Ok, so it took us 11 days....and, we didn't finish creating our little universe in the tree.  But, we had to rest anyway and, besides, we had to get back to our day jobs, the ones that pay us money.

 

I hope you realize that some biblical scholars think that the seven days of Genesis did not necessarily refer to the time it takes the earth to rotate on its axis one complete rotation, our earthly definition of "one day".  So, God may well have had longer days to work with.  In fact, if you think about, on the first day, God said, "Let there be light."  And, presto, there was light.  But that was it.  It wasn't until a "day" or two later that other stuff came along, like the sun, stars, planets, etc upon which the creeping, crawling creatures crept.  Now by my way of thinking, if planet Earth came after the first day, then how could the day have been measured by the rotation of a planet that did not yet exist.  My point is that God probably had millions of years every day, whereas us creeping, crawling creatures could only do this manual labor for a few hours during the daylight phase of our planetary rotation.

 

In truth, I was delighted and surprised with the progress we made.  It was much more than I anticipated.  This was mainly because we had a LOT more help that I expected.  Will Marshall and Andy Cave had some very helpful advice early in the process. I forgot that what a handy guy Nick is. He and I built a dark room for photo processing in our house back in college/medical school over spring break one year. He & Chaz was there for 7 of the days. Jamie Coe, a skilled carpenter, also helped out a couple of days and brought some real handy equipment that speeded things along.  Having Henry, Chaz, Steve, Nate and others on the ground to fetch tools, to hoist boards and other materials up with the hand pulley saved an enormous amount of time going up and down the ladders.  Jamie also came up with a large amount of 2 inch stock cedar that saved us another trip to the lumber yard and some money.

 

Henry mentioned yesterday the final design for the steps.  We are very pleased with this design and think it will be visually attractive, fit nicely in the environment and be very solid and secure.  He didn't mention what I consider to be the big breakthrough in the design.

 

I was not happy with the way the "working platform" (the lower one) looked relative to the tree or the "upper platform".  It is rectangular in shape. There is nothing rectangular about our tree, or nature in general for that matter.  It also sticks out a fair bit, obstructing and therefore distracting from the view of the upper platform, which should be the primary visual focus from the ground.  I had therefore proposed to cut it as short as possible from both ends once we were done using it as a working platform, and to some only enough of it for use as a small landing between sets of steps and thereby minimize its visual impact.

 

Henry wanted to keep it as it was.  He liked that it is only 15-16 feet off the ground and thought that the views from that height would be interesting.  He also suggested that some people, who might be afraid of heights, could stop at that point for viewing and may or may not proceed to the upper deck at 25-26 feet.  The current size would allow several people to stand on it.  I saw his point, but couldn't get past my concern with the aesthetics of a 9 x 3.5 rectangular deck obstructing the view of our essentially round upper deck (8 feet in diameter), which ultimately will have the appearance of an eagle's nest when completed.

 

Then the solution hit me...or it hit Henry...not sure which.  It was one of those group think ideas that solved the conflict perfectly.  Our new design for the lower deck is to cut off the front end that sticks out and is visible from the path, and to extend the back to larger, roundish, irregular shape and make it another eagle's nest!  The steps from the ground will still enter it from the back, and the steps to the upper deck will come off of it and go straight up through the floor as currently planned. I have drawn some preliminary plans and will get these plans onto the blog so we can prepare for our next working session at the end of July. A few drawings are worth hundreds of words, as they say.

 

This phase of the Swamp Tree House project is over.  My hands are so swollen from the unaccustomed manual labor that I can't get my ring on my finger and the stiffness in my fingers makes for slow keyboarding.  My back muscles are stiff and in knots and I have several reminders of the ticks that attempted to have me for their free lunch.  These are good aches and it is a good fatigue, though.  A deeply satisfying tiredness.  We made great progress, even for earthlings, and we will have a wonderful tree house that will bring much awe and wonder to those who brave the steps and the heights and pause to watch the marvelous birds, sky, sun, swamps, prairie, forest and animals that were created or not created on longer days, long past, by someone or something beyond my capacity to imagine.

 

The real joy though, and the real reason "grown men are building a tree house", is to join friends and family, old and new, together to laugh and love and live life fully.  And that we did, and we will not forget these joyous days, short as they were, for many long ones to come, however they are measured.

 

Thank you for tuning in, for participating, for visiting, for reading and for responding.  I hope each of you reading this will some day climb into the Tree House Swamp and take a little bit of time to enjoy paradise here on earth.

 

~Bernard~