CC&TheBear: Bag Houses

Eric and Brent started the bag house extravaganza. They bought their own box of those giant black trash bags and got to work.

The construction of a bag house involves cutting the bottoms of the trash bags open and duct taping them together to create a long tube (and if you want to be adventurous, some secondary tubes). The next step is key. You need a box fan to fasten the open end of the bag home to. This fan will fill the bags with air and keep the fort in operating condition.

I think the concept came into fruition when Eric and Brent wanted to build an air tunnel to test out a new airplane they had created.

It quickly evolved into a fort though. The first bag home was a scientific research facility, complete with bag shelves.

I wasn’t allowed in, except for a quick guided tour. I guess I deserved it after employing Brent to help me build a fort and then forcing him to stay outside to “shoot the wolves.” I think I had actually convinced him the fort was a vehicle, he was driving it (in his little kid rocking chair), and wolves were approaching.

Whenever the sheets began to rustle, I knew he was trying to enter and I’d yell out “the wolves are coming!”

He still holds this against me (in a non-hostile way).

After seeing what Eric and Brent had done, I wanted in on the bag house fun. We headed out to our local hardware store and loaded up on giant black trash bags and duct tape.

We then decided on the floor plan and began our work. We designed several wings in the bag mansion.

Brent and I regularly discussed making a giant bag dome/fort for water fight purposes.

I had in my mind a giant dome, with a pool in the middle and water dripping from the walls and ceiling. Corridors would be leading off in all directions. This plan would require at least 57 box fans and be a death trap. Water and electrical wires don’t mix.

For the time being, the bag home we had designed would have to do. Because bag homes have the potential for a disastrous collapse if something were to obstruct the stream of air from the box fan, we each carried our own pair of scissors to make an escape hole.

Brent took full advantage of this. Our neighbor was over and wanted to check out our amazing architectural talent, so we reluctantly obliged. This had disaster written all over it – this individual was not well versed in bag home protocol. I exited first and watched as our neighbor struggled in the entrance.

The entrance is tough to navigate because it is filled with a box fan attached to the bag on three sides. So, exiting requires maneuvering out of the one free side. Our neighbor spent too long struggling near the fan which caused the bags to begin to deflate.

Brent decided to act. He whipped out his scissors and cut a Brent-sized hole in the bag behind our neighbor.

He quickly exited and Eric followed. Our neighbor was most of the way free at this point, so she pulled the bag away from the fan and was out. Everything was ruined though. I was mad. The bag that Brent had cut came from the box of trash bags that I had bought, so naturally it was a harder blow to me.