhood children had spent many gloriously happy days and evenings running, jumping, swinging through the (completely splinter-free!) CedarWorks swing set. Obstacle courses, made-up games, and fantastic adventures were a regular part of daily life in our backyard. As our youngest child enters middle school, and as focus shifts away from the ‘childish things,’ we dissembled something that had become so near and dear to us as parents, and a integral part of our children’s lives and livelihood.

Thank you for engineering such a fabulous product that has enriched our daily lives for more than a decade. The memories are far more valuable to us than I could ever have imagined.”

And, Liza, your generous comments have been far more meaningful to each and every one of us here at CedarWorks than you could ever imagine.

June weather here on the Maine coast is a crapshoot. Some years it brings gloriously sunny days, and other years it simply breeds mildew and mosquitoes. This year? Let’s just say that fungicides and bug repellant are in short supply.
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The past few days have been a blur of comings and goings, assemblies and disassemblies, and lots and lots of photos. This is all taking place in my home, so the entire event is playing out in a most up close and personal way. More than 30 kids have paraded through thus far; four rooms have been completely emptied of their normal clutter and staged for the photos; and I apparently missed the micro-tornado that visited every other room, hallway, and closet in our house. The massive cleanup hangover coming our way is going to be painful indeed, but if the pictures thus far are any indication, the party will have been well worth it. read more »

A perfect day to photograph a playset: dark, cold, and very wet. We didn’t plan it this way, but the first day shooting Rhapsody, our new line of indoor playsets, became a living testament to why every family needs one.

The kids, of course, loved the play structures the second they arrived. They immediately began climbing, sliding, and exploring the various nooks and hideouts. The moms immediately loved the way the playsets look – like a nice piece of furniture infused with fun. read more »

The May/June issue of Kiwi Magazine featured an article on “Eco-Friendly Play Sets”, and guess who was at the top of the list? OK – the list wasn’t necessarily in rank order of eco-friendliness, but had that been the case, CedarWorks certainly would have still been listed first.

The article explicitly calls out the eco-friendly bonus of a swing set made from untreated wood, and only CedarWorks can boast of a swing set made from 100% natural untreated, unpainted, and unstained wood. And if that weren’t enough to cement the eco-friendly top spot for CedarWorks, we are certainly the only swing set company to have given away more than 400,000 cedar seedlings since the inception of our ReCedaring program.

In case you don’t know Kiwi, its tagline is “Growing families the natural and organic way”. More specifically, “KIWI is dedicated to helping parents raise their children the healthiest way possible. Our charge is to introduce families to the latest in natural and organic living—showing how to practice this lifestyle on an everyday basis.” You can learn more at www.kiwimagonline.com.

How can you be simultaneously be the most connected person at CedarWorks and the most remote? Easy, if you’re Sean Carnell. Sean is our IT Manager, webmaster, photographer, and a key member of our overall creative team here at CedarWorks. read more »