Two of them were conveniently close together and close to the kids’ sandpit and the trees where we’re going to hang swings once we get a crossbar up. After looking at them for a few months, and finding one good solid pallet left over from building the woodshed, I had a plan. The first time Eric got out his chainsaw this year, I had him level them off.

And then I built a treehouse. Except, because it’s not on an actual tree, but on stumps, it has now become known as The StumpHouse. Because my children are literalists.

The posts supporting the other corners are from a fence that used to surround the front patio, and which my parents tore out last fall during a visit.

The siding is made of the outside edges of milled trees which we got free from a friend who had had a bunch of trees cleared and milled on her property about a year ago.

The ladder is made from more parts of that fence from the front patio.

It’s not huge, and it’s not quite finished, but I think the boys will have fun with it for a while. It’s probably big enough for 3 or 4 kids.

So now it just needs a roof! Having made the entire thing from stuff we had on hand (the only thing I bought was more screws), I don’t want to pay for roofing. We’ll be on the lookout for scraps of something that we can recycle.