Last year, I went to a Spanish fort called the Castillo De San Marcos with my grandpa every Monday as a history project. I learned about the history of the fort, St. Augustine, how to work leather, and how to fire muskets safely. This story is an average day at the fort.
                I wake up at five thirty A.M. to get ready. After taking a quick shower I start to get dressed. I have an undershirt, a vest, a woolen over cloak, and sometimes a heave wool jacket. Now I put on my leather shoes and walk the dog as I wait for my grandpa to take me to the Castillo. Once we get there I help him unload his leatherworking tools and his musket.
                After we enter the courtyard, we put our things in the grass and begin to erect our tent. It isn’t like a normal tent, because it only protects us from the sun. As we build it, the first visitors start coming in. It is usually my job to explain what we are doing, but for the early visitors my grandpa does the talking. (Mostly because I’m barely awake.) Once the tent is completely set up and all the hard work is done, all the other volunteers start coming in.
                From whenever we get the tent up till eleven is usually the time when we make cartridges for the musket firings of the day. To make the cartridges we roll scrap paper from the park rangers around a crayola marker, (they have a little dimple at the top which helps secure it), pound the extra paper into the dimple on top, so the powder doesn’t fall out. After that we pour two ounces of grade three gunpowder into the cartridge, seal it, and then put it in the cartridge box.
                From eleven to eleven thirty I do musket drills with the other volunteers, then I march out with them to assist with the firing. As we march out of the fort, visitors begin to gather. We direct them to where they should stand and move into position. I report the wind direction to my grandpa and the volunteers move accordingly. (You can’t fire a musket if it is windy because the gunpowder blows out of the pan). My grandpa explains how the muskets work, while I do checks on the muskets with the volunteers.
                Now they begin the drill. They do a lot of unnecessary motions to exaggerate how the muskets work. They explain why the muskets don’t fire in the rain, (you need good weather to kill people!) why they’re so hard to aim, (the Spanish military traded speed for accuracy) and many other aspects of the gun. Then they finally shoot. BANG! After the smoke clears they do a battle load (loading as fast as possible). Which is usually thirty seconds long. After another big bang, we pick up what’s left of the cartridges and head back to the fort. For the rest of the day we work on leather and every other hour we repeat the musket drill.
                On the way back we talk about what we will make next week and what materials I want to use. Then he drops me at home and I finally take off all the woolen clothes!