Developing Treasure Island

Treasure Island.  It’s a circular patch of ground with two tall, mangy pine trees side by side along with a caragana hedge surrounded by driveway and sidewalk on all sides.  The kidlets have claimed it as a special play place since we moved into our house, years ago, and from the start have called it Treasure Island.  An ancient board was suspended between the two trees, and from it we have hung things like monkey bars and swings.  Kidlets have been hanging upside down and playing in the dirt on treasure island for years.  This spring one end of the board between the trees fell down because a steel bolt corroded.  We had to remove the board, much to kidlet dismay.  A few weeks after the board came down, I mentioned that it would be a great place for a treehouse, something that the kidlets and I have always wanted in our yard.  I love treehouses.

Dr. Peds has avoided building a treehouse for years.  We could never decide on a tree, or find just the right kind of treehouse to make.  When the kidlets jumped up and down and begged for a treehouse on Treasure Island, he gave his standard answer.  “Research it.  Bring me the plans.  Then we’ll talk.”

Nothing happened for a few months.  None of the kidlets thought to research treehouse plans on the internet, even though they’ve looked at treehouse pictures.  Then, about three weeks ago, YaYa came home from the library with an entire book of treehouse plans, a two-tree treehouse on the front cover.  She was elated.  The treehouse plans were perfect for our kind of tree, and our trees were the exact right distance apart.  Dr. Peds looked at me and rolled his eyes.  He was caught.

He told her she had to make a list of all the materials, do all the calculations and make modifications to the plan.  She did.

Then she spent about two days asking if they could start building every ten minutes.  Dr. Peds finally took her to Menards to get lumber.  They spent several long days last week building.  Our neighbor half way down the street came to help lift the frame onto the support in the tree.  Dr. Peds and YaYa kept building.  There were power tools, nail guns, hammers, drills and all sorts of lumbery goodness involved.  There were also many trips to the neighborhood hardware store.

The treehouse has some great details and modifications to the original plan.  There is a tall wooden ladder to climb up into the house.  There are two windows that fold out open and close back up if you want more shelter. There is a pulley with a bucket to haul things up, and a roped off section below the front railing to open up the space a bit.  It’s really quite awesome.

 

The first night it was completed, YaYa slept in the treehouse.  Since then, it’s become a home for the dragonfly habitat, a place to practice archery, and several books have been read there as well.  I might even sleep in it myself one of these nights, swaying high above the ground with leaves rustling right next to me.   I really do love  tree houses.  When I was little my dad made a more primitive treehouse for me down in one of the trees in our shelterbelt near the lake on our farm.  My treehouse was a wooden pallet nailed up in the tree with a support on one side.  I loved it, even though it wasn’t anything fancy, and I remember playing there a lot.  A treehouse is awesome just because it’s a treehouse, but with a little imagination, a treehouse can be a part of all sorts of wonderful adventures:  pirate ships, forts, ocean liners . . . the possibilities are endless.