My Treehouse

Hi. My name is Willy Ann. I live on a dairy farm in Colleyville Texas. I live with my mom and dad.

When you live on a dairy, there is always something to get into. It’s called work!

It’s my job to feed the chickens, ducks, geese and hogs. It’s also my job to make sure everything is clean, including my room.

I help my dad and uncle in the milking barn, I know how to clean the teats and hook up the milkers. I know how to clean the milkers and test the germ levels in the milk tanks.

I measure out the feed that drops in the feed trough. I have to use a stool most of the time, but I get it done.

I help mama in the house with the cleaning and cooking. I work in the garden.

But when my work is done, I have to find something to do. I get so bored when I’m not helping.

One day I was just laying under an old Oak tree looking up through the branches, watching the birds hop from branch to branch.

Bored out of my brains!

Then I got an idea! A tree house! It would be so fun to have a big tree house to climb up in and look out over the dairy!

I ran down to the barn as fast as I could.

“Daddy! Daddy!”

“What in tarnation are you so excited about?” my daddy laughed.

“A tree house! Can we build a tree house? Please, please,please!” I begged.

“I don’t know, that’s a lot of work,” he adjusted his hat on his head. He always does that when he’s thinking.

“I’ll help! Can we daddy, please?”

“Why in the heck would you want to hang out in a tree?” My uncle Elmer, snorted. He always snorts, that’s his laugh.

“It would be so fun Unc! I could see everything on the dairy!”

“I think she’s a might tetched,” Unc snorted.

I put my hands on my hips and stomped my foot.

“I ain’t tetched, I’m bored!”

They both laughed and my daddy ruffled my hair.

“We gotta find the perfect tree, a strong tree.” Daddy adjusts his hat.

“I know the perfect one. So can we do it?”

“I reckon,” daddy tells me and Unc snorts.

I jump around like a crazy person!

After the morning milking, we all walk down and I show them the tree.

They walk around the tree looking up.

“Yeeep,” Daddy says.

“Yeeep” Unc snorts.

“We have to measure it up, go get the supplies tomorrow, then we can start,” Daddy nods and I do my crazy dance.

It took us a week, a whole week to build it, and I helped. We had to measure and cut wood, to count the nails needed. It was really hard trying to hold the wood in place while the other nailed it up.

Climbing up and down a ladder fifty times is fun at first, but then your legs get really tired. I had on a nail apron that was too big for me and it kept slipping down. I just started putting the nails in my pockets.

We would sit on a branch to rest, swinging our legs and talking, then it was back to work. Mama brought us some sandwiches and soda, she threw them up to us, she's a good pitcher!

After the work was done, we had to clean everything up. Pick up all the tools and put them away, sort through the wood to see what could be used for something else or put in the fire pit.

I was so tired, I didn't even put up a fuss at bedtime.

It is a two story tree house. It has a pulley and bucket to pull things up. It has a slide that my daddy used from my old swing set that finally fell apart, and the swings hang from a branch.

Instead of a ladder, it has stairs leading up to the first level, then a ladder to the second level, and another ladder up to the roof!

It is the best tree house ever! I love my tree house.

I used the pulley and bucket a lot to make it just the way I wanted it. My dad and Unc built a picnic table, a bed and a couple of tables with chairs.

My mama made some curtains and cushions.

Now it is like home away from home. It is now my favorite place ever.

My friend Camilla, her mama and new baby brother came over, and I took her straight to my tree house. But she wouldn’t go up, she is afraid of high places. I was sad because I wanted her to share my favorite place., but we still had fun playing under my tree house.

My boy cousins Mike and Evan came over and wouldn’t let me in my tree house, I don’t like them very much. They are bigger than me and mean when nobody’s looking.

My friend Randy came over, he went up and was nice to me. Now every time he comes over we play in the tree house, he even brought some of his stuff to put in it.

But most of the time, I just sit in my tree house and look out over the dairy.

I can see the cows in the pastures, the hogs in their pen. I see the milk truck when it comes and goes. I see my dad and uncle walking around the barn.

My mom and I made some bird feeders and hung them around so I could watch the birds up close. It’s my job to make sure they stay full and clean. I even found a barn cat in my tree house one day.

So yeah, finding something to do can be fun, even when you have to work for it.