The Tree Fort

Photo: Michelle Wood

Fairy Houses Inc

Adam and Dave Wood have the platform up in the trees and the sides of the tree house are in place.

There is a ladder with hinges that will let the ladder be pulled up.

The pulley mechanism is yet to be installed but the children know that the ladder is not stationary, that it has the capacity to move though that part of the tree house is still a project in motion.

When I went over to watch the children play I found that the Sidney, Nora and Maxwell had spent the day making fairy houses that are hidden at the bottom of trees around the fort.

Cedar branches hang down low, giving shade and privacy to the road side of the fort.

The lake side of the fort provides a view of their Uncle Dan’s nearby cabin, and of course of the lake and Bastian Mountain in the distance.

Photo: Michelle Wood

... and Maxwell raises the hammer high overhead ...

Because Michael, Alice and Betty had brought their stuffies, Sidney and Nora ran back to their home to add some of theirs to the corner of the tree house where stuffies take their place.

Adam made a hammer that the children used when they were working on the fairy house project.

I had it in my hands, turning it over and one child was suggesting that a hole be put through the handle and that it hang somewhere near the fort.

A good idea, for there should always be a hammer nearby. 

When the play in the fort was over, the children ran across the road to play hide and seek in the wood, up near the hammock.

I didn't know whom I could hear, but it would be easy to find people up there, for there is always noise, even shrieks coming out of the trees.

I was supervising, sort of, by sitting on the porch talking with David Wood.

At one point I asked him if he thought I should intervene.

“Not until there is blood,” he said.

Arta