Every Yard Needs One of These

If you've been to our house, you've probably seen the wind-bent pepper tree in the far corner of our side yard. You may not know that there was a tree very much like this one in the front yard of my childhood home in Pedley. That tree was different, however. It had a tree house, carefully constructed by the boy across the street and me. His name was Richard Isaac. He was a few years older than I and shortly after we finished the tree house, he lost interest in it. I did not. It was my fort, my hideaway, my resort and my thinking place. When I was sixteen, we moved away.

At the beginning of summer this year, I examined the tree in our yard here and decided it would be just right for my second tree house. I placed a couple of old two-by-fours in its lower branches, telling myself I'd get around to finishing the job after our family reunion in July. Whenever I'd pass by the tree in August or September or October, I'd remind myself that I ought to get working on it before Thanksgiving, and then here it was Christmas, and I hadn't done a thing on it.

Last Monday, my daughter Sara and her husband Brian brought their four kids to visit us for a week and share Christmas with us. On Tuesday, Brian spied the pepper tree and asked about the lumber he saw. I told him what I had intended to do. His eyes lit up, he grinned, and he said, "Let's do it!"

And do it he did! He surveyed, he measured, he cut and he nailed for two days.

Keaton and Shelby and Weston and Katie helped. My role was to supply the project with parts and tools.

We all love the finished product. Brian calls it his Christmas present. I call it my everything present!