The weather is cooling a bit, so Tiny and I put our noses back to the treated pine grindstone. We put a deck on the first floor, then added a second floor with a ladder up to it. Finally, we added a third floor extension with an opening for a trap door. The next steps are completing the trap door and adding a pulley in the tree above so we can have a bucket to haul up goods.

Tiny is proving to be an excellent assistant. He’s really getting the hang of using the power drill.

In the image below, he’s demonstrating an inventive use of scraps as an impromptu stepladder to help him access the third floor from the second. I’m thinking of attaching a gym-class-style knotted rope to a tree above that will hang through the trap door and allow easy access when it’s open, but give him the option to pull it up when he wants to close it off. He can also untie the big rope ladder from the bottom and pull that up with him, too. A kid has to have a sanctuary.