The Treehouse - Getting started
A couple weeks later, we had a tree surgeon take out some trees near the pool and while he was there, I pointed out a particular set of trees, asked if they were healthy and if drilling one bolt through each of the three trunks and one main limb would hurt the trees. He told me that trees' vascular systems are all in the outer inch of the tree, just under the bark. Only a small spot of that is interrupted on either side of the tree by the bolt. The rest of the tree, the heartwood, isn't alive at all and isn't affected. It would support a great deal of weight.
He stressed that I shouldn't wrap cables around the tree or its branches, because as the tree grows, a cable would strangle it.
My son and I spent the end of last summer clearing the area around the three trees. You see two behind me (to the East) and one in front of me with a trunk that splits into two sturdy limbs. The two trees in the back and the two limbs in the front would be the 4 pillers which would hold our main supports.
So in March, we were ready to get going. I had been telling everyone I knew that I was planning to build a treehouse, mainly, to force myself to do it. On March 11th, we went out to the local lumber yard and bought the two 2 x 12 boards which would form the foundation of our platform in the sky.
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