Geriatric Folly

I have always wanted a tree house, but being brought up in Manchester our little garden didn’t sport a tree, and every other tree I eyed up seemed to belong to somebody else.  Now I have a lot of trees.  An amazing, mind-boggling number of trees, and apparently, I own them and can do with them what I like.  I don’t quite see it like that, as I am only custodian of the trees, but I do think it is OK to take or use a tree if it doesn’t detract from the forest.  Most trees get a start but don’t make it to the canopy to become a mature emergent tree.  There isn’t light or room.  If I take isolated trees, it gives the neighbouring youngsters a chance.  I had a young guest here recently, 11, who was prepared to spend some time with a codger in the hope of learning something.  He might have, he listened pretty well.  He tried to interest me in a tree house and aroused my own distant memories, so we went in search of a suitable tree.  I had certain restrictions on location so as not to bother other guests, but I was surprised to find the search fruitless.  How come I have perhaps 100,000 trees and not one suitable for a tree house?  Rainforest trees grow very tall and thin in search of light.  They can be 20m tall and only as thick as my thumb.  They simply don’t develop side branches close to the ground, or indeed anywhere near the ground.

My young consultant assured me that a tree-house without a tree was quite OK.  We picked a spot near to one of the dams, but hidden in the rainforest.  I scratched around for materials I had looking for a use and designed a tall 2 story structure.  The total budget was $250, but I have had a blow-out of costs to $300 due to extra bracing requirements.

The first story is on steel pipes and the floor structure from railway lines probably from a cane-train line, then a cattle grid for a few decades, and now a play house.  The second story has a steep peaky roof of tin pillaged from a storage shed no longer used.  The top ridge is about 8m from the ground and presented some problems as it is way too steep to climb on, and beyond the reach of my ladder.

  Tree house

I have since added the steep roof structure and veranda rails on the lower  deck.  Getting the tin roof on is always a relief in the wet tropics, as the usual  persistent rain can bring building to a halt, and start to decay the materials.

I like building stuff.  Especially when I can use materials that have no present  purpose.  I hope kids will like playing there and can exercise their fantasies.  For me I enjoy building, but it is 60 years too late.   That’s OK, I got to do it in  the end.

One of the good things about building in the rainforest is that I am working in  the shade.  The weather has been hot and dry at times approaching 3oC.    Today it it was 29C.  That makes it one of the coolest places in Queensland.  In  the last couple of weeks, most of the state has been parboiled, and some in  western Qld have managed 43C just about every day.  It is not even officially  summer yet.

It may have been the torrid temperatures that drove some of the G20 leaders  to pull the plug and go home early.  Putin took off early as perhaps the Russian leader couldn’t take the heat, but more likely couldn’t stand the vacuous political rhetoric.  I doubt it was the amazingly ill-conceived threat from our leader Abbot to “shirt-front” him that drove him away.  If could have been a koala allergy, as these hairy bug-infested gas factories have been known to have that effect.  These harmless creatures seem to have been rounded up in droves to be inflicted upon the world leaders and their unfortunate spouses.  I am sure we have forged good relations with Russia, and when Abbot visits the great republic he will be invited to cuddle a bear.

  Survive the summer

This is how to survive the Australian summer.  In the shade with  lots of water.  My grandson Henry 5 months old has the right idea  and looks pretty pleased with himself.  My brother in the UK, who  I consider an intelligent fellow, doesn’t believe in global climate  change as a result of human influence.  I put this down to political  leanings and the fact that any kind of warming feels good in the  UK.  In Australia, we are one of the countries most likely to feel  the maximum effects of climate change.  Our current government  is in denial, but governments never did have much influence on  the laws of physics.  They pass lots of laws, but don’t quite grasp  the fact that that the laws of physics cannot be repealed.  That is  lawyers I suppose, they imagine that a legal decision actually changes reality.

It is so dry now with the creek diminishing to a dribble.  Most of the power now being supplied by the solar panels.  Me and a million plants are looking for a drink.