And in Other News

[Angie Parkes]

Jon, before you hand out mother-of-the-year awards you should know that I bought a cap rocket for my boys because I didn't want them to have toy guns. Yes, I'm one of those types.

My reward for trying to enforce my paficism is that when my older boy was 3 he ran around the house using my breast pump as a ray gun; I spent years creating cardboard, duct tape, and aluminum pie plate medieval weaponry and armour; and now that he's 12, he persists in making the most outrageous killing machines from K'Nex (one of the great joys of modern childhood) so he and his little brother can have "adventure games" wherein they save the planet from certain destruction by malicious aliens.

Oh well, my husband played with all manner of pretend ballistical things when he was a boy (and his dad was a registered conscientious objector!) and turned out to be a professional violinist who said, just this morning, that the emergence of the french horn from the tremolo in the Blue Danube was "like the rebirth of the world".

Mind you, there are those that believe that a future love of J. Strauss would be reason enough to forbid playing with weaponry in childhood.

[Shapley]

Haggis,

I've had several tree houses in my youth. Our first one was little more than a platform about 3' square nailed more-or-less level in a fork in a Chinese elm tree in my parents yard.

We later became better carpenters Not good carpenters, just better than we were! and built a sort of a box which could seat about six of us comfortably. Again it was more-or-less level on the angled trunk of a very old tree, I'm not sure what type. The original was accessed by two-by-four rungs nailed to the trunk, but we adder a jacob's ladder made of tyre chains latter, providing a sort of drawbridge protection from attack. (Tree houses were called tree forts in my day). We then connected the box to the trunk of an adjoining tree by means of a rope-and-board bridge. This proved quite unstable, so we replaced it with a rigid bridge which was later enclosed. We then added a lookout tower higher up the tree, and a rope-and-pulley system for delivering weaponry (osage oranges, or hedge-apples as we called them) up to the fortress.

We built another at a neighbors house, using two-by-fours from an old house that was being torn down, using the plywood bottom of an old swimming pool for a platform base. I can't begin to describe all the modifications we attempted to make to this one, including a two-bicycle garage, accessed by means of a very shaky ramp. (I think only one bicycle ever actually made it up there).

In later years, we had a very professionally built platform-type playhouse, without a tree, which finished out its years as a storage shed for my parents. The platform is still there, with telephone-pole supports and a steel ladder taken from a swimming-pool high-dive. My nephews had a new structure built on it not quite as nice as the one we had, but they just don't build 'em like they used to!

I guess kids today couldn't have something like our old original structures. The kids today live safer lives than we did, but we lived fuller lives than they ever will!

V/R
Shapley

[Haggis@wk]

Shapley,

actually, I think Tree fort was what I first called them.

Selma,

"recommend putting in an electrical conduit, securely fastened to the trunk, for the keg fridge. And the computer. Put in a FireWire hub on the back porch, speakers on the treehouse computer, and you have beer, b.com, and butterflies all summer long."

Well, DUH! of course!! only the essentials!!!!

[Shapley]

I actually drew up a set of blueprints for a "treehouse" (actually a platform house) I was going to build for my son before we moved. We didn't have any trees in the yard big enough to support a treehouse, so I was going to build it on a platform. Once we decided to move, building it seemed illogical. After we moved, I never had the time or the money to build it. I guess he'll never know the joys of having a tree house. Of course, building them was part of the adventure, so it wouldn't be the same if I built if for him.

Many of us kids learned our capentry skills building treehouses. Sadly, many of never got any better at it.

V/R
Shapley

[treebeau]

Originally posted by Haggis@wk:
...58 isn't too old to build and play in a tree house is it?

I'll bet that if you do it, you won't regret it. And don't you have grandkids that can enjoy it too?

Regards,
Tim B.

[piqaboo]

Selma can design a TreeFort!

Easy access to a swing is nice too.

Not allowed to have treehouse - no trees to support it anyway.
Helmets. Much as I regret it, I will probably enforce it. I remember going 'round a tree hellbentforleather on my horse thinking "if he leans another couple degrees, my head's gonna hit that trunk, and they're gonna fund another scholarship" because I'd just won the Matthew ?? Scholarship, named for a young man killed horsebackriding.

Tree House Tree House ! Tree House!!!!

OT, are we going to build a slide (sorry, are we goingto let Altoid build a slide) down the hill?

[Shapley]

My wife and I always had disagreements as to the height a proper tree house should be built. I always wanted to fulfil my childhood dreams of having it 12 - 20 ft. above ground. My wife thought it should be in the 4 - 8 foot range (what's the fun in that?).

When you attach the monorail to ride down from the treehouse, it should be long enough to make it worth the trip, and steep enough to provide sufficient speed to make it enjoyable, but not so steep that you break your legs when stick them out to stop you at the end of the ride.

Oh! Voice of experience here: Remove all obstacles in the path of the monorail, and don't use a piece of rotton rope you found behind the shed to hang the handlebar from the pulley!

V/R
Shapley "Been there, done that" Hunter

[OperaTenor]

As for the slide down the hill, waddya think I want to put the tracks in for?!! She'll have the coolest(and by far the most dangerous) slide in the neighborhood. ~40ft to the bottom at ~40° angle down the slope. Heck, I wanna try it!

We don't have any trees of consequence on our lot, so I think we'll build her an underground tunnel fort into the hillside. Shore it up with timber on the inside, maybe cut a viewing port or two.

[Schmeelkie]

There was tree house in a big apple tree in our back yard when my parents moved into a house when I was 5. It was starting to disintegrate, though, so it had to be taken down before I got around to being able to get up in it. However, I spent copious amounts of time most summers up in one tree or another reading or making up stories in my head. THat is, when I wasn't trying to follow the neighborhood boys on their bikes, playing hide-and-go-seek and other games or pretending to like playing with Barbies with the only neighbor girl my age so I could swim in her pool. I was really a tom-boy-wanna-be - too afraid to climb really high in trees (except the pines - easy to get high), and too afraid to ride really fast down hills, but didn't want anything to do with anything girly. (In high school I convinced my mom to buy me a couple of pair of nice slacks so I wouldn't have to wear skirts to church) But I had a good time nonetheless.
The big maple in our front yard now would be good to climb - if you could get up there in the first place - the lowest branches start about a foot over my head. And the previous owners cut off all the low branches on the two pine trees. Gonna have to search for a place for our son to climb trees...

[piqaboo]

She can turn the space under the deck into her fortress. I've been wanting to...

Schmeelke, you could put climbing spkes in the lower part of the tree. Treating to minimize risk of tree-infection of course. (Tiem for the T-bo to weigh in!)

[treebeau]

181 pounds...of incompetence.

Regards,
T-bo

[treebeau]

Seriously though, check out this page and look at model #105.

These are strap on tree steps. I use them frequently when I need to get up into trees that need some pruning and no branches for me to climb. They take a little time to set up but can be left in place for awhile.

If used I would remove them after use, or every few months so the tree can grow outward without restriction.

Regards,
T-bo !!

[Schmeelkie]

THanks - won't need this for a while, though. My son would probably try to climb, but I don't think anyone recommends tree climbing for toddlers!

work day almost done - gotta go...

[Haggis@wk]

Yeah, I've decided I'm going to build it. I've already begun negotiation to buy my sister's half of the house.

I've already decided to build a circular staircase around the tree leading up to the house (fort?)

You still got those blueprints Shapley??

In Atlanta this week, back to Dallas Thursday.

[Shapley]

Haggis,

Yes, I've got them. They're in the computer at the home. I'll find them and make an adobe file of them if you're interested.

Keep in mind, they're for a platform house, not one built in a tree, but they could be modified easily enough.

V/R
Shapley

[treebeau]

Haggis,

That's awesome! A circular staircase!!

If you could put together an elevator, like on that crappy TV show "The Lost World" that would also be impressive!

Regards,
T-bo.

P.S. I also have idea, dreams, and plans for things I'd like to do and hope to do one day, and would be nice to share with my son and grandkids(if ever).

[OperaTenor]

Of course he can build an elevator! All he needs is some nanotube............

Oops, wrong thread.

[Angie Parkes]

Well done, Haggis! Make sure you post photos, preferably of the work in progress so we can cheer you at every step!

[Angie Parkes]

Thought that B.com folks, who are always and unfailingly polite, might enjoy this: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1600980,00.html

[BigJon@Work]

Originally posted by Angie:
Jon, before you hand out mother-of-the-year awards you should know that I bought a cap rocket for my boys because I didn't want them to have toy guns. Yes, I'm one of those types.

My reward for trying to enforce my paficism is that when my older boy was 3 he ran around the house using my breast pump as a ray gun; I spent years creating cardboard, duct tape, and aluminum pie plate medieval weaponry and armour; and now that he's 12, he persists in making the most outrageous killing machines from K'Nex (one of the great joys of modern childhood) so he and his little brother can have "adventure games" wherein they save the planet from certain destruction by malicious aliens.

Oh well, my husband played with all manner of pretend ballistical things when he was a boy (and his dad was a registered conscientious objector!) and turned out to be a professional violinist who said, just this morning, that the emergence of the french horn from the tremolo in the Blue Danube was "like the rebirth of the world".

Mind you, there are those that believe that a future love of J. Strauss would be reason enough to forbid playing with weaponry in childhood.

My kids aren't permitted any sort of toy weapons or military machines. That's OK since they will make any old scrap or toy into guns and swords. Oh well, what's a parent to do?