Friday, March 27, 2015

How to name a Fort



Annasergle.

That is the name of our fort. Don't ask me why, 'cause I don't know. I didn't name it; Zack did. I told him not to name it that, but he didn't listen to me.

I have no clue where that name came from, but Dad makes fun of it, so I do too. Dad insists that it should have been named Lanna's lair. (That was one of Dad's jokes. Do not expect to understand or think it funny.)




Despite the name however, it's pretty cool. It has a locking door, a lookout tower, and even a zip line that comes off of the top and over the ditch. We built it completely out of junk, the walls are built out of old wood, the hinges are from old cabinets, and everything else made of junk too. We use it in our battles. But not battles with guns and other modern stuff, we use swords, spears, staffs, and shields. And we make all of our own weapons. We make swords out of branches, and Zack and I made shields out of sheet metal. Artillery? Pine cones


  






  


We even made a pine cone catapult.

Pine-cone catapult

The zipline is really cool. It goes from the top of Annasergle, across the ditch, and to a tree on the other side. Super awesome. Zack even tried going down it with one hand, holding his sword in the other. That didn't go well. Suffice it to say that he uses both hands now. 


The Zipline










Zack also claims to be the 'king' of Annasergle. I don't see how he can do that. You can't just proclaim yourself king. We didn't even vote. He even made himself a crown. Literally. A crown. Out of sheet metal. And a throne, from which he can watch his invisible kingdom.











The Throne

The only difficulty with the fort is that we built it too strong. We can't capture it. The walls are too high. The door locks too well. The zipline is too awesome. The only way to conquer it is to scale the walls, but our siege ladder broke in the last skirmish. Bummer.

We also have another fort. Fortunately, Zack didn't offer to name it. We took quick action and christened it 'The Fort'. Nothing like calling it what it is.

The Fort



Trap door

'The Fort' is more properly built. Dad built it with us, so it isn't made out of junk like Annasergle. We went out and bought all of the materials. The Fort is up on poles, six feet high. It has a trap door in the bottom, three windows, a ramp on the front, a catwalk around the outside, and two secret doors. Well, they used to be secret. And for a couple of years it also had a tree in the roof. Literally. A tree fell on it. For a long time we couldn't figure out how to get it down without breaking either The Fort, Dad, or both. Eventually we figured out how to cut it so that the fort wouldn't be damaged, and we'd only have to risk Dad. 
  
Let's see, what else do we have? Oh yeah, treebushes. On the edge of our land we have a line of treebushes. Yep, treebushes. Basically a row of bushes that grew really big, and now they are trees, but still look like bushes. Anyway, they make the perfect climbing trees, and they are just close enough together that we can climb from one tree, to the other tree, to the other tree, all the way down the line. It's lot's of fun. Sometimes we do races, and see who can make it to the Monkey Tree first. We have some interesting names for things, if you haven't noticed. We have some treebushes all over the land in fact, called different things. Here are the names: Jake's kingdom, Zack's kingdom, Ben's kingdom, and The Icecream Shop. I have no clue why. They just are.

Jake's kingdom


Zack's kingdom


The Icecream shop


Ben's kingdom


Inside the treebushes


 


The Monkey Tree

We also have The Tunnels. On one of the borders of our land is a fence line. In a lot of places however, the fence is broken down, and trees, bushes, thorns, and other brush has taken its place. In some places the line of brush is over ten feet wide. We made a trail through the entire length of the fence, right through the center. It is completely camouflage, and no one even knows that it is there. (SHHH)




The fence line











One corner of our land is covered in brush and crisscrossed with trails that we have made. We have appropriately named it The Other Tunnels. We even built walls around the border of it, but they are kind of broken down at the present.




And then finally, we have an outpost on the fence-line. No, the other fence-line. It isn't much, simply a platform suspended by 2x4's between two trees. Guess what we named it. Nothing. It doesn't have a name.







When telling someone to meet you at this fort, the conversation would go something like this:

"Hey Zack, meet me at the outpost/fort/thingamajiggy/on the Somer's fence-line."

"Uh......okay."

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