Tag Archives: tree house

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197/365. the last episode in my semi-occasional unpublished series of failed attempts to remove sap from the treehouse deck.

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197/365. the last episode in my semi-occasional unpublished series of failed attempts to remove sap from the treehouse deck.

a sapsucker of some sort had gotten into the trees last year and the dripping sap created quite a mess on one corner of the treehouse deck that was really bumming me out. i tried many things to remove the sap – an orange peel based concoction that claimed to remove everything which it didn’t. mineral spirits. nope. turpentine. nada. ( all of the liquids i would let soak into the sap ). an electric pressure washer ( not sure of PSI but it’s a little wimpy ). nyet.

then a backyard neighbor said i should try his 2,400 PSI gas powered pressure washer. IT WORKS! IT WORKS! IT WORKS!

and as an added bonus is makes the beautiful black locust decking look brand new.

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oh nothing, just hauling lumber with a 1965 galaxie 500 and a 1938 dodge truck bed trailer.

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oh nothing, just hauling lumber with a 1965 galaxie 500 and a 1938 dodge truck bed trailer. I.

the way i figure it, if you’re going to go get some 14 and 16 footers for the treehouse from your amish sawyer and you have the opportunity to use a trailer made from a 1938 dodge truck from marv who lives down the street who got it from his father, well, it’s a no-brainer – it’s The Way It Must Be Done.

oh nothing, just hauling lumber with a 1965 galaxie 500 and a 1938 dodge truck bed trailer. II.

you can 8 footers just fine without a trailer with the old ford but 14 and 16 footers are looooong. i thought i’d be able to keep the trailer gate closed but they boughed enough that they were resting on the roof of the galaxie which wasn’t going to work, so i had to improvise with what i had available.

looks totally legit.

i wasn’t 100% sure i was going to make it home without incident but i drove slow and stopped a few times to make adjustments and made the trip without losing the load 🙂

oh nothing, just hauling lumber with a 1965 galaxie 500 and a 1938 dodge truck bed trailer. III.

having frida tag along makes the adventures all the more fun! she didn’t go out to the sawyer but she was veeeeeeery happy to hop in and help me return the trailer to marv.

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hauling a heap of black locust lumber in the galaxie 500.

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hauling a heap of black locust lumber in the galaxie 500.

when i pulled up to my amish sawyer in the galaxie 500 to get another load of black locust lumber for the treehouse, i could see a young amish boy ( one of the boys who got a good laugh the last time i picked up a load ) furrowing his brow wondering how i was going to fit the twenty 8 and 10 foot 1×6 boards into the car.

clearly, he was unaware of The Enormousness of a 1965 galaxie 500 trunk and was suitably impressed when i opened the trunk and he saw we could fit 6 feet or so of the boards in the trunk by using the space for the spare tire in the addition to the trunk WITHOUT PUTTING THE SEAT DOWN!

after we got all the wood loaded i thanked him for the help and he smiled and said, “that’s one handy car. i really like it.”

just when we finished up, the clouds opened up and started dumping rain down. i pulled out of the cover of the mill, turned on the wipers and he ran up to join his brothers who were emerging out of the corn fields on a enormous horse drawn wagon stacked high with corn to put in the silo.

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day 3341: bedtime stories by the light of the ipad on the treehouse deck.

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day 3341: bedtime stories by the light of the ipad on the treehouse deck.

we didn’t end up camping in the trees last night. the threat of early morning storms brought us down the trees. boo! but the best part about it being in our backyard is that we can spend the night in the trees any ol’ night 🙂 there’s still a threat of thunderstorms tonight and the crickets are loud as all get out, so tonight might just be stories before bedtime.

kris is to odin. if you look closely you can see the light of the ipad. our library has an app that lets you check out books. it’s awesome.

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day 3340: camping in the trees!

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day 3340: camping in the trees!

whoohoo! we were closer to (safely) camping in the trees a few weeks ago, but travel and vacations delayed our first camping adventure.

it’s a perfect night for reading “the lightning thief” and camping in the trees.

update: turns out, at the last minute we checked the weather and there was a chance of thunderstorms in the early morning. we didn’t want to be scrambling down the ladder in a storm so decided to go inside and camp tomorrow night!

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the treehouse sessions.

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the treehouse sessions.

with treehouse deck now mostly secure i realized that inviting local musicians to record “the treehouse sessions” is a thing i can do now!

think twilight, late evening with lights twinkling and a mood similar to this stray birds video.

The Stray Birds – Loretta from Beehive Productions on Vimeo.

i played for a bit up the trees and it’s excellent. i think this is a thing that has to happen and already have a few locals roped in!.

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day 3319: even closer to (safely) camping in the trees!

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day 3319: even closer to (safely) camping in the trees!

it has been a little over a month since we thought we were (close to) camping in the trees and now we’re pretty much at a place where we can do it safely and not worry about anyone falling off the deck 🙂

the decking is all screwed down, the ends of the deck boards are trimmed, the guard rail posts are in place and bolted down with two beefy carriage bolts, the provisional guard rails are up ( i say provisional because eventually i’m going to wrap the posts in black locust and build better looking guard rails ) and a few temporary hand rails are in place ( a process that taught me a lot about how freakishly dense black locust lumber is )!

being able to safely hang out on a 14×16 foot deck up in the trees is a big milestone two years after odin first asked if we could build The World’s Most Awesome Treehouse(s)!

i think we definitely need a table to go with the chairs.

on the ground you can see my other crazy construction project – the sauna ( built in 2009 ) and the chicken coop ( built in 2010 ) which were both great treehouse training projects.