[Cob] stick fort

[Elizabeth]

I know it's non-cob,  but it is a natural building project and I'm having so much fun I wanted to share.  Please reply off list so I don't get in too much trouble for straying from our topic!  
 
I scrounged several big bundles of maple sticks from the man across the street, who trims his maple trees back to the trunks every couple of years to keep them out of the power lines.  (The trees look awful--big hundred year old maple trunks with a little puffball of leaves on top every summer.)  The sticks range from 1/4 to 2 inches thick, and 2 or 3 feet to about 8 feet long. 
 
I'm helping my 11 yo son and couple of boys from across the street build a fort or clubhouse in my backyard.  
 
We selected several long, gently curved sticks and wired them together into six pointed arches, using copper wire.  The arches are about 4-1/2 to 5 feet high at the top and perhaps 5 or 6 feet across at the bottom.  We pushed the sticks down into the dirt, then wired more sticks between the arches, so we have of framework.  Tomorrow we'll take 6 long poles and wire their bases into the tops of the arches, and wire them together at the top to make a circular teepee-style roof.   They bent and lashed down the overlapping braches at the tips on one arch to make it more rounded than pointed, and that will be the entrance.  We all have to stoop slightly to enter.  We may need to find a taller pole to support the peak.  Then I'll get them a big roll of twine and they can cut branches to fit and tie onto the walls, and I'll find some tarps or re-cycled plastic to cover the roof.  Then I'll plant some sweet peas and/or scarlet runner beans to climb over it.  
 
Tonight the boys are busy inside peeling and sanding thick club-sized maple sticks they are calling "tribe sticks."  No one will be allowed inside unless they have a tribe stick (I immediately explained that if the sticks are used for stick fighting they will be confiscated and everyone will go home.)  
 
They were uncertain at first about the six-sided idea I proposed, but as soon as they saw the outline of it they got excited about how big it was!   It looks like at least a summer's worth of fun ahead.  Total cost to date:  $2.75 for wire.  I'll need to spend some more for twine.  
 
Hmm.  The finished structure will bear some resemblance to wattle....maybe we could cover it with daub!  (It's not going to have the structural integrity for that but it's a fun idea.)
 
Elizabeth in WA
 
 


---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Search - Find what you’re looking for faster.