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If you don't have a truck, but live near a natural sand deposit, you can haul it buckets at a time in the trunk of a car. You may be able to get road sand from your town's landfill or highway department. Or, you can order it hauled in a dump truck from any aggregate or traprock supplier to the building trades. Clean "sharp" sand will be stone and dirt free. Or as a last resort, intown pool and outdoor furniture retailers sell white beach sand in bags for city kids who need sandboxes as much or more than country kids.

Cats

The neighborhood cats may try to adopt a sand pile as a giant kitty-litter box. Don't let it start. Besides being anaesthetic in the extreme, cat feces may contain human pathogens and parasites and you surely don't want the kids playing anywhere near it. Our dogs woofed cats out of the yard during the day and the kid's green-eyed, orange she-cat chased them away at night—and, once she'd joined the kids playing in the sand a couple of times, she seemed to prefer the loose soil of our garden to the sand pit. But, I kept a constant check on cat activity. On the way in from the garden every evening, I'd smooth the sand with the garden rake. If I'd ever seen signs of a digging or romping cat, I'd have raked and hosed the sand clean and put on a cover.

The best sand cover I know is one of those inexpensive blue, woven vinyl tarps you can get for a few dollars at any hardware store. Leave one over the sand anytime it's not in use, holding it in place with stones all around or wood planks on top. The kids will be able to remove it and (if you nag them long enough) replace it. If rain water pools on top, burn a few small holes through the middle with a small flame or soldering iron. (The heat will seal the edges so the hole margin won't ravel and enlarge with use.)

AN OUTDOOR WATER TABLE

If you've visited a kindergarten recently, you've seen the children playing in an indoor water table: a sturdy worktable with a low rim around the perimeter to hold a very shallow pool of water. At an indoor table, children must be disciplined to create quiet little water worlds. Outdoors, play will be more rambunctious, so water can be a little deeper and bathing suits are the garment of choice. We always provided a supply of little disposable bathroom-size paper cups for pouring—otherwise, a succession of cooking measures, coffee mugs, and dangerous glass drinking vessels found their way out to the table.

Size and Depth

Most school water tables are built to be kid-waist high, but for a backyard version you needn't build a piece of furniture with a rigid frame and legs. Build it on flat ground and block it to be perfectly level so the kids can play in it much as they play in the sandbox, and you'll save time, trouble and weight (filled with sand or gravel, rocks, and water, it will be heavy enough.)

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