Day of Building

Today was my second day off this week. I slept in a bit, then spent a lazy morning catching up with things on-line and eventually taking my shower. I then sat out back in the sun for a bit working on the map for my fantasy universe. When the little kids when in for lunch I went in as well and fixed myself something. After I went back outside I ran into my nephew Chase and decided that it was time to have fun. So I spent the rest of the afternoon with Chase and one of my other younger nephews (off and on for them) building with twigs and bark. I'd done this before when camping as a kid. It is great fun to build buildings and settings with sticks, twigs, bark, and other natural materials. Today we took it one step further and made them LEGO sized. Here, I'll let the pictures do most of the talking:

Here you can see the entire complex that developed. The main area in the center consists of a corral and stable for the LEGO horses as well as a structure. The structure has the king's bed on the bottom floor and a wooden table on the top where the king can recieve guests and foreign dignitaries! :-) The entrance to this structure connects to the long stockaded pathway extending down to the LEGO tower at the bottom left of the picture. Then you can either head just a bit south to the first bark gate or turn east down another path to the second bark gate. No hinges yet, for now 'tis just bark holding back the hordes from invading. In the upper right of the picture you can see Chase's creation (besides the stable which he started and extensively designed). He has a kitchen with various bowls (acorn tops) of foods (torn remnants of different coloured flowers) and a table or two. As he has left an opening in the stockade we also have the option to extend the complex a bit to the north.

To the right is the other part of the forifications that I devised. Chase came up the idea--I just executed it. I took four Y shaped sticks and planted them in the earth in the midst of the ivy (or whatever those plants are). I should have taken a picture from further back, but I think you can get the idea from this. Using sticks placed in the Y's as a base I constructed a platform of sticks and then covered it with flat pieces of bark. Next I inserted a couple more sticks between the bark and platform sticks so that I could turn the back half of the area into somewhat of a room. The roof consists of sticks covered with thin flat pieces of bark. I think it looks quite impressive, like a tower rising out of the jungle of green. I couldn't resist putting my LEGO forrester characters up in the tower. I don't have an explanation for how they get up and down, yet! I'm working on it. Oh, I also used chunks of bark to make a low wall around the two-thirds of the platform covered by flat bark. The front third just consists of the bare sticks covered by a couple bits of bark--but it isn't useful enough as I can't directly place LEGO figures there--and even if I could I wouldn't because there is no way to fence it off or make it defensible.

Well one last picture. Last night I had to drop by Wal-Mart to pick up a few supplies. Going by the shoe section on my way to the food area I happened upon a sandal display. I've been looking for some new sandals ever since spring/summer weather arrived. I enjoy sandals but my old pair are at least as old as high school. Not only are they somewhat worse for the wear as far as creases and rips go, but the Velcro doesn't want to stick anymore and always slips at the worst moments. The new ones look quite similar, but they're new and highly functional.

I might post some pictures later. Right now I'm just quite tired and wanting to post this before midnight. I hear some wonderful thunder outside but I'm too tired to enjoy it, :(. At least I think it is thunder, it could be something dragging against the road--I really don't care enough to investigate.

~Matt