almost two years ago i educated my oldest son on the process of how to climb the tree in the front yard. he was rather aprehesive at first. but he quickly caught on to my suggestions. it's sad that tree climbing has been lost in young boy activitys. one kid was watching and asked try too. i sent him home to ask if it's okay. he came back and said his mother said no, it's to dangerous.... that explains alot i thought. well my oldest has been very active in try climbing. has developed muscle tone and has no flab on him. while the other kids are rather flabby. their parents are waiting for the WII to come out with the tree climbing game is my guess.

anyways i thought this was great!

http://www.columbian.com/news/2012/apr/09/firefighters-help-two-boys-out-tree/

i like how the older brother split while the boys were up the tree stuck! i had two older brothers who would have done something very similiar.

Grandma owned a whole block of neat pines. Some were 70 to 90
feet tall. I climbed em all. I was 9 and I was always climbing to look
out for Indians. lol

always keeping an eye them shifty njuns.

Grandma was a nurse in Bismark ND. Whe worked with the Souix a lot.
She was scared to death of them when they had been drinking.
but hell, We played Cowboys and Indians all the time when I was a
kid. Fun being one of the Indians. There were no rules to be
broken.

Tree climbing and jumping off the roof's of the garage or house was fun also,but there were alot more rambler style homes back then.Good luck,
SZ

The Hickory was my favorite.
Super strong, ladder-like limbs.....easy to climb.

Your hands would pick up the Hickory resin and retain that odor.

My Grandparents had a 80 acre farm north of Arlington. 5 acres had been logged and a bunch of pecker pole alder grew up. Grandma taught us how to climb up to the point where we could get it swinging back and forth so we could go from tree to tree. She always had some fun ideas for the Grandkids.
FYI - this is my Blackfeet Grandma, who was a hell of lot more fun than the Seattle Grandma. Yes, I'm enrolled also.

Have you read Crow and Weasel? just curious.