postponed coop project

[georgem]

[Mod: Sorry, I intended to place this in the family stories forum but clicked the wrong one.]

I guess converting the tree house into a coop will be delayed. This was an interesting end to Valentine's day -- you know what they say about Saturday the 14th -- it will get you every time.

Word to the wise; tree houses are not a good place to store your supply of pretty candles for mid summer soirees when a group of 12 year olds are coming to visit your farm.

Oh yeah, luckily no one was hurt.

 

[silentrunning]

That looks like a really crappy way to end a Saturday. I think some kids should be doing extra chores for a while.

 

[Buster]

Oh man. I'm sorry about your tree house and the fire. That would be really upsetting.

 

[andehens]

what a shame!!!!!!!!!!! bet you were scared to death!

 

[AHappychick]

oh wow that stinks thank god no one was hurt. I burned down my playhouse by accident when I was 10 I was melting crayons lol

I am glad no one was hurt, that would have made a really cool coop!

 

[chickenbuddy]

Man, you are bearing it a lot better than I would if that happened to me. This is me:
#1:

#2:

#3:

#4:

#5:

#6:

#7:

#8: some more

Anyway I'm so sorry!

It was a very pretty pen. I hope you can rebuild it like it was before!

 

[al6517]

WOW !!! and that tree house looked so neat and promising. I would not want to be those 12 yr olds right now.

AL

 

[ranchhand]

OH NO! I am so sorry that happened! Hope you can rebuild, it's a really neat idea!

 

[georgem]

Quote:
Thanks for all the supportive comments. Chickenbuddy: everything after

was a blur but you probably have the sequence about right.

The kids had a friend visiting and they lit one of the candles on a window jams and didn't extinguish it (this was several hours earlier in the day and the friend had already gone home, the lucky little bugger haahaa). Fortunately we caught it in time to put out the fire before the upright supports and floor joists were damaged.

In all honesty I'm secretly pleased, the design never really satisfied me (one of the reasons i was considering just turning the thing into a chicken coop). It was too boxy, lacked adequate floor space, and head room. This will give me an excuse to rebuild it better with cantilevered floors and all that, maybe an elevated deck on the high side. It would be kinda cool to get some peacocks to hang out on a tree house deck. Room for furniture and a few amenities would be awesome... it could serve as a miniature guest house with a loft style bed. I have a lead on some free single pane windows that would be prefect.

The kids are going to have a few extra chores but i think losing the tree house and the some of their favorite belongings has taught them a fairly important lesson about the dangers of fire. They will pay to replace a fan that perished, some paint for the metal lawn chairs (if they are salvageable), and the garden hoses that cracked from being unrolled in the cold weather. The hoses were a real pain to deal with, if this would have happened when it was 75 degrees or warmer I probably would have been able to get the fire put out in time to save more of the structure but oh well.

Sooo... I'm envisioning good things to come. Here are some more pictures of the destruction.

 

[mmtillman]

Well, since everything seems to happen for a reason...

then that means you are gonna get a really neat chicken coop soon?!!