A Treehouse, a little you-and-me house

When guests arrive for a weekend at Fern Forest Treehouse, I always look for some common ground to make them fee l comfortable. That’s often not an easy task when a couple is half our age (sometimes even less) and from a different section of the country. But with Danielle and Sty, it was a no-brainer—our common element was the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.             My son Bry was born on January 8, Elvis’s birthday. Danielle and Sty were married in Las Vegas—by Elvis. At least, he looked like Elvis and sang almost as well, but when he signed the marriage certificate, the ruse was revealed. He was not the real Elvis.             But when you’re in Las Vegas, fantasy becomes reality. A limo met the couple at their hotel and transported them to the little white chapel. Elvis was waiting at the door with flowers for Danielle in one hand and a mic in the other. She took his arm, ...

Southern Baptist minister Reverend Walter assures me he is not one of those Pentecostal preachers who handles rattlesnakes to prove God’s protection. He handles them for a different reason. This week the Treehouse was honored with a visit from the pastor of a Baptist church in Georgia. Walter, as he asked me to call him, and his wife Wanna were taking their granddaughter Lily on an East Coast odyssey. Lily is home-schooled, and Walter thought they could enhance her learning with visits to the Shenandoah Valley, where many of the Civil War skirmishes took place, and Gettysburg, where Robert E. Lee was defeated in the conflict that took more lives than any other battle of the war. Lily got to see a little of Boston, where the Yankees claim to have been America’s first settlers. We southerners know, of course, that Virginia’s Jamestown colony was established eleven years before the pilgrims set foot on Plymouth Rock. But the Baptists’ GPS was set for farther north, and on Mond...

            Whatever happened to that old school custom of family first? My three brothers live in Virginia, Florida and Arizona. Rarely do they visit me in Vermont. If I’m lucky, I see them once a year when I travel to them, but at least we’re in touch through email. For Fern Forest Treehouse guests Robinson and Carleigh, however, family is their rock. Rob’s mother came to New York from the Dominican Republic when she was seventeen. He still has relatives in the Dominican, most of whom don’t speak a word of English. (By the way—baseball is BIG in the Dominican with exported stars like Red Sox David Ortiz, who learned to speak English pretty well.) Spanish was Rob’s first language, which comes in handy when he meets with Hispanic clients in his job as insurance agent and financial consultant in Providence. Carleigh’s dad moved from Italy to the U.S. with his family when he was nine. He taught her to love everything Italia...

               If someone invited me to hop on a bike and spend a year pedaling to the southern tip of Argentina, I’d have to be madly in love to say yes. Apparently Cupid’s arrow has pierced the hearts of Treehouse guests Christine and Nico because that’s exactly their plan.             The couple came to Fern Forest for an overnight respite after spending three days hiking and two frigid nights sleeping in shelters on the Long Trail. But bundled in cold weather gear, they certainly know how to dress for winter. Once they figured out how to zip their sleeping bags together, they weathered the sn owy nights well.              Nico,  from Dresden in Germany,  is a handsome fellow with a neat cinnamon beard and hair that curls over his shirt collar. While he was working as a software engineer, he got the i...

When H got the idea to rent out the treehouse six and a half years ago, he wondered whether anyone would want to stay in a tiny dwelling thirty feet above the ground. Would guests be able to climb a steep ladder to get into the loft bed? Would they mind hiking seventy feet to the main house to use the bathroom? In a strong wind, the treehouse sways, and inevitably there are spiders. Would guests tolerate bugs, not to mention mice and squirrels skittering over the roof?             The answer is an overwhelming, enthusiastic yes. Guests not only want to stay in the treehouse, but they clamor for a booking. As 2015 draws toward a close, every available night in 2016 is booked. Some have reserved nights six months to a year in advance. The only way to grab a lofty sleep anytime soon is if someone cancels.             A New York gal canceled this past weekend because her boyf...

Jing and Hua were late arriving for their night in the Treehouse. I had kept an eye peeled for them but wasn’t expecting two carloads to drive up. Hua came to the door first, his wife Jing following, while another young couple, a toddler, and an older man and woman worked their way out of the other vehicle. The Treehouse sleeps three cozily, but its hundred square feet are more comfortable for two. I wondered where in the world we were going to put seven people. As Hua promptly explained, he and Jing drove from their Baltimore home and stopped in Saratoga Springs to visit friends—the couple with the two-year-old. The older couple were the toddler’s grandparents visiting from China. Everyone, even young Daniel, wanted to see the Treehouse. It’s a tight space, so they took turns having the tour. Jing and Hua went first while their friends waited in the spitting snow. It took three shifts to give everyone a look. Daniel especially marveled at the toys and a miniature treehouse perch...

             E ver think about what you were like in high school?   Fern Forest Treehouse seems to be the destination for high school sweethearts. Jess and Chris  are pushing thirty, and this weekend they were celebrating one year until their wedding next fall. She’s a gorgeous blonde who works in the Vermont governor’s office, and he’s a talkative engineer designing VAC for commercial businesses. The two Vermonters met on a blind date when Jess was fifteen and Chris was two years older. They liked each other immediately and dated throughout high school. When Chris went to Clarkson to study engineering, Jess saw him whenever he was home. After high school, she enrolled at SUNY Potsdam to be near him. A few weeks ago we had a couple from Boston who fell in love when they were assigned high school lockers next to each other. At sixteen, Zoe had dated a few guys but didn’t connect with any of them. Then one day she and Brian were at their...