Giant Jenga

A few years ago, I designed and built a Giant Jenga set for our backyard.  It still gets a lot of use today!

The blocks were fairly easy to make...  I cut 2x4s to size...  each piece the same length as three pieces side-by-side so they would stack evenly.  The hard part was all the sanding that was required.  I needed to ensure each piece was perfectly smooth.  After the tedious process of sanding to a 400 grit (80 to 120 to 220 to 400), I waxed every piece so it slides easily without hanging up on rough spots.

I made a base for the game.  This base has two purposes.  First, I installed leveling feet on it so I can level the base anywhere on the lawn.  You can't stack the Giant Jenga pieces if the base is unlevel so these leveling feet allow me to perfectly level the base.  Then, if you turn the base upside-down, it can store all the pieces perfectly stacked, each piece standing on end.  The whole package is pretty heavy but this is convenient having every piece together in a neat package.  We simply move the whole set around by carrying it with two people.  I've never weighed the set but it must be about 70-75 lbs. (Now I'm going to have to weigh it!)

While Kenzie and Lukey were staying with us this past week, a few games of Giant Jenga were played!

The stack is now at 33 levels in the photo below!  I think that might be a record for our backyard!  We all thought this would topple over on the next turn at about 30 levels but they kept succeeding at pulling out more pieces and carefully placing them on top.  As you can plainly see in the photo, this tall stack is now leaning...

It's nice having this game available to play.  We also have horseshoe pits, a small putting green, the garden railroad, a fire pit, a playhouse for the younger grandchildren, and a few games for the younger grandchildren.  This Giant Jenga game seems to be a favorite though... even if you are only a spectator!