Acting Like a Kid, Again
Acting like a kid is one of those rare occasions that add so much joy to my life. My wife would argue that the occurrences are not so rare, or joyful; but hey, who asked her, right!
When I was a kid, I loved to build. I was always in the woods putting together some kind of fort or encampment that was sure to endure even the most aggressive of attacks from the enemy. Tree houses were the best! They were big, hard to build, and had trap doors and secrete hideaway spots. The best ones were high in the trees, and were sure to scare the daylights out of you, while guaranteeing severe bodily harm, should you or one of your close friends go peeling out of it to the ground.
Oh yes…the glory of the tree house! At any age, this is the ultimate status symbol of adolescence. I will never forget the first time I climbed up into one at the age of seven years old. We were in Oregon, and the thing was massive, and high up. I was amazed; and my life would never be the same.
This past Sunday we got home from church at around 2:30 p.m., and I was preparing for a quick 30 minute nap before heading to a fall festival that we had been invited to. As soon as I took off my church clothes, I heard the kids say…“Dad, build us a tree house please!” (I thought… “Tree House? Where did that come from?” And then I thought… “Cool!” Tree House! OOOHHH YYYEEEAAAHHH!)
I had a pile of lumber in the back yard that I was storing for a moment just like this. The children got dressed in old clothes, and headed into the back yard with me for an afternoon of awesomeness!
We began with a rope swing from the coolest tree in the yard. Under this particular tree, the land slopes down as you travel out from under the branch. This creates an experience where, as you swing out, you are way off the ground; but under the tree, you are close to the ground. The kids loved it! In fact, they liked it so much that we almost didn’t get anything else done!
After the swing, we made our way into the tree line to choose a tree worthy of the castle of awesomeness. Having found it, we cleared a path, gathered the lumber, had the kids exercise their God given architect skills of design; and started building. The only issue of disagreement we had was in the area of altitude.
The older girls wanted the tree house to be about four feet off the ground. The twins wanted it to be about two feet high. Cheryl wanted it to be on the ground, (hey woman, this is a TREE HOUSE!) And Christian wanted it to be about 65 feet in the air! We all settled on six feet high; and the woman, mother, guardian, safety patrol person is still protesting. Go figure!
So far, we have the beginnings of a respectable Tree House. We were able to finish the ladder rungs to the platform, the main support beams that holds up the floor, the flooring system supports, balance beam to the other platform, as well as the support for that. It is very cool, and I get to play the Daddy Hero once again!
We are looking forward to this next weekend, when we will continue the project. I will keep you guys informed along the way; and possibly even share some pics. We will be filming some videos, and posting them on YouTube for you to watch. Link will come next week so be watching for it! In the meantime…we will be gathering some more lumber, swinging on the killer rope swing; and I will continue to fight this Poison Ivy I have on my arms. One of the few joys of acting like a kid in the woods!
Jason, Father of six