The workshop behind GOROCK

GOROCK makes four wooden yard games and nothing else. Three tumbling tower sets and one numbered toss set, all cut from kiln-dried stock, sanded on six faces and bagged by hand.

We started with the 57-block tower because that was the set we wanted for our own gardens and could not buy without paying event-rental money for it. The five-foot set with dice came next, after two summers of watching groups invent their own rules and lose track of them. The jumbo set came from the events that ran all weekend and wore out everything else. The toss game came from the afternoons when the grass was too uneven to stack on.

Blocks leave unfinished on purpose. Bare wood grips bare wood, and a tower of varnished blocks slides apart. The trade is that our pine greys after a season outside, and we would rather explain that than sell a set that falls on the fourth pull.

Write to us at lawn@gorock.pages.dev, or by post at Flat Patch Yard Goods, 1412 Alder Way, Suite 7, Eugene, OR 97402.