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Making a snow fort with the kids

JHolmes763

JHolmes763

Drinkin' the koolaid
Joined
Oct 12, 2006
Messages
4,739
Location
Michigan (Thumb)
Kids have been trying to make an igloo for the past couple days. They get six or seven blocks into it and lose interest or get tired, though. I decided to take over yesterday and see what we could do. I had help for the first half, then they still got bored. :D

Here's a pic from about half way through. Actually got the blocks to hold together to make the roof completely out of snow, ala a real igloo. Always wanted to do this, but I've always lost interest or ran out of time in the past.

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Here's the completed deal. Cleared my entire front yard of snow to finish this up. My legs and neck are paying for it today, too. Hopefully heading to the gym later will stretch everything out and get me reset.

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Here's a view from inside. I added a few columns out front and a board over the entrance-way to hold up a wind blocker. It's only about 4 x 5 feet or so inside. Cozy enough, though, and the kids like it. Debating whether I should have a cigar in there later or not. :D

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Thanks for letting me share.

-John
 
Awesome! Looks like you had a lot of fun with that. we like to use 5 gallon buckets to make snow forts. Fill them with packed snow and if its cold out they will slide right out. Last year we made a full size playhouse. Too bad we havent gotten enough snow here in upstate New York to do any serious construction this year
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As a kid, we'd always use those old plastic milk crates. The kind the milk came in at school. They're about a foot square and a hex pattern all around (not solid plastic), so getting the snow out was really easy. Made some awesome forts with those. I don't know if you can even find them anymore...
 
That is cool John! I don't know how heavy each block is but that looks like a heavy duty igloo!
 
We don't even have enough snow to make one of those for a small family of ants. Hopefully it's coming though!


Looks like fun!! Can't wait till my boy is big enough to play in the snow, though I'm not wishing him to grow up.
 
What you need to do John is get a shot of yourself smoking a cigar in there and send it off to Cigar Aficionado. I bet you'ld get in to the winter edition of it....... :D :sign: :p
 
Well, she's still standing, but the South-facing side is looking pretty thin! Amazing what a different the direction this things points is. The north side is still solid blocks of ice like the day it was built. Need to make the entrance face south next time we make one!

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ree ree robusto said:
My wife and I were just talking about igloos today. What keeps it so warm inside? And, how can you actually have a fire inside without melting down your igloo?
Click to expand...

Igloo walls are generally quite thick and have a whole bunch of little air pockets in the snow blocks which act as excellent insulators. Since it takes a lot of energy to change the physical state of ice to water, having a small fire inside will only melt a thin layer of snow on the interior blocks. Allowing that water to re-freeze on the inside would increase the strength and insulation properties of the structure.
 
That's pretty cool!
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When I was a kid, me and brother built one. We had this snow-block mold that made perfect igloo bricks - only problem was we only got enough snow once to ever build a whole one and we basically cleared the whole yard of snow to do it.
 
Nice job! I live in Texas so I don't have much experience with snow. We had 4 inches or so on Xmas eve and I tried to build a snowman and it didn't work out too well. Ended up just being a big mound of snow...LOL.
 
Shamrocker said:
ree ree robusto said:
My wife and I were just talking about igloos today. What keeps it so warm inside? And, how can you actually have a fire inside without melting down your igloo?
Click to expand...

Igloo walls are generally quite thick and have a whole bunch of little air pockets in the snow blocks which act as excellent insulators. Since it takes a lot of energy to change the physical state of ice to water, having a small fire inside will only melt a thin layer of snow on the interior blocks. Allowing that water to re-freeze on the inside would increase the strength and insulation properties of the structure.
Click to expand...

Quite right. When I lived in Montana we had a big blizzard come through that dropped like 7 feet of snow or more! We dug a little house into it. Rooms and passages in between and all. It got so hot in there you would actually start sweating! I was only 10 at the time, and I never understood why. It was really cool. You could take your jacket off and still be nice and toasty. That's awesome John! I would have done the picture thing for the magazine though, that would have been awesome!
 
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