Sioux and Rick

Episode I ; The clubhouse

Sioux and Rick

Brian Davis

Davis Imaginarium

copyright 2022

Sioux and Rick stood in the clearing by the creek studying the plans they had drawn. On paper their project looked simple; but the stack of wood and materials they had gathered looked rather challenging.

"We have to start with the four by fours." Sioux stated. "That's the base we need. Just need to figure out how to get them across the creek without getting our butts wet!"

Rick thought for a minute."Nothing we read on the construction books really covered this challenge."

This was a problem the twotwelve year old boys hadn't thought about. They hatched the plan to build a clubhouse last fall, then spent the winter studying construction books. In early spring, like always, both of their dadshad building projects. But, this year they had mysteriously,accidentally bought to much wood, so the boys made off with it.

While the two boys pondered and talk over the problem, Dale wandered into the clearing from the opposite direction Sioux and Rick had come. Dale's family farm was on the other side of the woods.

Dale was in on the project,but the farm life kept him busy usually. It was rare to see him on Saturdays. After a short discussion Dale understood the problem.

Dale looked over the area."My dad has a couple of pulleys in the rafters of the barn he uses to lift up heavy stuff," he thought out loud. "Maybe we could just throw a rope over a big branch and pull the beams up and over kinda like that."

Both Sioux and Rick understood. Rick rummaged rope from his back pack and started working at getting it over a branch. Dale and Sioux dragged the four beams over to the bank of the creek. Rick swung over to the other bank after he got the rope over a branch. It was only five feet across,and just as deep. The three worked together tying and moving all the beams in place. They squared them all up then started the framing process.

Their dream of having a hidden club house on the woods over the creek was finally taking shape. They had been dreaming of this for about a year, they wanted a place for the summer time, so they could camp and be explorers. The limit of their explorations so far had only been as far as the cowfield behind Dale's house. The woods and creek went far beyond that,they had all wanted to explore more.

When they finally stopped working to build a fire and cook some Ramen for lunch, they had four slightly miss-matched wall frames up. All three boys were excited with the progress so far. They hoped that the weather would stay good for tomorrow, then they could get a roof and walls up.

While they ate they musedabout their future adventures and explorations. Surprisingly, Dale admitted that he had never followed the creek beyond his farm. The three of them decided the first big explore would be following the creek beyond the cow field, maybe even camp out somewhere.

The boys looked over the rest of the building supplies they had 'acquired'. They talked about the memories of dragging, pulling, and hauling with the tractor all of the boards through an acre of briers and thorns. Sharing a few scars they all had gathered; 'battle scars'.

"We should find a cooler,and some other things to be organized." Sioux suggested.

Dale Spoke up first, "My dad has a junk pile out back. I think he just through a cooler out there last week, I could nab that. My first donation!"

It was Ricks turn to 'donate', "I have an old pocket radio we could keep here, and Ihave plenty of batteries."

"Oh! There's these folding chairs that've in my dads shed forever;" Sioux said excitedly, "those will be perfect for the club house."

Dale had to leave after lunch, he had farm chores to do, and a little ways to walk. Sioux and Dale stayed long enough to put up a couple sheets of plywood for the walls. They were both tired after a long day of building.

During the winter, while they were planning the clubhouse and other adventures, they had both built wooden tool boxes. Then they both used their allowances to raid the flea-market to buy the tools they thought they would need, plussome donations from their dads. Their little tool boxes were heavy,they decided to leave them at the clubhouse, no-one except them ever came there anyway.

While they were standing there thinking about things, Rick made an observation. "If I'm thinkin right, we only scored enough plywood for the walls." Sioux agreed. Rick thought for a minute,"there's a tarp lying behind my dad's shed, I'm thinking it'll fit,I'll bring it tomorrow."

After an antsy Sunday morning in church, Sioux and Dale met up at the clubhouse both bringing their donations. The morning was chilly, so they started afire in the fire ring they had made. They quickly finished putting the rest of the plywood on the clubhouse, now they had four walls and a floor. They stretched the tarp over the top from the inside of the clubhouse.

Sioux and Rick set up the chairs inside the nearly finished clubhouse. Rick rummaged the radio from his backpack. The two boys celebrated their success with a couple of well deserved sodas and Bazooka gum.

While Rick was tinkering with the radio, Sioux pulled a new notebook from his pack. He thought it would be cool to draw a map of the area they knew so far, then add to it as they explored more.

Sioux took out his four colored pen, checked his compass, and started drawing the surrounding area. He had seen plenty of maps, so he chose blue for water, green for trees, black for buildings, red being the last option, he used that for trails and good campsites.

Sioux finished the map, fornow, he looked up at Rick reading a comic book. " You know; we only know as far as the Dale's cow field and this clearing," Sioux mused. " The creek runs off in both directions, we have a lot of exploring to do."

 Both boys agreed and fell into making plans for the weekends, for now, and then summer. There was only a few weeks of school left. Then they would be free!