Crow’s Nest Finished

Last weekend we finally finished the crow’s nest on the fort.  Here’s a picture of it almost done (up in the back of the fort). 

It’s further along now.  With a wooden ladder up to it and the siding done.  I’ll get a new picture after we work on it this weekend again.  So far it has become a prime location for homework and reading.  The girls say it’s hard to get their backpacks up there though.  So, I think we’ll put the pulley and bucket going up there.  Here’s a 180 degree panorama view from the crow’s nest.  Love it!

Josh On Basketball

Believe

I’m not sure if I took this or my sister-in-law Leah while she was playing with my camera.  I just like the picture.  It’s my brother Ryan hanging out during the Christmas festivities at my parents.

Building a Fort–Days 4… until now

We finally got some more time to work on the fort this last weekend once I had Friday off for New Years.  With the kids home, they were able to help pull nails, hold boards, move dirt, practice nailing, etc.  It helped a lot to speed up some things.

After finishing the 2nd floor, we went back and put in posts and the 1st floor.

Next we finally added some stairs and moved the slide over to this lower drop.  It’s just the right speed now.  A little fast for Simon, but he’ll be able to catch on soon with some practice.

Next we finished putting up the posts for the 3rd floor, framed and put in the 3rd floor, and then framed and put in the balcony where we’ll take off from for the zip line.

We are getting there, but it’s slowing down with pretty much just weekends to work on it since it gets dark so early.  Here’s what’s still on the to do list… we’ll see if it all makes it on:

• Half walls all around – So no one falls off the edges
• Crows nest – Still trying to figure out a safe route to get up there.
• A tin roof
• Zip line
• Pulley and bucket for pulling stuff up to the top floor
• Climbing rope back where the slide used to be to get onto the 2nd floor
• Sand box under the 2nd floor
• Toy gun stands for all the rubber band and airsoft wars to be had
• Run electricity out for lights
• A trap door or secret passage or two.
• Paint the whole thing and other weather proofing

Should be done in no time at all ;)

Building a Fort–Day 2 & 3

So, a whole day to put in one post was discouraging.  It didn’t seem to speed up much from there.

On day 2, I straightened the one post and put in concrete.  My brother Doug came to help me, and we got 3 more corner posts put up.

Day 3: Built the floor for what will be the second floor and put the slide on; which ended up being too steep in that spot.

That night Christi and the kids came home, and I had a firework shower lit up high in the fort so that they could see the telephone poll sticking up and the firework going off as they drove into the driveway.  They were excited even though it was only about an eighth  of the way done.

Then we took a 3 day break for Christmas Eve, Day, and the rest of the weekend in Thatcher.

Building A Fort – Day 1

For Christmas, Christi and I decided to finally build our dream fort for the kids.  We have lots of full grown trees, but none that quite fit the bill.  So, for now we’re building our dream fort amongst the trees to give it the allusion that it is in one.  What do you do?

The week before Christmas I took some time off to start building it while Christi and the kids were in Tucson.  The first step in the project was to plant a telephone pole that was left on our property.  One goal of our dream fort is to keep it cheap by reusing as much material as we can around here.  Yeah right!  Nothing is cheap anymore.  But we have reused a lot of materials.  So, I’m sure we’ve saved half if not more. 

Day 1 was spent digging a 6 foot deep hole by hand.

Then figuring out how to move and raise a 28 foot tall telephone pole.  I tried calling a tractor guy I know, but he wasn’t able to return my message until too late.  I called for reinforcements of brute strength, but that wasn’t available until too late too.  So, I started on my own.  First I tied a dolly to one end and dragged it over to the hole with the lawn mower.

Still no reinforcements in sight.  So, I started jacking it up on my own.

Then it got more complicated and I wasted a lot of time trying different ways to get it up the rest of the way.  I finally worked it up inch by inch by using a secret method (kept ratcheting it up) and a bunch of luck that it didn’t fall over.

A whole day! For one pole!  Luckily it sped up a little after this.