Happy Birthday!

Okay, no pizza party in a treehouse for jt- half finished or otherwise! However a couple of school pals combined with a showing tonight of this month's blockbuster, "Cars" appears to have fit the bill.

I promised him that when we have the treehouse mostly done, he'll be able to call up and invite all of the kids on his class list -and his teacher if he wants- to a treehouse pizza party!

What do you think about that?

That would be awwwesome!

The Eagle has landed!

Well- the hardware has landed!















Above we have the four six foot galvanized wire rope slings and four 1/2" x 9" galvanized turnbuckles that arrived at our doorstep yesterday.

We are so excited!

These are the wires that hang the treehouse in the tree.
But I don't know what the other things are.

You'll see soon, jt. Soon.

I also picked up the last of the hardware from the folks at Fastenal. They were kind enough to hold our order all this time...

...and here it is.
















Four 1/2" x 4" drop forged eyebolts, twenty-two 1/2" x 5" galvanized hexagon bolts, 8 1/2", heavy duty galvanized thimbles aaand 4 monstrous looking, 1 1/4" fine threaded nuts for those GL's we ordered from that tree guy, Michael Garnier.

I'll bet he's wondering if I'm going to keep that specialized bit of his, and he our deposit. Hopefully we'll get those big, bad bolts up in those trees real soon!

Can You Say Wire Rope & Turnbuckles?...

Sure you can.

It's here! Wooo-wooo! Way to go, Henry! And it's some heavy duty looking stuff, too. Pictures will be forthcoming. Now for an afternoon stop tomorrow at Fastenal for the remaining hardware that's been lying in wait. There's no looking back now...

Somebody stop meee!

:ahem:

"This is Henry from CMA...

Henry called less then one hour after I got to work today.

After he took all my payment and shipping info, and gave me the total, Henry asked about our application. After I told him all about our suspended treehouse plan, Henry took it upon himself to upgrade the wire rope sling to galvanized- at no additional expense!

I had made the assumption that it would be galvanized, and told him that that was a nice catch on his part. Apparently the non-galvanized rope comes coated in a machine oil which would have been one slippery mess!

I told him that I really appreciated the effort that he put into this order on my behalf. Henry went on to tell me that he was glad to hear that. He told me (queue patriotic music here...) that he felt too much about American business these days short changes quality in alot of areas. Cars, construction, customer service- he wasn't going to be part of that. He takes pride in his job.

Much appreciated, Henry. The order might have shipped out today, but will definitely move by tomorrow.

All systems are go!

CMA Industrial...

I spoke with Henry at CMA this morning. He provided the kind of good, old fashioned service that one just doesn't recieve much anymore.

He explained just how the wire rope sling dimensions were determined, and took my order. It turns out that they do indeed carry turnbuckles, and Henry helped me determine just which would be most suitable to our application. "Jaw to jaw" as they are known provide the most load bearing capability combined with easy access for the pre-made wire rope slings.

He will check on inventory and get back to me tomorrow to finalize my order. He said that if all was in stock, delivery by Friday seemed like a very real possibility.

Ace- The Helpful Place...

Frustrated in our hunt thus far for wire rope and turnbuckles,I stopped by the Greenlawn Hardware Company Wednsday to see if anyone their might be able to point us to a local provider. Joe took my name and number and said that he would ask around and get back to me if he had any luck. I left with a good feeling about Joe.

Sure enough, come Wednsday evening I arrive home from work to find a messageon the machine from Joe asking that I call him back. Too late for that, I figured I would stop by the store this morning, Friday before work.

It turns out Joe had checked in with some guys at a construction outfit located behind the store. One of them who was perusing a trade magazine by the name of "Rock & Dirt" at the time..."Rock & Dirt!"...flipped through a few pages before tearing out one and handing it over to Joe.

Bingo! Wire Rope Slings made to order! And by the looks of all else advertised on their page, they just might carry turnbuckles, too.

We're sure hoping so.