The Journey

Chapter. I

The Seed is Planted

Six decades ago, a skinny ten-year-old boy, the youngest of an older group of guys, decided  that a "club house"was needed..There was talk of an underground fort and of course a tree house. A vote was taken and  the tree house was the overwhelming choice. So the group sets out collecting scraps of wood and other necessary items. In a couple of days of: splinters, bent nails and smashed thumbs a tree house takes shape.All were pleased but the youngest boy was particularly pleased , he had just watched Tarzan of the Apes.Of course, it was  in "black-and-white" as there was no color T.V. in 1957.

Fast forward a couple of years and that same boy (a little less skinny) , is  front rowcenter at the Studio theater in San Bernardino California. Every seat is taken ,all are anxiously awaiting Walt Disney's new release, Swiss Family Robinson. At the conclusion of  a standing ovation, the lights slowly return . At that moment , “my fate was sealed”!!

A lifelong fascination with the idea of livingin the trees.

Chapter. II   

Gestation  

Forty years later, that same fellow (far from skinny) finds himself in Panama. After living in Sonoran Desert, Panama looked like a "green dream". Months turn into years, searching for the perfect spot, always believing "You'll know it when you see it"

Bingo!! 

He discovers Rio Sereno and it is the "right spot". A beautiful farm in the foothills, below Amistad National park, is bought . The farm  is blessed with incredible black soil. But,looks are often deceiving, as black as it was, the soil was damaged, as is most of the soil in the world. The end result of being  sprayed and resprayed with toxic petrochemicals.  

The challenge was presented and accepted "to revitalize the farm and turn it into an organic paradise“. First order of business, plant trees .Over the years the seedlings grew into 40 ft trees, the black soil teeming with microscopic life. 

But, there was a problem, too many trees all fighting for the same light . They had become tall and spindly and there was NO sun beneath the canopy. , nothing was able to grow . The little forest must be trimmed,  but the old man couldn't bring himself to do it. 

It was the summer of 2017 . Henry his grandson was visiting on his summer break . While walking the farm  from the “cosmos'', an idea ..... "build a tree house."

 

Wow!!, Super idea!

The perfect tree was found ., but Henry must  return to school. In a later conversation Henry introduces the term "Food Forest". Grandpaw, a retired biology teacher, had never heard the term and had to investigate . "Amazing ,what a concept" he was like a "kid in a candy store" After the euphoria lifted ,the truth hit home. Those trees MUST be pruned. The Food Forest ground to a halt. Finally, after months of “soul searching” the pruning  began. The first day was so traumatic that the old man dropped his head and turned away. He felt like a mother who had lost her child!!  Trying to escape grandpa wanders to the other side of the farm.

Chapter III      

Inspiration  & Birth 

                                  

There In front of him , towered the magnificent tree that Henry and he had chosen. He stood speechless, feeling as if he had been “hit by a bolt of lightning”. Slowly a huge smile appeared on grandpaw's face. It was so perfectly clear. All of those trees would continue on.!

They would be repurposed into tree houses............... Tree House Tribe!!