"Don's Tree Stand….."

No, Don isn't a hunter but he does love being in the woods.  Who'd have thought that about my "city boy", eh?  ;)  I suggested he get a tree stand so that as the leaves fall, he would be able to see further through the trees, from a higher vantage point.

He assembled most of the tree stand in the garage, then laid it out behind the house to add the final ladder pieces.  It is 17' tall.

When Patrick was here last Friday to build the window well cover, he helped carry it out to Don's chosen tree and we got it lifted into place.  Then Don got busy with securing it to the tree with its straps and ratchets.

This area was pretty much "clear cut" back in the day, so most of the really big trees are no longer here.  The tree Don chose to have the stand attached against is "almost" as large as he needed but since it was a bit too thin up near the seat, he added some slab wood to fill out the sides.  Adding them made a HUGE difference in stability.  It really was stable before he added the slab wood but having the extra little bit made both of us feel better.

Yeah…..the grin says it all, right?  A boy with a new toy.  ;)

Secure and stable.  Now it was time to go get the seat cushion an secure it to the seat frame.  The tree stand isn't all that far from our clearing……you can just barely see the house and garage roofs through the trees in the lower right side of the photo.

But first, another photo, "zoooooomed in".  ;)

I retrieved the seat cushion and found there was a camouflage "skirt" for the stand, too.  Don began the task of attaching them to the stands frame.

It wasn't long before he had the seat cushion and skirt in place and tied……

He said it was an amazing difference between sitting up there before the skirt and after adding it.  It made the entire structure seem more solid even though the addition was only a thin piece of material.  The visual impact/tricks of ones mind, eh?

I took a parting photo as we headed back to the house.

Don is VERY pleased with the tree stand and has gone out and enjoyed sitting up in it a couple of times since Fridays installation.  He is one happy man.  :)