Up Cycling the Tree House

In Africa, recycling is nothing new. There are many recyclers about, and many are not humans. One of the greatest recyclers is a tiny insect, that is most of the time unseen, although they have been around for 200 million years. The damage they can cause is well beyond their size and although I knew they were a problem, it had slipped my mind as to how much of a problem they can be.

Until I saw the former wooden, floor of the tree house.

Terminated by Termites.. aka white ants!

Wood is their food, and they can make it disappear at an alarming rate. A wooden floor had seemed a good idea, but the lesson has been learnt. You might be wondering, if the white ants have eaten the floor, why did they stop there and not move onto the rest of the house? (like Hansel and Gretel did with the witch’s house, made of sweeties). As you may have guessed by now, my literary experiences, currently, don't go much further than The Magic Faraway Tree. Not that I'm complaining.

The answer, if you remember the question, is creosote. All the wooden poles that make up the structure of the house, HAVE to be soaked in creosote. A smelly, poisonous and necessary evil, but somehow still part of the African experience. For me, the blended bouquet of thatching grass and creosote poles takes me back to the Lion and Elephant Hotel, on the confluence of the Bubye River and the road to Cape Town.

Childhood journeys. The trek back to our ancestorial home, Braemar Villa, in Kalk Bay. Every two years, we would retrace the path of the early Pioneers across the Limpopo and then of the Boers and their Great Trek, all the way back to the Cape.

However, that’s another story.

Apart from the floor, there was another small problem with the tree house, the roof, or one side of the roof to be more accurate. During one of my extension stages I had increased the span of the roof by lowering the pitch. This has also, now, come home to roost. The shallower pitch didn’t allow sufficient run off during the rains and that section has begun to resemble a peat roof, with considerably more drainage.

So, with some lessons under my belt, I launch the Up Cycle plan, a cement floor and a new roof with a slightly steeper pitch. This is going to require energy and enthusiasm… and lots of grass, but luckily, I have brought the vital ingredient with me..... REAL money.