BUILDING FORTS

I've had a thing for fort building in the last few years.

• I helped my kids turn the playground structure into one a few years ago.
• I then helped a friend build an adult sized one with all the trimmings in a tree.

And today I built another with my kids in the yard.

In like 2 weeks we have tons of family coming in from all over the place to hoot and holler with us and celebrate Becky and Billy's 6th birthday. Most of this party is an outdoor event, so I've been working away at my pre-party to do list, one of which entails the getting rid of lots of piles of wood I had lying around from various projects.

For months, my kids have been asking if we could build another fort out of the piles. So today it went like this:

I said, "if you help me pick up the wood and put the extra stuff in my truck, I'll build a fort with you."

They said "Deal."

I asked TJ, "What do you want this fort to look like?"

He said, "A fort built by kids for kids."

So.... here ya go. We gathered the wood and piled it up and cleared the weeds from the front area that "someday" is supposed to have concrete and be a patio for a "pool".... yeah that's not looking good these days.

Then we just started cutting and nailing and 2 hours later, the pile became this fort built for the "little rascals of the berrytribe".

the view towards the street with the ladder inside to the second story:

the view towards the other fort, from the street:

the side shot:

So now what?

• Well, rumor on the street is, the fort-to-fort water balloon fight is looming as we speak.
• Believe it or not, my truck bed is still full with the extras from the project. Man there was a lot of wood laying around my yard.
• Oh... and yes my curb appeal just went way down. Anyone wanna park a trailer out front, I'm evidently trying desperately to hurt property values in my neighborhood.