The Tree House
For a few months last year everyone seemed to be reading The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from a Secret World written by Peter Wohleben. I gave the book as gifts as I have always felt an affinity with trees. We grew up with an oak tree on the lawn that was the perfect climbing tree. How we loved swinging from its branches and slithering up along its strong trunk so we could sit on the highest limb. There was a pine tree on the lawn with wide tall branches that created an interior space where one could sit and dream. A single, but stately birch, anchored one lawn, a shy crabapple tree was nestled in the back field, and there were pine trees at the edge of the walk up to the front door and tall lilac bushes along the driveway.
Like most children, I had always harbored the idea of having a tree house. What would it be like living up in a tree? Enchanting, I imagined.
Peter Ossi was an industrial design student at Pratt Institute when he got the idea to build a tree house. Peter hadn’t had any experience building a house and thought this might be a way to learn new skills. It took him two years of working through weekends and summers to build his house. Friends and cousins joined him. He learned as much as he could from his Amish neighbors and helped them raise a barn.
When Peter’s house was finished, he encouraged friends to design and begin building their own tree houses. Last weekend I had an opportunity to visit Peter’s tree house community, “The Root,” in upstate New York and finally realize my own fantasy of sleeping in a tree house.
Peter’s house has two levels, with a small area with a desk for writing that is just at the top of the ladder leading up to the bedroom. In the main room, there is a wood stove, and two hanging gas lamps.
On Friday night, when we arrived, there was a heavy rain that began in the early morning hours. There were four of us sleeping in the house and we pulled up the sheets and listened to the symphony that was playing on the roof. My bed was just a few feet from the tree trunk and I could hear drops of water dripping down the trunk because you can’t keep a tree perfectly sealed when it goes through the roof.
The tree houses at The Root are deep into the woods and if you don’t want to walk up and down the rugged landscape, at times a bit steep and very muddy after a heavy rain, then you can use the zip line which runs from the barn like structure that houses a kitchen, the wood working shop and eventually a Japanese bath, lockers and showers. Being in this sylvan environment one thinks about reading and there is now a silo attached main building that houses a library. The roof spins so eventually a telescope can be installed.
My visit to The Root was to participate in the first Artist Day. Christine Allan, Peter’s companion, and several of his friends, organized a day of activities. The morning began with a yoga class, followed by a weaving demonstration. After lunch on a deck overlooking the mountains, there was a black smithing demonstration and an opportunity for all of us to try heating and pounding away at a piece of iron to create a decorative hook. In the mid-afternoon, as the sun was beginning to drop in the sky, we made a collective effort to carry twenty-five easels, drawing pads, boards and boxes of pencils and watercolors down a steep bank to the edge of a creek where a male model posed precariously, balancing on the slippery rocks, as Diana Wege, Peter’s mother, gave us a class in figure drawing.
The evening ended with dinner served around a large fire deep in the woods and prepared by Christine. The menu included spring salad with arugula, fennel and orange segments, sweet pea and mint pasta tossed in a lemon shallot vinaigrette, fire roasted vegetables, lemon thyme chicken and, of course, S’mores. You may have guessed that a few of Peter’s friends are professional chefs.
Yes, it was enchanting sleeping in a house in a tree. One felt a connection with nature that isn’t quite like being in a house that is firmly situated on the earth.