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A Clan of Muggles, Major Treehouse Progression and a Grumpy Old Fart

Sunday 3 October 2010 - -

We desperately needed more nails. Benniboy went to Toolstation and got 2 packs of 0.5kg 65mm round wire nails. Each pack was a measly £1.30. The service was friendly and quick, with no sight of ruhel. Then he deployed to Nh's.

We arrived at the wilder, it was a rainy day so there wasn't going to be many muggles in the wilder. We entered and found the crate planks we had hidden. We each took a batch to the treehouse base. Then ascended a few. Now, it was time to test out the new 65mm round wires. They went in effortlessly compared to the 100mm, we could hammer them in quicker and were also damaging the tree less. We managed to get a whole new wall up in record time.


During our treehouse construction we were disturbed by a clan of muggles. They came in from the lower entrance and were walking down the path next to the golf course. It was a load of muggle family and friends. There were a few junior treeswingers on bikes, no older than 11, youngest looking under 5. Then the parents. In total there were at least 8 muggles. One was a persistent woman, she was friendly and admired our treehouse handy work. She seemed very interested and it looked like she wanted to climb up. She asked us if we made it and how we were able to get the timber up the tree.


We eventually had to continue hammering, they weren't going to leave anytime soon, as they had just started a game of hide and seek, in the treehouse vicinity. We ran out of the planks and had to descend to get the rest. The woman was still there, with what looked like her teenage daughter and toddler, there were also a couple of juniors patrolling the treehouse on bikes. We got all the planks ready for takin up. Then Nh went in his plank ascending position, while Benniboy climbed up with 3 planks at a time. There were about 3 batches worth of planks to be taken up, during this whole operation the woman was watching us. She wanted to see how we climbed and got the planks up the treehouse and she got the full show. After seeing this she was satisfied and they continued to explore the wilderness. We heard them again, and thought they might come back, to see our progression, luckily they didn't.


We used some broken fence planks to attach the steps to the nearby branches. This has now made the steps much more stable and has started the walls that will envclosed the steps to level 2. We had some shorter planks that would be useful for repairing the corner wall that was sadly sabotaged by treeswingers. Benniboy climbed around and behind the main wall. Nh hammered the 65's in each end and then Benniboy hammered them in place. Now the gap is filled with stronger planks, which shouldn't be vandalised.


We decided to go for lunch. Go Go's was the choice. We found the menu in the Miata. As it was Sunday there weren't any offers, so we just got a medium from the normal price list. It was a pepperoni plus and bbq chicken on a thin crust for £8.95 + £1 for half and half.  On the way Nh skillfully saw some crates up the hill opposite the townsend hill. We turned left at the roundabout and went up the hospital hill, then took the first turning. Unluckily there were a load of treeswingers walking in the middle of the road. We managed to slip past them, with one shouting something uninterpretable. We went up the hill and saw 3 big crates and a skip with boards, it's just there was scaffolding and it looked like they were using the crates. We then continued up the road and saw another skip and scaffolding. Then the last house had just a skip and 2 big boards in it, plus a few more smaller ones beside it. They house was new and looked half empty. This excited the treeswingboys very much. It could mean we were able to get a level 2 board for free and save up to £30.

We then went to Go Go's and saw in the window a poster saying "Any 18 inch pizza £9.99", we had truly been ripped off. We collected the pizza and it was extremely small. We had 4 slices each, making it £1.24 per slice, and they were 3 bites slices too. We were hungry so ate them in the Miata. We then deployed back to the new house with the skip. The best way to get the board would be to ask, so we knocked on the door, no answer, it seemed deserted.

Upon our return to the wilder, we went and got some more fence planks, 5 in total, after snapping one. We tooked them up the treehouse. We used two for level 2 barriers, safety first. Then the other 3 for the structure, making as many triangle formations as we could, ready for the board to rest on. We called it a day and thought we should try and get the board from the skip.

We parked up a house away from the target house. It was still light and we were discussing how to transport the board to the treehouse. We were thinking of placing the board on the Miata's roof, but there were many variables in this technique. It could fall off easily. The board would stick out, so could hit obsticles. Other cars would see us and there might be police, we had previously seen a police car in the wilderness vicinity. We could carry it, but it might be heavy. It is quite big, we would be be seen by people.

Eventually a red Alfa Romeo pulled up outside the house. An old man got out. He then procceded to walk into the target house. During this Nh insisted that we asked him, but Benniboy was reluctant, as we hadn't fully worked out transportation. We missed the golden opportunity.

We then plucked up the courage to knock on his door. He came to the door, but didn't open it. He just looked through the little side window and said "What do you want?" Benniboy replied with "Can I talk to you?" He said no and made an excuse about the dog being in the garden. He then walked off. He didn't say if he was going to come back or not. We waited a while, thinking he might come round the back gate, but he didn't return. We gave up. We presume he was intimidated by us and didn't want to risk opening the door, his attitude also made it more likely he wouldn't have let us take the board. His name is now - Grumpy Old Man.

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