Treehouse

Trout was in Kansas City. We were playing in a club called the Drum Room. It was sometime after sound check that Keith and I were wasting time before the performance. I went into a book store and was browsing. I found a book about tree houses and something just went off in my mind. I bought the book and immediately started dreaming. I live in the woods. There is an abundance of trees. I should build a tree house!

I showed my wife, Karen, the book and talked about building a tree house of our own. She thought it was kind of cool, but probably not something we would do. Later, I took her out to the woods and tried to get her interested in finding a place to build it. She wanted to go back to the house and take care of work that needed to be done. I wrote a song with Keith about following my dreams and building a tree house. Karen liked the song, but was not convinced that we needed to build a tree house.

Clancy is our neighbor and he is a professional homebuilder. He was looking for a couple of horses for his family. I came up with the idea of trading our horses for Clancy’s expertise and help with building a tree house. Then I enlisted my brother-in-law, Jody, for his help. After listening to me go on and on and on about building a tree house for years and with the guarantee that Clancy and Jody would help get things rolling, Karen finally agreed that we could do it. With their help and the help of a whole bunch of other friends over the past six years, the dream is close at hand.

Here is a slide show of the progress we’ve made to this point, including the song, “Dreaming.” I hope you enjoy it.

The New York Times Story

John Schwartz, a writer with the NY Times, came across our website and saw the treehouse slideshow. He liked it so much that he talked his editor into sending him to Arkansas. John did a lengthy interview with us and we had a picnic in the tree house. The next day, a photographer risked his life driving up the mountain to take some pictures. You can read it here.

Photo Credits Art Donisi Karen Idlet Eileen Tague Chandelier made by Greg Wenderski Stain glass window – Ginger Belew Floor mosaic – Denise Lanuti