If you help a boy build a fort in the woods

it won’t take too long to gather dead limbs from the ground

He will want to use the hatchet and hand saw to cut the limbs for the walls

Even though he is only five

You’ll have to decide for yourself whether you let him or not

If you let him

It’ll take a full day just to cut enough limbs to build the walls two feet high

It won’t have much square footage

But he will move a table in anyway

You will have to explain why he cannot have a woodstove or fire

AND Just when you think you it’s a good enough fort for a five year old boy

He will ask you to put a roof on it

And add a mailbox

And put down some gravel for his driveway

So the mail lady can get through

And install a flag pole so he can fly his star-spangled-banner

And once he has a fort, you will know where to find any missing item

Bowls, silverware, tools, nails and screws, lunch boxes, coats, shoes, sleeping bags, hedge trimmers and shovels, LOTS of missing shovels

But at least we know where to find them