I’ve been getting some sun!

The weather was really rainy for the last few weeks, with very little sun showing through.  When the sun did come, it was wonderful!

Last weekend I was able to move 4 yards of topsoil and fill up my two new garden beds and the ones I raised higher (finally!) I got two beds of tomatoes planted.  Sixteen tomatoes plants at home with 4 square feet of space for each one.  8 plants are Big Mama hybrid paste tomatoes.  Also a mix of heirlooms with a couple hybrids (all indeterminate) Phenomenal, Cabin, Pineapple, Beefmaster, Dad’s Barber’s Paste, Super Marmande, and Grandeur.

My wife planted a perimeter ring of carrots around one tomato bed and I planted a perimeter ring of radishes around the other one.  The radishes will definitely be done growing before the tomatoes need that space.  We’ll see about the carrots.

I have been weeding my broccoli beds, which also have a few cabbages, beets coming up from seed and a few earlier radishes growing their third set of leaves.  I mulched these particular beds last fall with lawn mower clippings that included a LOT of tree seeds, so there is always some weeding to do in there.

My 5 year old son S. has planted lettuce starts in the straw bales down by the fence.

Today I planted 13 peppers and an 8 foot row of cucumbers that are going to grow up the side of my kids’ play fort (shown in the distance at the top of this photo).  I think I’ll go back tomorrow and plant some sugar snap peas in the same area. They love browsing on those.  That reminds me, I need to make them a pole bean teepee soon.

Lots more is going on.  I’m so busy with it, I forgot to blog!

Tree house downdate

Today I thought I should post a picture of where we are with the tree house project.  Sorry about the blurry pictures…it was a dark and dreary morning and the camera was setting itself on 1/8th second exposure.

No, you haven’t travelled through time.  I took the whole thing apart last night.

Here (both foreground and background by the fence) is the entire tree house.  Not as much fun now.

What happened?

My father noticed last weekend that the tree was cracked.  Upon closer inspection, it was MAJORLY, HUGELY cracked.  Upon looking down into the crack from above, the tree guys told us that it was well on it’s way to being a completely hollow tree.  A split-in-half-rotten-hollow tree 45 feet tall only 10 feet from my bedroom and literally INSIDE a play area I was making for my children.

So with much sadness, we decided that we should not attempt to simply cable together the top of the tree and save it.  It had to be cut down.  But, the plan was, we should save the trunk so the kids can still have the same kind of tree house.

I decided to thunk my crowbar against the trunk last night to listen for just how hollow it was.  I hit the tree trunk on the house side.  It did sort of thunk, but also kind of squish.  The crowbar sank right in.  I actually made a hole.

Mushrooms grow on DEAD trees.  These grew within the last 7 to 10 days.  They stink.  Even if I did leave the trunk standing here for the tree house, the whole play area would be covered in this stinky toxic fungus by the end of June.

We’re having it cut down to the ground and hauled away, at great expense!  I know, everybody gets paid for their work and it’s going to be a lot of work to haul away the tree.  Ugh!

And now I get to redesign the tree house and salvage as much as I can, hopefully without needing to buy a ton more wood.

My boys are taking it pretty hard.

 

More work on tree house

Despite feeling quite sick both Wednesday and Friday, I was perked up a bit today and got out around noon to do some more work on the tree house.

The most important thing I decided on today was the access method.  This set of semi-stairs/semi-ladder will work fine.  I did not route out slots, I just used screws.  I hope they hold for a few years.

All of the wood I used to make the steps was once the four diagonal corner braces that I decided not to use to support the treehouse.

I also got part of the railing put in place today and did more to finish up the floor.

I also hauled out and hung the tire swing that we had brought with us from the old house when we moved.  The boys hadn’t been on it for over a year.  You can see one garden bed at the top of this picture.

Tree House in progress

I told the boys I would build them a tree house.  I said it shortly before we knew we were going to move to a new house last year.  The new house has only one back yard tree, so this is it.

The one-tree design was supposed to use diagonal corner supports that would lead back to the tree.  I wasn’t a good enough woodworker to make this feel sturdy to me, so I opted for legs.

Two pairs of perpendicular cross-beams, screwed to the tree, form the main support structure.  The plywood floor was a re-use scrounged from a thrown-away mini-golf putting green!  I’ve only installed half the floor and none of the railing or roof parts yet.

The boys love it already!