This morning we had a dilemma which project to chose for today, because we had prepared more projects we could possibly do in a week. Eventually we decided to use the long hazelnut tree sticks kids brought from the forest yesterday and we will lash them together to create a shelter.
First we needed to cut some short stick to wind the twine on. Thomas made a new friend in the morning – a saw. For the rest of the day he used every opportunity to use it.
After I demonstrated how to lash two or three sticks together the tinkerers imediatelly wanted to test how strong the tripod is.
OK, the lashing technology was clear. Now we only have to figure out what we are going to build. The designers got to the drawing board…
... and the ideas started pouring out of them.
We started out very ambitiously in two team with the aim of building two complete shelters with raised floor (should the water level rise up) for 6 kids to sleep in. It would be great because we have a sleepover tomorrow.
But very soon we realized that we have far too little material for that. Seeing no other choice I let them use all our two-by-twos for the flooring, but even that wasn't enough. It took some time before the two teams were reduced to one and the plan for six person hacienda with luxurious raised floor was reduced to A-shaped shelter built as an extension of the existing play house.
Ema, Pavla, Mario and Yuri are trying to figure out how to lash the top knot where sticks are not perpendicular to each other. Obviously, it isn't as easy as it may have seen during the demonstration.
With the wind in her hair, Pavla is tying the roof beam of our new extension to the existing structure of the play house.
We raised the ladder so conveniently that after the structure has been lashed together we had a problem to pull it out from the tangle of lashed sticks.
Girls are checking out if we have enough blankets to cover the shelter. Or are they colour matching them? We will probably never find out. Some things simply stay with the women ;-)
The net has not lost its appeal for kids even after four days. During the break Micheal at one end of the net (not in the picture) is jumping off a branch to the net making Mathias and Thomas at the other end to bounce off to the air and whoop with joy.
Others are having fun each in their own special way. Yuri is laying an egg. Mario is hypnotizing the rings, Pavla si practicing her Mony Lisa, ... And Jana finaly during the break gets a chance to tie her own knot.
A future entrance door coming to existance. Instead of a bubble-level we used Thomases nose height as our gauge.
In the meantime Michael and Yuri with Jana's help are lashing a ladder together.
And again there is a chance for Thomas. Very meticulously he saw off all protruding ends of branches - just to make sure that nobody gets hurt.
The ladder is done and it's stronger than any of us would have thought.
A ladder - what a marvelous thing! You can get to places that have been inaccessible to you before. Micheal is discovering the fork of the large walnut tree.
The ladder legs need some fine-tuning.
The frame is finished. Konštrukcia je hotová. Now is the time to tie on blankets. Micheal alternates helping out ...
... with practising wolking on a balancing beam. Under that seriously looking bandage is a small pinched blister.
Pavla turns out to be an expert for work at heights.
Once Michael has discovered the fork, now everyone wanted to see it.
Whoopee! No rain will get to our shelter any more!
And on the inside it looks very cosy, too.
A few more little tweaks here and there…
… and we are finished.
We have little less than two hours left. Since their arrival in the morning the kids were looking forward to deconstructing appliances again. Obviously, once is not enough. Mathias even brought an old notebook from home to take apart.
The mission of the day is to find some tiny interesting parts that we could use for our tomorrows project.
The hunt for motors continues. There has got to be a motor in the mini vacuum cleaner, but how to get to it? What's holding it up there in the front?
Matúš sa pomaly dostáva k displeju od notebooku. Jurimu sa zas páčia tonery z tlačiarne. Mathias is slowly getting to the notebook LCD display and Yuri likes the toner cartridges he found in the printer.
It's unbelievable what an LCD display is made of! layer after layer and each of them is different.
One of them is like a magnifying glass ...
... and besides making everything appear larger, it makes it double, too! Only later we we learnt that this is a polarizing filter.
Well, parents are here, so we are forced to pack everything and leave it for tomorrow.
We have an overnight stay at Tinkering School tomorrow. We will put up tents and tinker whole day and even after it gets dark. Since I’ll probably not be able to write a blog tomorrow, you can read all about our Friday’s adventures in two days. Talk to you then.
