I get occasional reader emails asking how the Derb treehouse is holding up as it heads into its fourth year. Pretty darn well, is the answer. When I build, I build for the ages–nothing ephemeral. I’m up there right now, matter of fact. (My laptop’s wireless connection easily reaches the 120ft or so to my router in the house attic.) And I just had a lovely treehouse moment. As follows. One of the changes I HAVE made is to cut away some flooring around the tree trunk. As I anticipated (here), my original fitting of the floor was a bit too precise, not leaving enough room for the trunk to (a) move, or (b) grow. So I have just cut away some floor in suitable places. I cut quite generously, with the result that a squirrel running up the tree trunk can come right up through the floor in a couple of places. Well, one just did. As his head came up above floor level, he spotted me working away at my laptop 4ft away. He stopped to take me in, almost as if to say: “Excuse me, didn’t know anyone was up here.” Then he kept right on going up the trunk & out through the ceiling (where I have also cut some away). I felt as if I’d slipped through some spacetime warp into a chapter of The Wind in the Willows.