Wee House

Several months ago Clara was watching an episode of Curious George in which George built a tree house. Clara looked at me and said "I want to build a tree house!" I said "well, you'll have to talk to Grandpa Bill about that." She said "Can I call him?" So she did. I think Dad was probably fairly tickled just to get a phone call from her. It was maybe just a day later that he sent me an email with the subject line "for Clara." It included plans for a pretty serious tree house. 

Yesterday the project began! Pete and Dad rented a big auger from Home Depot and drilled these holes before Pete left for work. I guess the ground was fairly damp and threatened to suck the auger down and send Pete and Dad spinning around like rag dolls. Fortunately they were able to strong-arm the thing back out of the ground, just a little stiff and sore for the effort.

 After Pete had to go to work Dad finished the holes with a good old-fashioned post-hole digger. He said it made him think of his dad.

 Here's Dad's dirty knees with the frame of the house in the background. (The original plan for this house calls it The Wee House.) I had to wash Dad's pants for him later so he could get right back to work this morning. In the foreground you can see Huelke's wheelbarrow. Ed came over and lent a hand for a bit. I think he wanted to help out even more later in the afternoon, but Dad was physically done by that time. Peter Sr. came over to help out for a bit too.

 I enjoyed the blue hair on this guy. These bags weighed 60 lbs. each, Henry informed me.

 I took this picture for Pete. Because he is one.

 This morning Pete helped Dad mix up a bit more cement to get the last two posts secured. The kids went to check things out in their jammies.

 Pete had to go to work, but Henry only had a half day of school today, so he got out there and helped his Grandpa quite a bit. They got some of the frames built for the sides of the house, I believe.

Dad also blogged about the first day of work- you can link to his blog from the sidebar. The weather is supposed to be fairly chilly the next few days, but we're just hoping for the rain to stay away so they can get a bit more done before Dad has to go back home.