Treehouse

I had the DIY channel on while I was working, cleaning the house. A show came on called “The Tree House Guys.” I never saw it or even heard of it, but it’s about some guys who build (what else) tree houses. Now theirs are quite elaborate, but it did trigger a memory.

I made a tree house when I was young (maybe 8 or 9 years old). By then I’d read enough stories about pirates and mountain men that I wanted it safe.

So, I built it in a stand of thorn trees (so pirates or Indians couldn’t climb up to get me). I used my Dad’s ladder to get it about 12 feet off the ground (so they couldn’t jump up).

It was a simple platform with a little bit of a railing. Then I built a ladder.

That was a security concern of course. So, I swiped a pulley from the barn and some old door hinges from the garage. I hinged the ladder at the platform. Then I hung the pulley on a branch on one of the thorn trees, threaded a rope though it and tied the end to the bottom of the ladder.

So, whenever I was in my tree house, I would pull the ladder up and tie it off.

Safe from pirates or marauding Indians, I enjoyed my tree house!