Tutorial Tuesday - How To Build A Fun Fort

You can see the buds just forming here in Pittsburgh. Spring is finally springing! Last week's rain really helped things along.

Helper Munchkin and I went into the woods to see what we could see...

We flipped over dead logs and found salamanders (he got away before I could get to my camera!)


And snails...


We found some fiddleheads just poking through the dirt...

And tried out the tire swing after a long winter...


We had fun, but it was time to get down to business. Each year around this time, my boys and I set about cleaning up all the branches that have fallen over the winter. Normally, we stack the sticks in piles and everyone grumbles until it is finished.

How to make this more fun???

A tree top had fallen during a particularly windy storm. I began to snip off the smaller branches to consolidate the mess and ended up with one thick branch that stuck into the air at an angle. Hmmmm...this could be the framework for a pretty cool hideout.

First, we had to gather our wood... (see the May Apples that are beginning to pop up?)


Then we began to lean the branches against the tree to form a wall...


Then we began on the second side and it began to resemble a lean-to. Very rustic, really cool, just right for a pack of boys!

Pretty soon, the big kids got off the bus and everyone began to pitch in. We even started to use branches from the other ugly piles stacked here and there. They began to make plans for army games, air soft battles, and fun times.



In the end, they got a pretty cool fort and I got my woods cleaned up. When mom's happy, everyone's happy!





Don't have a fallen tree handy? You could make a simple frame with a 2x4 and some nails. Nail it to a tree at an angle or straight across two trees and put those kids to work! It's simple, just lean and stack, lean and stack...you get the picture!