(Fort Douaumont, Verdun, France)
Posted on 11/15/2012 12:47:15 PM PST by shatcher
Last spring my husband and I put our home on the market in hopes of buying a home on a few acres with some woods for our children to play in. The local real estate market is not very good, and with Obama’s re-election, we have made the decision to ride out the coming storm in our current home…with a little modification. We are going to turn the backyard play set into an awesome fort.
This fort will not be an adult’s idea of what a kids fort is…which according to the internet is a playhouse on stilts. The best forts are enclosed and difficult for adults to enter. They also have a trap door, rifle roosts, and a zip line exit. What other ideas do you have that would make this fort even more fun for kids?
Quad-50’s at each corner.
(Fort Douaumont, Verdun, France)
It has a trapdoor in the main deck leading to the hold, as well as a door in the back that leads out of the hold at ground level. I have since cut portholes in the hold to let more light in. A few other amenities have also been added (like a bell).
(Sorry about the image size - no way to reduce it right now.)
Appliance box, washer dryer fridge + box cutter + imagination.
Sharks with fricken LAZERS!
A periscope, and a flag pole for running up the jolly roger or what have you.
Throw in some plastic 55 gal barrels and some traffic cones. They make great towers and steeples!
“The best fort is the one the kids build by themselves.”
I would second that. In my youth I built around 3-4 tree forts with my friends. I also cut down some trees and built a 12x12 log cabin on the parkland behind my house with handsaws and axes. That didn’t go over too well with the authorities, but I didn’t know any better then and it was a different time back then.
Fast forward to my daddy years and when my son turned 10, I got exicited about having a bit of land and a boy that age so I built a small log cabin out of recycled split rail fence board for my son. He helped a bit but after it was completed he used it about 8 to 10 times. Mostly during the airsoft wars.
If you build it they wont use it aside for the intial thrill. Make sure the kids have a big hand in designing and building it. You get the supplies and give them pointers.
The unit is about 8' tall and the main platform is roughly 8' square. The walkway to the slide is 10' to 12' long and there are three swings hanging from it. The slide I made out of treated 2 x 12, plywood and sheetmetal for the speedy part.
The slide on a good day can throw a 10year old about 15 feet:-)
Want any more info drop me a freepmail>
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Put a picture of King Obama on it and you will never have a break in or altercation of any kind.
Let them build stuff with you supervising and helping. Potatoe guns are awsome...but not be alright in tight quarters. There are a million boy building projects. The purpose is to teach them to build and see to it they “own” and appreciate what they create.
Make them help build whatever, or it will not mean as much to them. Our sons built a fancy shed to store thier big snow stuff and bikes in. They LOVED that shed. A shed.
If they are not old enough to use tools (with supervision) and make plans with dad, forgitaboutit. It will be taken for granted - “boring.”
So, when we were selling one of our houses the buyer was looking at the shed and said “this is a great shed” because it was. My son, age 17, said ‘that is because my brother and I built it special.” They built it (with thier dad) when they were 9 and 12. He showed the guy how they designed the roof so the snow would fall off and what all they put in the shed to hold what tools and stuff they needed. They had a “bike and tool bench” with electric and tool holders to work on their stuff.
This is the way you use “stuff” to educate your children. Make them center and responsible. Then they own it and are forever proud of it.
Best fort I had as a kid was a big old oak tree which had fallen down in the lot across the street - add some old vines to swing on and some corn stalks for “tomahawks” (sp? - and for anybody offended, tough), and you’ve got days and days of fun......
Get a 1000 gallon propane tank, cut a hatch in it, cut an escape hatch in one end. Put EMI gasket on the hatch/door, include 2 4-inch x 25 inch pipes for intake and exhaust air with a battery-powered muffin fan for the exhaust.
Let them decorate inside as they want.
bury it 3 feet underground.
They’ll have the only EMP protected fort in the neighborhood, and when Iran hits us with a High-Altitude EMP, they’ll be the only kids that can play their video games.
Hey, just a suggestion.
Or Confederate Williams Repeating Cannons for kids like this reproduction I ran into last weekend?
The fort I built my kids 20 years ago is still sitting in backyard. They used it off and on for a couple of years and that was it except for a few times when they were teenagers and needed a place to sit down while hanging out with their friends.
The best use it’s gotten has been as a hawk and owl perch for hunting squirrels and chipmunks. Great entertainment to watch them jump down, nail one of the critters, rip its guts out and fly back to their perch for a snack.
I bought a mobile kids’ fort. A 1975 Dodge Mobile home with 58,000 miles. I do not have to smog it. My kids enjoy having a base camp wherever we go. Take naps, sleep overnight, do projects, enjoy wi-fi, people-watching, climbing onto the roof, mobile whatever. I paid $2200, which is about $200 above what you would pay for a tent trailer. Imagine setting up a tent trailer every weekened, moving to a different location 3-4X per weekend.
The game plan is to use the kids ideas to make the fort with a little parental wisdom included, and help THEM build it. We are doing this in place of buying toys for CHRISTmas and they love the idea. They can't stop talking about it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.