The Great Treehouse Build

This is what we spent our 4th of July weekend doing:

Day 1: The Family Gathers

Getting settled on the farm after a crazy day of trying to wrap up loose ends at home. Bonfire and s’mores not optional.

 Evidence of children:

The sun is setting…

…and the dust drifts, mist-like, over the twilit fields…

…which means it’s time to head for the far driveway for a bonfire…

…and setting off some fireworks.

Day 2: Let’s Get Down To Business

Perfect weather for the 4th of July: beautifully cool. Let’s get to work! Okay, kids, start bringing the boards out of the shop and over to the tree.

While Grandpa introduces the senior cousins to the process of the morning:

Floor supports. Drilling horizontally, above your head. Not an easy job. My wrists turned to jelly.

And the boys? The boys gave up and went exploring.

While Grandma brought the blackberry cobbler crust outside to work on:

Day 3: racing the rain

Aaaand…..the first two floorboards are down. Alex and Grandpa are the first two in the tree house!

It’s a cool, cloudy morning, and it gets steadily colder and cloudier. The goofing off that happened at ground level yesterday dissolves into serious speed, because the radar tells us we’re going to get rained out sometime soon.

And here comes the rain, with about 1/3 of the floor to go.

Well, it’s lunchtime, anyway. Time for a, uh, cookout. Eaten at the kitchen table as the rain drenches the farm.

After lunch, the rain fades off to a cold drip, but there are vehicular issues and it takes a bit to get going again. And yet, by midafternoon, we have a treehouse with a floor and a railing on one side. Grandpa poses with a few of the beneficiaries: