after a 7 week delay, since i was able to pick up the black locust decking ( undeterred by horrid weather ) for The World’s Most Awesome Treehouse(s), it was time to get building again!

and nobody is always more willing to help than odin. he helped carry and hoist all thirty two of the fourteen foot very heavy boards from the garage to the ladder without a single complaint.

of course, the promise of finally getting to stand on the deck is a great motivator 🙂

two hours later after carrying board after board and waiting for me to straighten them on the deck, odin finally got to stand on the deck! a mere two years after hatching the original very crazy plan. then, i just had an idea with absolutely no idea how would build a deck around two trees 12 feet up in the air. it’s a really awesome feeling to finally get to stand up there with odin and feel the trees gently swaying and listen to the birds chirping.

it took awhile to figure it all out, but having fun building it with odin is the real goal so it really doesn’t matter how long it takes us.

while futzing with the spacing between the planks i decided to lay under the deck to get a look at how it looked and it occurred to me that i’m really, really, really glad i decided to hang the supports on solid lengths of 3/4″ threaded rod that go all the way through the tree. there’s a lot of wood up there and the black locust is astonishingly heavy. there might be over 3,000 pounds of materials up there that i want to stay up there. the good news is that it seems very solid and yet it’s still designed to move with the trees.

of course, after all that hard work we have to drag up some camp chairs and talk about how awesome it’s going to be to pitch a tent on the deck after the posts and guard rails go up. we’ll get some camping in while we design the treehouse that’s going to get built on top of the deck!

how do you make being with your son up in the trees any more awesome? run an electrical cord up there and start using POWER TOOLS!

this just keeps getting better and better. stay tuned…