I recently discovered that my FIL is a great woodworker – something you think I would have known by now since I have known him for 10 years. Nevertheless, my excitement has bubbled over into a slew of FIL/daughter projects. The first being this tower/fort with climbing logs I saw in a most amazing book, A Child’s Garden (which has just been reprinted, yay!!). Well, naturally, this turned into a family affair with MIL over to help make sure the kiddos didn’t try their hands at power tools while we were working. Chris had gone to a happy hour with some other Dad’s, but kindly gave us a hand after he returned.

Environmental Consideration

So I was headed into the hardware store to get the lumber I needed. Shouldn’t be a big deal. An employee points me in the direction of some pressure-treated lumber “ideal” for outdoor construction. It all sounds great until I hear the word “chemical” come out of his mouth. When he leaves I head over to this lumber and see a coupon/flier thing hanging off the bar. I grab one and it gives a series of warnings about this lumber – how it should be handled and disposed of and mentions that the chemicals could leech into the soil hence planting plants around the structure is not advised..yada, yada. Um, yeah, no way in hell I am using this for my kids.

I saw so many people just walk in and grab this wood with no thought about what it *might* be doing to the environment. Granted it is the standard now from what I understand and the chemical is supposedly better than arsenic which was previously used. But if they must still post warnings next to this wood, that tells me it can’t be that harmless.

There is no other outdoor option unless you upgrade to cedar. I say upgrade because a 4x4x8 post is going to run you $16 and one 2x4x10 is going to run you $9. When one needs 12 of those things, well, it adds up. Thankfully, I could afford to make that choice and had some gift cards which helped.

Oh and I am not sealing the fort with anything. I am at peace that we are borrowing this wood from nature for this project and when nature determines, our little fort will decompose and return to nature. It isn’t meant to last forever. We are remaining a part of the natural cycle as opposed to interfering with it (beyond the purchase of new wood, where reclaimed would have been better).

I needed some caulk also and found that had formaldehyde in it and vapors were harmful if swallowed. I again decided there *must* be a better option. I headed over to trustworthy EcoWise and did fine a more “green” option for the caulking I want to do. It is really difficult because in and of itself – the compounds required to build and maintain homes aren’t going to all be environmentally sound. I realize that. However, as a consumer, I can demand that they be made as earth-friendly as possible.

I feel good about this project because I did just that.

Tyler’s Observation

I have to note an incredibly cute Tyler comment. Originally, we had planned to dig post holes for this thing. While working on the first hole, Tyler walks over and observes what we are up to. He then exclaims, “Mother Earth isn’t going to like this!” I was rolling! My sweet child.

And after hitting hard rock and realizing we could spend the entire day doing this, my creative FIL thought of another way that required no hole digging. So Mother Earth was spared more holes dug into her and we have a fort than can be moved around as our yard and needs evolve! A win-win all around!!