Our Tree Fort

Okay, so anybody that knows us knows that about a year ago we put 6 huge posts into the ground in our backyard for a tree fort. And those posts sat there, and sat there. We got busy, they got forgotten!

So this year, with a few empty weekend days (what's that?) and some encouragement from my parents, who were nice enough to add their physical and financial support, we've got the main part done! Yeahh!

So I figured I'd walk you through the process.

First, there were the posts... which sat there.

Then, about a month ago, those posts got supports! Tada! Iz, my dad, and his dad (not shown) spent a good morning, and part of an afternoon, getting these level and in place.

The weekend after that, we got joists! Here's the guys all working on them, well sort of.

Here's what they look like, since the last picture doesn't look much different than the supports.

We're going around our oak tree so that it feels like a tree house, without doing any damage to our trees.

Then we got the decking. There was a lot of back and forth on this step. We'd just planned on buying wood decking, as it's cheap and hadn't thought much of others. My parents got involved and by the time we were done, we had a composite deck going up (thanks mom & dad!).

Finally, the kids are up and in it.

So although they can get up in it, they've requested access for the dog. Yes, even Donny needs to get into the tree fort. So now we have stairs.

And to protect our privacy, and keep the neighbors from complaining, we've put up tarps.

At this point, we still need to put up railings, but the kids have been using it. Picnics are a favorite!

And a friend pointed out that all we needed were heads on a spikes to be a proper fort. So the kids dug out their minecraft stuff and here we go!

I'm sure there's a lot more to do, but they at least have the platform to play on!

13th Anniversary

So, I know I haven't written in a while, but I figured I'd take today and do a little post.

Today is Iz's and I's 13th Anniversary.

So, although this is older than 13 years, here's our first date photo! Yes, we were skinny... and young.

Not counting our years dating, we've been through a lot together and I thought I'd take the time to list a bit...

-Water in crawl spaces (and Iz spending a summer digging it out and putting in a sump pump)
-Finding out that oven's left on too long, shut themselves off. (I was not at home during this time, imagine that phone call!)
-Very sharp expensive knives are not to be used to hack at bones, and the manufacturer doesn't think so either considering they sent it back in a protective sleeve that said so.
-Building your own forge and melting metals in your backyard is an interesting way to develop crop circles. Which take most the year to grow back.
-Brewing our own apple cider/cysers (which were gross.)
-Making and operate an apple cider press
-Tan an animal hide & clean animal guts off the garage floor.
-Making our own soap.
-Skewers can be heated up over a gas burner to put holes in tupperware, but they also burn through floors.
-Making various garage tools, from blowers to vibrating brass cleaners.
-Lighting garage floors on fire (and I'm sure this wasn't purely for the kids entertainment.)
-Large old pick-ups can backfire and having your face over the carburetor while it does that is a bad idea.
-Camping trips with us tend to end with everyone soaking wet or someone throwing up or someone with stab wounds.
-All our projects take 4 times longer than we thought and usually cost 2-3 times more. And as we tend to follow "guidelines" more than plans, half the time we don't even end up with what we were aiming for in the beginning!

So thirteen years! It's been great, interesting and barely any boring moments.