When I was young, before the county cut all trees that lined the road that I lived in, the branches of the trees on both sides of the road covered the road like a tunnel. We had a treehouse in a large oak tree on the far side of the house from the road, so it would have been several hundred feet from the road. The treehouse predated me, so I imagine one of my brothers built it but it was there throughout my childhood years. The treehouse had a window facing the road, and since the trees that lined the road didn't have any lower branches, we could see anyone coming down the road from the treehouse. My cousins and I ran several strings from the treehouse, which were held in place on bent nails, while the other end of the string was attached to water balloons that were draped over branches of the trees that lined the road, so if we detached the strings from the ends in the treehouse, the balloons would fall down onto the road or, hopefully, onto the heads of any of our female cousins who might be walking down the road. Of course, anyone could be a target, even my mother. A lot of them missed, of course, and some of them hung up on the branches and didn't fall, but we scored several direct hits over the summer.
I never had a treehouse. My dad built me a "playhouse" when I was about 8 or 9. When I outgrew it, it became the garden shed which was probably his devious plan from the get-go.
Our treehouse was well-built. We spent several nights in the treehouse and, even in a downpour, it was dry. There was no fixed ladder, though. We either climbed up on branches or used a rope ladder. In that way, we could be safe from parental supervision while in the treehouse.
No tree-house but we always climbed trees to dizzying heights it seems now. Our pre-human ancestors would be proud.
No, but if I did it would eventually be something along these lines.........(Minister’s treehouse, Tennessee)
That really looks unsafe to me. How do they maintain the integrity of that structure when the wind starts blowing really hard?
Here’s a YouTube vid of it. It’s presently abandoned like it’s near sister in Russia was before it was demolished. I believe before the one in Russia was torn down, “The Minister’s Treehouse” was the 2nd largest treehouse in the world. Uh....in answer to the question concerning high winds and such: Hold on to one of the trees.
Dunno if anyone watches “Animal Planet” but when I used to watch it there was a show called “Treehouse Masters”. A quick perusal of YouTube can bring up some of their huge projects all in the name of living in the trees. Some of their projects were so sophisticated that they cost a couple of hundred thousand beans to build.