Brush-houses, sylvan retreats, and tree huts of various kinds are made by boys all over the country, and some very unique and original ones are often constructed from simple and inexpensive materials. Everything from the back-yard “lean-to” and the tent of sheets to the tree huts that are inaccessible when the rope-ladder is drawn up may be made by boys who are at all handy with tools, and a well-built tree hut is an ideal place in which to spend one’s vacation days.
The following ideas and suggestions may be of service, and they have all been tested in practical experience.
A Low Twin-tree Hut
A very serviceable twin-tree hut is shown in Fig. 1, and it can easily be constructed, at a small cost, from ordinary boards and timbers. If it is built high up in the trees it is doubly secure from invasion, for the ladder can be drawn up when the owners are at home and it will be a difficult matter for outsiders to enter.
To properly build this hut select a location between two trees six to eight feet apart. The trees should have comparatively straight trunks at least fifteen inches in diameter, and no cavities at the base nor indications of decay.
With an axe clear off the brush and small branches for twenty feet up from the ground at the inside of the trunks, or where the hut is to be located. From a lumber-yard obtain four or five pieces of spruce or other timber two inches thick, eight inches wide, and sixteen feet long. Saw off and nail two of these pieces to the trunks of the trees eight feet above the ground, first cutting away some of the bark and wood of the trunk to afford a flat surface for the timbers to lie against on each side. Six-inch steel-wire nails will be required for these anchorages, and under the timbers and lying flat against the tree-trunks bracket-blocks two-by-eight inches and fifteen inches long are securely spiked to lend additional support to the cross-timbers.
Cut two timbers six feet long and two others the length of the distance between tree-trunks. In the six-foot pieces cut notches at the under side as shown in Fig. 2 C C. Into these the ends of bracket-timbers D D will fit. Cut the ends of the timbers forming the square frame so that they will dovetail as shown in Fig. 3. Spike the six-foot timbers to the tree-trunks so that they will rest on the first two timbers that were nailed to the trees, and from the two-by-eight-inch wood cut four brackets D D, and spike them fast under each cross-timber so each tree will appear as shown in Fig. 2. Place the remaining two timbers in position so that the ends will fit into those fastened to the trees, and nail them fast as shown in Fig. 4.
In Fig. 5 the first timbers can be seen spiked to the tree-trunks, where they are supported by the fifteen-inch blocks nailed fast below them. The cross-timbers are shown at A A, and the last ones, forming the frame that are let into dove-tailed joints at the ends, are shown at B B. Cut two more timbers E E, and lay them across the supporting timbers, nailed to the tree, so they will fit inside the front and back timbers B B, where they are to be well secured with long nails. The floor frame will then be complete.
From two-by-three-inch spruce construct a frame seven feet high at the front, six feet at the back, and spike the side timbers F F, forming the top, to the inside of the tree-trunks as shown in Fig. 5. The bottom of the uprights are to be mounted on the corners of the floor frame as shown in Fig. 4, where four long nails will hold them securely in place.