Magnificent Marshmallow Palisade

Supplies: 

.  Ice cream bucket/round container (for making the giant marshmallow shapes)
.  Snow shovel (for mounding snow together to make scooping into the bucket easier)
.  Water spray bottle (for spraying the walls)
.  Large bucket of water, probably best kept in the garage (for refilling the spray bottle)
.  Two to four boards, each board 1 inch  x 8 inches and each 3 to 4 feet long 
   (These boards are optional for those who would like to have doorways with a lintel or "roof" over each. 
   We outfitted only two of our doorways with lintels because we had only two boards.)

Time:    

.  About 25 "manhours" (three boys worked after school on Friday and again on Saturday)

Step 1 Making Marshmallow Building Blocks

Start making snow "marshmallows."   As demonstrated in the pictures shown above, pack snow into ice cream bucket.  Be sure to press snow in well, packing down with your fists, then refilling and packing again until you have achieved a dense marshmallow.  Dense marshmallows hold together and make better building blocks.

After you have packed the bucket well, wipe the top until level.  Invert the bucket and release the marshmallow (you may have to shake the bucket a bit to cause the marshmallow block to release).  Voila!  You have a marshmallow building block.  If the marshmallow block does not release from the bucket, either your snow is too wet or you have packed a bit too tightly. 

Comments

[funtogether]

Somebody must have eaten all of our marshmallows. I guess we'll have to make some more next winter!

[ilpug]

http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Bucket-System-modular-snow-construction/


so it's basically what i did on the linked instructable with a smaller bucket.

[funtogether]

We have begun wondering if the bigger bucket would be extremely hard to get out once it is well packed. We thought it might be extremely hard to shake the big, heavier bucket to get the snow to release. What was your experience?

[ilpug]

well, just look on the Ible' to see what I did. I got two buckets, and slit the side of one. The slit bucket I used for snow, and put that bucket in the uncut bucket. It's all in the how-to.

[funtogether]

Too bad we didn't snag on to those five-gallon buckets. It would have gone faster! We will have to do that next year. Thanks for the suggestion.

[djsante]

Fine!!!

Welcome to http://donchanka.org.ua/!

[bajablue]

I love this!!!

To save time and energy, I think I'd use a heavy meat mallet to beat the snow into the buckets.>;-D

[funtogether]

The practical use of this project was to expend boyish time and energy, while having fun and building muscles. We slept well afterwards!

[dsa67]

It's refreshing to see boys being creative and getting outside in their spare time! Guys, I think this looks really neat, and it seems to fit the contest theme very well. I hope you win!

[funtogether]

We appreciate the encouragement! Thanks.

[loner003]

Real marshmallows would be terrific!

[funtogether]

Thanks for the comment! Next time we should build a S'mores fort.