A High Twin-tree Hut
Twelve or fifteen feet above the ground, and built in between the trunks of two stout trees, a high tree hut is shown in Fig. 7. Larger and more substantial trees must be selected to build this hut in than the ones for the low hut, and as a rope-ladder will probably be used a landing-deck or piazza should be built at the front of the hut.
While this hut is built between two trees it is also built against them, as the trunk of each tree can be partially enclosed in the hut. The under cross-timbers that support the floor frame are to be attached to the trees the same as described for the low tree hut, and on these the other timbers are laid and fastened as shown in Fig. 8. The main timbers extend beyond the outside of the trunks, and the supporting and floor timbers enclose each trunk. At the front the frame is carried forward two feet more than at the back, allowing this much for the width of the deck. The uprights are arranged somewhat differently also, as they are bound at the top to scantlings that butt into the trunks. Fig. 8 A A.
Instead of a flat roof like the low hut, this one is to have a pitched roof, the supporting timbers of which are attached to the ridge-poles B B, which are fastened to the tree-trunks in the same manner as the under cross-timbers. This construction is clearly shown in Fig. 8, where the location of each upright and cross-piece is indicated.
A rail is run along the front and one end of the deck, and is fastened at the top of four uprights of two-by-three-inch spruce, the lower ends of which are securely nailed to the front stringers as the illustration shows.
In place of the supporting brackets D D that are let into the timber C at Fig. 2, longer brackets or props are caught under the floor timbers and braced at the lower end against the trunks, where an additional anchorage or support is made by a stout block which is securely spiked to the trunk underneath each bracket end as shown in Fig. 8 C C. The frame is then enclosed as described for the low hut, and windows and a door are mounted as shown.
A long, stiff ladder may be used to climb up, but a more interesting ladder can be made of rope and hickory rungs. By means of a thin rope attached to the bottom rung the ladder can be hauled up to the deck so that it is out of the reach of other boys; and being fastened at the top, no one can remove it or pull it away as they could a stiff ladder.
A rope-ladder is made of stout clothes-line and hickory rungs lashed together securely with strong line as shown in Fig. 9. The rungs are of straight hickory with or without the bark on, one inch and a quarter thick and twenty-four inches long. Near the end of each rung a notch is cut on both sides for the rope to lie in, as shown at the upper end of Fig. 9, and each union is to be very securely bound with the line so as to prevent slipping.
The ladder is hung on stout wooden pegs driven into the deck through holes one inch and a half in diameter. An extra rope is to be carried from the top rung up over the pegs and down again, where a wrap is taken over one or two rungs; then it is lashed fast to the other ropes with the stout line as shown in Fig. 10.
