My Old Treehouse

One day my grandpa and I went to the Galeton Hardware store, which also had lumber he bought over $100 worth of wood(which was a lot back in the mid-sixties). We brought it back and proceeded to build a three-story tree house just above the house. It was built on four legs each sixteen foot long and we used left over lumber to side it and used a few salvaged windows to finish it. The first year we built the top floor then added the other two in following years. Each floor had a trap door to the next. At one time we even hooked a phone line from the tree house to the house and would ring down and talk to grandma. It was a very old hand crank phone no dial tone on this one.

As a kid I would sleep in it overnight with my dog tied to the bottom to protect me from my imaginary enemies of the dark. Now and then she would bark and jump up rattling the chain, which added to the excitement that something might be out there. Even though it was a deer wandering by, I could imagine a large bear prowling outside or worse. In the 60's there weren't a lot of bear, in fact as a kid I never saw one. There were hundreds of deer covering the mountain and keeping the brush to a minimum. 

Now there are many more bear than deer and the brush is taking over the mountain. It would be hard to walk were the tree house once stood without a brush cutter. Thanks to Kim Reese I now have a picture of our old tree house. This picture was taken sometime much later than when we built the tree house as you can see it is weathered and some of the singles are coming off. I am guessing sometime in the early 80's. I did find out much later my grandfather used it as a deer stand and for years I thought he built it just for us kids. That may explain why he was willing to spend so much money to put it up. Still it did provide hours of enjoyment for us kids looking out high over the property in our own little kingdom.

The PennDot people stopped in today and it looks like they will be setting up in our front yard on the 24th of July. So for all you people coming up this way the road will not be closed until the weekend of the 27th at the soonest. Once it is closed it will not be open again until sometime in September. The heat and bugs are bad right now so it won't be a fun job for them working in the direct sun and being attacked by hoards of biting bugs. Mountain girl, Paula, logging.