bradsalomons “What do you think, bud?” Ludo stands, hands on his hips, surveying the trunk of a particularly broad-trunked ash tree near the back quarter of his property. “This one? Gee, she must be a hundred years old by the looks of her. I can’t even see the top, can you?”

“Nope.” Damen says, the nine year old mimicking his father’s stance just a single step distance to his side, though half his height. “That sure is a big tree. How did you find it?”

“Well—“ Ludo adopts his most fatherly tone and points through the low-hanging bushes to a spot a dozen meters away, “See that little yellow ribbon hanging on the branch of that tree back over there? That’s the edge of our property. Our whole backyard goes all the way from our house to those markers. So when I was out walking through the bush back here, you know, having a look around at our new place, I just happened to come across this one and—“

“This whole place is our yard?” The boy interupts, a gasp of disbelief collected in his voice. “It goes all the way back here?”

“Sure does.” He smiles. “Not bad, huh?” Ludo cranks his head around and then down to admire his son’s awe. The family had barely been in this new house for a week. Their former house and garden yard, the same place they’d been living for a decade in one of the east-end suburbs of Birchmont had been only a fraction of the size of this acreage property at the foot of Mount Reeta. Damen hadn’t been able to throw a ball the span of the whole thing, fence to fence, without said ball disappearing over and into the neighbour’s yard. And neither of their two sad little apple trees would have supported so much as a tire swing, let alone the brand new tree fort that his dad had promised to build him. In fact, the new house had so much space that they’d almost found themselves lost when Damen had led his son back to examine this mighty candidate for his new tree house, led him through the thick woods on what was pretty much a nothing path between the towering tree trunks, birch and aspen mostly but mixed in with a few tall fir and the odd ash tree. “So you think this is a good spot for a fort? You won’t be afraid all the way back here will you?”

Damen looks back in the direction where he suspects the house might be but there are too many trees to see it. “It’s good—but maybe we should also build a better path out here at the same time.”

Ludo grins.