I have been fascinated with tree houses for as long as I can remember. I don’t know if everybody is fascinated as much, and I don’t remember how it started. It might have been Peter Pan or the Evok bear folks in the Star Wars movie. In my teenage years, I built a simple tree house together with my brothers. I grew up in a single family house surrounded by meadows, and the forest started about one hundred meters from our house. So we had good pre-conditions for such an endeavor. Our kids share the same fascination. They looked through our book with the most beautiful tree houses many times and dreamed with us. My absolute favorite is the Heidi tree house chalet. Many times our kids told us that they wanted to build a tree house. Not just the perfect thing some time in a possible future. But a real one now. I always told them that it is not as simple as they might think. And that we can’t build a semi permanent structure in the public forest. So they started asking my uncle who owns a strip of forest. But that is also not so practicable to drive with the car for 20 minutes every time they want to build up.
I read about Tentsile tree tents a couple of years ago. They are awesome and cool, but a bit expensive for a tent, or a hammock. I was on the lookout for a while to rent one, or to catch a cheap one in a sale. They change prices from time to time, but they are still not cheap. But this spring I decided to buy one if the price would go down enough. For one, it is still a lot cheaper than a semi decent tree house. And if I wait for too long, the kids might not be as excited any more. Since it is listed on Galaxus, I could pay for it with Bitcoin. Due to the Corona situation, it took almost a month for it to arrive. When the post man brought the packet. The kids came running totally excited. They knew exactly what was in that cardboard box.
Of course I would also like to create a multi level stack. But I told the boys, I won’t buy more of the stuff. If it is important enough for them, they can wish the extension for Christmas or birthdays.
Today was finally the day we put it up for the first time. The nights are still too cold, so we will sleep in our fabric tree house another time. To spend more time in the forest, we brought some expedition meals that we boiled with the gas stove. The nap after lunch we spent in the tree tent hammock. It is really comfortable as long as the weight is distributed evenly. But if everybody sits in the same corner of the tent, it tilts quite a bit. The three person tent is big enough to host two adults and our two kids. The underfloor storage departments are very practical. Now we all look forward for the nights to become warm enough to sleep outside. The kids an me could probably do it already, but my wive is very temperature sensitive.
And for those who wonder about the corona lock down restrictions, the place where we suspended the tent is less than a kilometer from our home. And every time we cross somebody on the trail, we go to the side to maintain the two meters distance.
Leave a Reply