Several years ago, I decided to build a treehouse for the grandkids in the backyard on a big Pecan tree.
I had never built one before and didn’t know what I was doing, but I had ideas. I don’t claim to be a carpenter by trade, but I have always liked to build things and make things work.
This was all trial and error. I built the entire thing out of deck screws and no nails. I even built a stairway up to the second floor, put a few old windows in it, a top on it and even put a metal pole to slide back down to the bottom floor.
I decided to take that back out, because I could see that someone was probably going to get hurt. I used 2x4’s for the outside wall and 1x6 siding on it. Now, the grandkids have not used it in quite a while.
The tree has died and many of the limbs were going to do some major damage if they fell. Over the weekend I decided to take the top floor off and just leave the bottom floor for a shed to put my yard tools.
It was a lot of work, but a beautiful weekend to get it done. Most of it is down now and I just have a big pile to clean up. At least now I’m not worried about the damage it was going to cause if I waited for it to fall on its own.
• Wayne Morgan is freelance wildlife photographer and author.
