A "Treehouse" in the Woods (Part II)

On Monday of this past week, Anders and I drove back to northern Minnesota to complete the project we started the week before (see my prior posting). Just north of Two Harbors is a landmark restaurant called Betty's Pies (click to learn more). I suggested we stop and asked Anders if he had ever been there before, assuming the answer would be yes, since he and his folks have been traveling up that way many, many, many times for years. However, he had not been there before! So we had an early lunch there. Of course, he needed yet another round of hot chocolate plus whipped cream. Both of us had breakfast, but I was the only one to top off my breakfast with a nice piece of peach-raspberry pie!

We stopped in Grand Marais to buy breakfast and lunch supplies for the rest of the week, and then went out to the property to resume work on the treehouse in the woods. We succeeded that afternoon in putting down all of the deck boards, screwing them all to the joists below.

The next day, we began work on the railing. In the photo below, you will want to take note of the structure partially visible on the left. This is a small 2' by 3' platform surrounded by its own railing. It has a trap door in its floor. I had built this platform back in Wisconsin. You will learn more about it in just a bit.

Anders has been very involved in all aspects of building this structure and in carrying all of the lumber up the hill to the area we had cleared for it. The platform was fairly heavy. I had taken a hand truck along to help, but the path through the woods is fairly rough, so that was only somewhat successful. Then there was the issue of getting it up onto the deck, which we did prior to building any railing. We made a simple ramp by laying a couple of long 2x4s between the deck and the ground. Then, with some grunting and groaning, I pushed it up the ramp while Anders pulled on it from above. The last bit was the hardest, and without his noble effort, we wouldn't have gotten it up there.

By lunch time, we had railing with balusters completed on two sides of the deck.

I couldn't get any pictures of the next steps, because both of us were fully engaged in doing the work, and I didn't have a tripod or other setup to take pictures of the two of us while working. Here is what we did. We attached four long legs to the small platform and then used a come-along hand winch to stand it up. After that we walked it into the corner of the railing we had just finished and bolted it securely from below and also to the railing itself. After that, Anders installed rungs to make a ladder up to the trap door.

And voila! The treehouse now has a lookout tower! The floor of the lookout tower is approximately 12½ feet above ground level, but since the ground falls away on all sides of the structure, it appears to be really high when approaching it while on the foot path. The trapdoor is small enough that I think only young persons can get up through it, although I bet Anders' dad will give it a try at some point.

I told Anders that we would add some special features to the structure. The lookout tower is certainly one of these, but we also added a flagpole (for which I donated a State of Iowa flag). Also, at the ladder end of the structure is a post with an arm to which a pulley is affixed. We installed a length of rope and a clip so that things could be hauled up to the platform.

This is what the lookout tower looks like from the deck.

Anders decided to record some information on the pulley post. He told me later that he forgot the M in "Gramps" and told me he would fix that with a caret! Between our two trips up there for this project, Anders and his friend McCoy were also there, so I guess the first visitor is also recorded.

I think it was the second to last evening we were there that we got into a discussion about naming the treehouse. Various ideas were thrown around. We had listened to a recorded book on the way north, and the subject of palindromes came up in that story. So for some reason, we started mentioning Bob, Otto, Hannah, and other names. Not exactly usual names for structures or homes, but who says the choice has to be a usual one? Anders decided he liked Bob. We laughed about his saying things to his mother like, "I'm going to go play in Bob." Next we started wondering what Bob could mean, and we eventually came up with Bunch Of Boards or Bunch-O-Boards. So, that was it. The official name is Bunch-O-Boards, with Bob being the affectionate name for it. At one point, shortly after the lookout tower had been put up, I found Anders marking one of the legs of the tower with an up arrow symbol below which he wrote "Above Bob." He also mentioned making a sign for the entrance to the path leading to Bob that would say something like "This way to Bob" or "Path to Bob."

Finally, just before we said goodbye to Bob and packed up to head back home, I took this selfie. You can see the post with the arm and the pulley and rope in the background.

I'm going to be looking forward to hearing stories about Bob in the future!

A "Treehouse" in the Woods (Part I)

Anders has enjoyed playing in the "treehouse" I once built for Henry, Clara, and Frederick and has expressed interest in having one for himself. So for Christmas this past year, I gave Anders two books about treehouses and promised that we would build one together for him up at his family's property in far northern Minnesota. As I mentioned in my last posting, he and I started some prefabrication work just after his school year ended. This past week, we traveled north to start work on the project.

We began the first day with breakfast at a restaurant on the Gunflint Trail outside of Grand Marais, Minnesota. Anders was familiar with the menu at the Trail Center Restaurant and wanted cocoa for a starter--the whipped cream may have had something to do with that.

The Trail Center Restaurant (and Lodge) is one of those fun places with all kinds of things on the walls and ceiling. Each of the "stools" at the bar is made from a log and is plastered with bumper stickers from everywhere. Many of the sentiments expressed appealed to my liberal leanings! (You can view larger versions of photos on my blog by clicking on them. Then use ESC or click on the X in the upper right corner to return  here.)

After breakfast, we drove out to the property, which is way off the beaten track and deep in the woods. Will had previously scoped out a spot for the "treehouse" (in quotes because, as you will see, it is not truly in a tree--instead it is a free-standing structure). There are not many completely level spots on the property, nor are there spots free of some growth. So our first job was to clear an area about 15' by 15'. We removed quite a few balsams, but only two of any size. Balsams reseed and grow quite rapidly, so we didn't feel too bad about eliminating a few. We avoided taking birch or other species.

This entire first day was very rainy, so clearing the space was our only progress. We might have done more, but it wasn't much fun in the rain. There is a tiny cabin on the property where we had our lunch and watched the rain, hoping for a break.

The second day was a beautiful, sunny one. Anders and I unloaded all the lumber and parts that we had previously prepared and began to carry them up to the cleared site. Using various carriage bolts and lag screws, we began to assemble the ends of the frame. (It can be important to ham it up for the camera!)

By lunch time, we were feeling pretty good about our progress.

At the end of this second day, we had two completely assembled ends. One end was relatively easy to stand up. The other would require, on the third day, use of a pulley in a neighboring tree, some rope, and some bracing to get it upright.

With the two ends now standing, we maneuvered the two side joists into place, attached them to the ends with some substantial metal angles, and bolted everything together. Getting the whole structure level, or as level as it is going to be, was a challenge. The soil is full of rocks, often huge ones, and so making adjustments for the legs at the corners was tricky, but we got it done.

Another selfie shows us proud of ourselves with the basic framework in the background.

Anders wanted to take a picture of me working to prove that this was a joint project.

After three days of work, we have the structure in place, with floor joists, railing posts, braces, and a ladder. This treehouse sits fairly high above other parts of the property with the lake visible through the trees. We will go back next week to complete the decking, railing, and some fun features, including a rope and pulley to haul things up to the platform, a lookout tower, maybe a place to hang a flag, or whatever. Stay tuned for the next chapter.