GO CLIMB A TREE! - The Tree Thread

[HairOfTheDog]

Mark Tucker spent $18,000 constructing a 40-foot-high tree house for his five kids in his St. Louis Park, Minnesota backyard. That was back in 1986. Lucky kids! I think it's so cool. Even as an adult, I'd like to hang out in it.

The city ordered him to remove it way back then - but a judge ruled he could keep it as long as he followed safety regulations.

Tucker has kept up the tree house all these years, though some residents resent the fact that it attracts tourists, and thus creates extra traffic in the neighborhood. (I bet the local businesses didn't mind the tourists.)

Now aged 65, Tucker says he can no longer maintain the house according to the specified standards. And, since his kids are all grown and "nobody uses the damn thing anymore" he started dismantling it. The city has given him until the end of the year to get rid of it entirely.

Ah well, times change -- still makes me a little sad to see it being torn down though.

[HairOfTheDog]

^ The house was built on an old Maple tree. The tree itself will remain in the backyard.

I love Maple trees, Japanese Maples are especially cool. This is one of Washington's most photographed trees, the The Fire Tree in Seattle (not my photo).

[Duchess]

Tree houses are so cool, magical even. I'd be up to hanging out in one even at my age, get high, read, daydream, all the while in a kickass tree house. Uh huh.

[username]

You'd think his good-for-nothing kids would help disassemble the tree house and find a home for it somewhere.

Granted it needs maintenance but it would make a cool addition to a children's park or something.

[Maggot]

That is cool!

[Midwest Spy]

All my years here and I've never made a trip to check it out.

[Love Child]

That is sad.
WTF
What is wrong with his kids?
Do they hate their dad?

[username]

The maple tree in my front yard is about to make a huge mess (even though I had it pruned last winter). This is it pre-pruning and then after. It's still freaking huge (and just keeps growing). My neighbors hate me. It has one board in it for sitting (you can see it in the after photo) but that's as far as my husband ever got to making a tree fort.

[username]

Huh. Scrolling through Photofuckit, I stumbled on this pic of the interior of our cabin. I imagine I posted it at some point...I need to get up there.







And the outside...speaking of trees. *sigh*

[Duchess]

I fricken love knotty pine.

I just know someone will give me shit about that because it's a soft wood.

Heh. Soft wood.

[HairOfTheDog]

That is sad.
WTF
What is wrong with his kids?
Do they hate their dad?

I don't know about his relationship with his now-adult children, but the dad told an interviewer that he built the tree house himself, so he wants to take it down himself as well. Maybe that's kind of cathartic for him?

Rather than having it pulled down in one fell swoop, he's carefully dismantling it in layers.

He'd battled with the city over it for a long time and invested a lot of himself in building that tree house.

(User, that Maple in your front yard is effin' awesome and so is the cabin!)

[username]

User, that Maple in your front yard is effin' awesome!

Yeah, it's a great shade tree in the summer and it used to hold baby swings for my kids when they were little. It's by far the largest tree on our block.

Unfortunately once or twice a year its roots invade our sewer line (which necessitates my calling a plumber to snake it at around $300 a pop--more if they have to stick a camera down there to find the block). We have a back up thing in the front yard and when that starts overflowing, I know it's time. Still, I'll probably replace the sewer line before I get rid of the damn tree.

[Duchess]

Still, I'll probably replace the sewer line before I get rid of the damn tree.

That's nice to read. Many people are quick to get rid of a bothersome tree but in your position I would do the very same thing.

[Maggot]

I've got 4 just like that in my yard and every year branches fall. I just never know how big or how many. They provide sap and shade. Good luck with your tree. Are you keeping the wood for firewood?

[username]

I've got 4 just like that in my yard and every year branches fall. I just never know how big or how many. They provide sap and shade. Good luck with your tree. Are you keeping the wood for firewood?

No. Real fireplaces are slowly getting banned in California (they're working on a law that says we have to get rid of ours were we to ever sell the place) but the truth is, we don't use ours anyway. No excuse but lazy. Eventually, if I ever get around to my remodel project, I was hoping to put an insert in there anyway. I'd have a fire often if it only involved flipping a switch.

[Maggot]

I've got 4 just like that in my yard and every year branches fall. I just never know how big or how many. They provide sap and shade. Good luck with your tree. Are you keeping the wood for firewood?

No. Real fireplaces are slowly getting banned in California (they're working on a law that says we have to get rid of ours were we to ever sell the place) but the truth is, we don't use ours anyway. No excuse but lazy. Eventually, if I ever get around to my remodel project, I was hoping to put an insert in there anyway. I'd have a fire often if it only involved flipping a switch.

When you register your vehicle out in Cail do you get charged a per mile tax yet. For the green initiative ya know, we all want the green.