Friday, November 11, 2005

Tree Houses

I just came across some pictures today and it dawned on me I haven't blogged some things from this summer as I intended. Hopefully I'll have some time to get to the rest of this stuff soon.

A few years back when I was training for manager at Halibut King I did a favor for the old manager and took her little boy to a friends house to spend the night. The neighborhood I took him too was around 7 miles out East End Road in Homer. Despite living in homer over 20 years, I'd never been beyond the first house on this street. There are some nice houses and some cute houses in this particular neighborhood but those haven't been the ones to stick in my mind.

The first house I remember on the drive is in the middle of one of the Willard's cow fields. No one has lived there in decades, I guess you could say the house has gone to the cows. Driving by it makes me want to sneak up there and go inside. It looks a bit like a little old Indiana farm house that has been neglected enough to fit right in with the horror flick of choice.

After going by the cow field we took a left onto another dirt road and first thing to rip my attention to yet another left is a house that is covered in blue tarps. The roof, every wall of the house and even better, their fence. I call it the blue tarp fortress. It's been that way ever since I first discovered it a few years ago. I really need to get a picture of atleast the cow house but the reason I haven't is because of an even stranger set of homes in that neighborhood....


This is the main house. It's hard to tell because of the tall grass but let me assure you that the home is held up by nothing more than the pole going thru the home and sticking out of the top (it maybe an old tree trunk still in the ground, not sure). I've only taken pictures from the driveway but I am dying to go knock on the door and ask for a tour. But somehow I have this feeling he prefers his privacy. I've heard from people who have met him that this one has 2 floors, electricity, a monitor for heat, a bed, TV, and small kitchen, but no running water or plumbing. He lives in this tree house year round I guess. But all that is hear-say. I've also heard that there's been articles in I think the Anchorage paper about his houses. I say houses because he has a few of these on the property.


The tree house to the right I have no idea what is use for (as you can see its built around an actual living tree), and the other tree house in the center seems to be a finished green house/solarium. The "house" I showed in the first picture is located just out of this shot to the left about 20 yards. The 3 domes that sit on the ground in front of the solarium have looked the same for several years, unfinished. I have no idea what they're for but I know they're not livable like the other "tree houses". I left both pictures full size so you can click on them and zoom in.

I took these pictures just last summer when my nephew came up to visit. We stop by to show him and got these shots. I also saw that just beyond the tree house in the first picture, he's building yet another tree house that will be even bigger than the first two, more hidden behind some tree's, and closer to the outhouse.

The kid in me just loves the whole idea of this place, but I don't know how he lives in such tight quarters.

4 comments:

Heidi said...

That is just odd...i used to live by an igloo but the egg is new to me!!!

prudhoeman said...

It would be odd if there were just one, but there is a small village of them.

FishTaxi said...

I think they are cool. Be neat to see what they look like inside.

Klondike Kate said...

I think Alaska atracks the odd ducks among the population. The idea of living in a tree house is cool - the execution of the idea is a bit odd.