Amost Finished!!

This is Erin's dad, Deke. In this picture, we are nearly finished, just building the final staircase from the lower level to the upper level. Only took us 8 days to get this far.

What, why so long? Well first we had to study it out, then study some more and finally check what we studied. You see, the trees move and not necessarily together so you have to engineer slippage and movement into the treehouse platforms. And then, the tree trunks are not straight so the placement of braces is tricky. So you finally build some of it and discover you hadn't considered another engineering challenge, so you redo it another way. And so it went until finally today, there came a point when we both said, "That's enough."

Wonder Woman!!

Best of all, I spent 8 days with a "make it happen" supermom -- Erin. Last time she made a treehouse (she was about 11) it was constructed of cardboard and held together with string. It stayed up about 53 minutes until a slight breeze demolished it!! (okay, so I exaggerate a bit). And as I recall, she never cared a whit about tools and construction--ever! So what's the deal now? She can cut straight lines with a power saw, she can drive nails without bending them, and can interpret blueprints with ease. But wait, that's not all! She even came up with some engineering suggestions that trumped her dad's ideas and she pressed for them until he relented (because they really were better ideas). What an amazing woman! It was fun working with you, Baby. Pop is so proud of you!