building projects

Raised bed progress

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It was quite nice out today, and I was able to get some decent progress on the raised bed walls at the chain link fence.

I also have more materials than I realized, starting with the stakes. Somehow, I got it in my head that all the stakes I’d made and charred were just for the back wall, when I had prepped enough for both the front and back walls. I might even have enough materials for the deadwood wall, too, though that’s harder to say. A lot of those are really wonky and crooked.

First, though, the back wall needed to be done.

In the first image above, I have the stakes pounded into the soil on either side of the boards. The taller ones are on the inside of the bed, so they’ll be easier to reach when supports are attached to them, so they were very specifically spaced out in the three sections of chain link. The shorter pieces went on the outside, between the boards and the chain link. I wanted to stagger them a bit, since the deadwood they’ll be holding is all weirdly shaped. Thankfully, we had such a lovely downpour yesterday, I was able to drive the stakes into the ground quite solidly.

A bit too solidly, with one of the shorter ones.

In the second picture, I’ve laid some deadwood on top of the boards. For this, I chose the shorter ones, as they have to fit between the posts. I alternated which way the thicker and thinner ends were laid out as well. In the end, I added about 3 or 4 inches in height. One of the shorter posts had been driven in far enough that it barely topped the deadwood, but it will still hold.

One of the issues of doing it this way, however, is that there are gaps between the deadwood that soil can fall through. Ordinarily, I’d try to fill those gaps with skinnier pieces of deadwood, but didn’t really have anything appropriate.

The state of the boards gave me an idea, though.

I still had a couple of dollar store vinyl table protectors. I decided to use those to line the back wall from the inside, and pull over the top.

These sheets are for a larger size table, and I decided to cut them into thirds, length wise. The way they are folded in the package made it easy, as I just needed to follow a fold with my utility knife, after spreading the vinyl on the ground and securing it from the wind.

I good with the next two pictures of the slide show above. The third and last picture is the progress shot. Three strips was not enough, though, so I got out the second table protector and cut one more section.

After checking things out with the first strip, I went down the row with the tip of my space and moved soil away from the bottom of the boards. The vinyl strips now extend beyond the bottoms of the boards. I tried to push them under the boards as much as possible, then pushed the soil back to hold them in place. Then the rest got folded over the top of the deadwood and pushed down the outside. The stakes are still on the outsides, and will hold the vinyl in place.

Once that was in place, I secured the stakes and vinyl a bit more, before starting on the front.

I used bale twine, because that stuff is pretty indestructible, and tied the long and short stakes together in pairs, making sure they won’t bow apart while making the vinyl more secure and less likely to blow away. The winds get pretty severe from the south and, unlikely as it seems, has the potential to dislodge the vinyl from the outside of the wall.

After that, I replaced the stakes I had marking where the inside of the bricks were, which makes the bed about 2 inches narrower, with longer charred stakes. For the front wall, the longer stakes will be on the outside.

Once they were pounded in place, lined up with the taller stakes in the back wall, I got the roll of paracord and strung a guide line across, which you can see in the second photo of the slideshow above.

Then I used one of the larger pieces of dead wood to use as a guide to where the shorter stakes would be driven in.

The next two photos of the slide show above show the lines of stakes – with Larence photobombing one of them!

I could not start laying down the deadwood right away, though. The wood I harvested is a mix of poplar, cherry, willow, and even some smaller maple suckers for the ends. Any pieces that will have contact with the soil on the bottom will start growing, if I set them down as is. I needed to debark some of it.

After selecting some of the longest pieces, I took them over to the larger bench, then started debarking with the aid of my utility knife. The draw knife would be more efficient, but the pieces are just too narrow.

Unfortunately, I ended up nicking my thumb in the process. Not a large cut, but with the pressure being put on it while debarking, I was leaving blood all over the places.

So I stopped for the day. This gave me a chance go change and go into town for a few things for my older daughter and refill our water jugs. I will continue tomorrow.

Once I have enough debarked to do the base of the wall, the rest can go on top as is. Hopefully, I’ll have enough to match the height of the back wall but, if not, I’m sure I can find plenty to harvest where I need to clean up more in the spruce grove.

Oh, that reminds me. My brother messages me today, asking about the company we used to clear trees from the roof and do wood shipping for us, a few years back. He has decided it would be better to hire them to take down that Chinese elm in front of the kitchen window, that has so many branches overhanging the roof. He’d originally thought to do it himself, but the first of branches falling onto the roof is too great. Better to have several people on lifts to do it. The other reason the tree needs to go is because its roots are causing cracks in the basement wall, and they would be getting into the weeping tile under the new basement as well.

He plans to grind the stump once its down to get it out completely. That will include getting rid of the roots that are lifting the patio blocks out of position. In some places, water is draining towards the house instead of away. That means, once this is all done, we’ll be able to level the ground before putting the patio blocks back again. It’ll be nice to not have to worry about tripping over the lifted edges anymore!!

I contacted the company for my brother and someone will be coming out some time this week to give us an estimate, which I will pass on to my brother. Then we can work out a day for them to come out.

The tree does provide some nice shade, but it’s going to be so good to not have to worry about branches falling on the roof anymore, or more root damage.

Now that my brother and SIL have sold their acreage and all their equipment is here, things are going to be very different this summer! Things are going to get done that we simply couldn’t do ourselves. We’ll probably see more things done in one summer, than we’ve been able to do in all the years we’ve lived here, just due to lack of tools and equipment.

Until then, I focus on the things I can do.

Like working on garden beds.

Little by little, it’s getting done!

The Re-Farmer

Chicken coop build, day three – finished!

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I had to make a run into town late this morning, so we didn’t even start on finishing the chicken coop assembly until much later in the afternoon. Which was fine, because it turned out to be an absolutely lovely day today.

The first thing I worked on was reinforcing the interior roost, then securing them in place.

Each corner got one of these flat braces. My original intention had been to have the horizontal roost resting on top of the vertical support, but it was difficult to get proper measurements through the tiny opening I had to work in. The roosts ended up too short by enough that I instead trimmed them about a quarter inch shorter so that they would fit in between the vertical supports, instead of on top. While the corner braces would hold them in place, these were cheap dollar store braces and I was concerned they wouldn’t hold the weight of chickens without bending or breaking. These flat braces are higher quality and will hold. The wood itself will break before those give out.

To secure the roosts, I had to use a little kitchen step ladder to be able to reach from above at the front, to set the roosts in place and line them up, while making sure they were flush against the front and back walls. There is just a bit of a height difference because of the white edging I had to account for. Both roosts had a vertical that sort of bent away from the wall, so I used one of the pieces for later in the build, jammed at an angle to brace the wonky side in place. Once they were solidly flush against the walled, I screwed them in place from the outside. Each end got three screws. Later on, I’ll use some sort of sealant on the screws to protect the wood from moisture.

The coop now has a roost on each side, on the inside.

The next stage of the build was to add the roosts that came with the kit, which were to be mounted underneath, on either side of where the ramp would be. For that, I needed an extra pair of hands and asked my daughter to come help. After I went inside and looking up online, just how they were supposed to be attached. The pictographs were really useless for that and even an image I’d shared with my daughter, showing how high off the ground they were supposed to be secured, looked like there was something else entirely going on.

She ended up basically taking over the build, and I was her assistant. Mostly because she can actually get down on the ground, and I can’t.

This time, though, we set a sheet of plastic on the ground as a drop sheet. Last time, my daughter was crawling around on the ground, she later discovered she managed to get cat poop on her pants. Ick.

Getting the exterior roosts in place was definitely a two person job. Especially for the front. With the area for the door empty, the sides sides were slightly spread out, and I had to push the entire side in and hold it in place while my daughter screwed the roosts in place.

After that, the floor between the two sides had to be installed, then the hinged ramp attached to the floor. That was all my daughter, as there was no room for me to do anything other than hand her screws.

That done, we had to attached the door to the frame by the hinges. There were a couple of plates that I’ve been using as spacers every time we had to attach a hinged door. After the door was hung, those plates were added across the insides of the frame’s corners at the opposite side, to stop the door from going past the frame when closed. Then the latch was added to the top, and the door and frame could be attached to the coop.

With the ramp on hinges, that could be lifted up and out of the way, so my daughter could go inside and screw the door frame to the coop. The ground isn’t level, so my job was to line up edges and corners and hold them in place – which required actually lifting the coop itself slightly, on one side – until my daughter got enough screws in to hold it in place, and she could do the rest without me holding things.

Once the door and frame were in place, there were a pair of cross pieces to attach between the top of the door frame and the back mesh wall of the coop. These were part of the roof supports.

The roof was the next thing to do, and it took a lot of figuring out what the pictographs were showing. We noticed some pre-drilled holes in some pieces and had to look at instructions a couple of pages later to see what they would be used for, and we could tell which direction they were supposed to face.

The roof supports were assembled in two parts before they could be set on top and secured to the coop. Then we could finally put on the plastic roof panels.

Which was more of a pain than it should have been.

First, was figuring out which side was up, as both sides were identical. They had pre-drilled holes in them that needed to line up with the supports they would be screwed into. Then there were the overlaps. After much shifting and flipping and trying again, it was the pre-drilled holes that determined which panel edge went on top of the other. It was not the way I would have expected it to, when it comes to drainage, but it was the only way one screw could secure both edges at the same time.

Once we got that figured out, and the panels were centered and lined up, we could finally start screwing them into place. For this, my daughter was using the little step ladder a lot, and we found a different problem. The ground was too soft and the legs of the ladder started to sink! I had a small piece of plywood nearby that I could put on the ground under one set of legs, which worked out very well. When it was time for my daughter to move the ladder to reach another section, I just kept moving the board.

We found other problems, though.

The screws for this part of the build are quite short. Too short for where the panels overlapped. After some digging around in the garage, I found a few that could replace some of the screws along the seams, but then we had a whole different problem along the front. For all the care we took to line up the pre-drilled holes with the supports below, the entire row of pre-drilled hold along the front were just a touch too far. The boards in that part of the roof were slightly warped. Probably from sitting in the box in the garage for over a month in the winter. There were extra longer screws in the kit and my daughter ended up using those, and not using the pre-drilled holes, to secure the roof panels. Some of the screws went in crooked and the tips got exposed, but not anywhere I chicken could hurt itself, so we weren’t too worried about it. We’ll have to go over the roof with sealant in places, anyhow.

Once the roof panels were on, the only thing left was to attach the hooks and eyes that would be used to hold open the two front doors for air circulation. For that, the hooks were first attached under the roof, and then we could use those to decide where to attach the screw eyes at the height we wanted the doors to be held open at. In spite of using a measuring tape and marking out where to attach them, we ended up doing one door at a different height than the other. The white edging in one of them had marks already on them that I mistook for the marks I’d made below! Which is fine. As long as they can be held open.

That done, the coop was officially assembled. We just had to move it.

Slight problem. The hinged ramp. With the roof in place, it couldn’t be lift up like when my daughter worked under it before. What we ended up doing was lifting is as high as we could through the open door, then quickly shutting the door before it could drop. We still had to push the ramp up through the wire mesh so the door could be closed but, once it was, the door itself held the ramp up and out of the way.

It wasn’t easy to move the hole thing. We were able to get grips on each end, because the wire mesh is on the inside of the coop, so there was enough of a lip on the frames that we could get our fingertips under there. The main problem was me and my janky elbows. I could hold the weight for only short distances before I could feel them giving out.

Still, we managed it, and set it up in front of the retaining wall, where the ground seemed to be the flattest.

It’s still not level, but at least the whole thing isn’t being twisted out of shape by uneven ground.

Where is how the finished coop looks, with all the doors closed, plus the back, which has no doors of any kind.

You can really tell in the side views, how the ground is sloping! In the front and back views, you can see the screws holding the inside roots in place.

Here are the three sides with all the doors open.

The coop was designed with the roosts below as a way of not having to deal with lots of chicken poop inside. With the added roosts sheltered inside, we’ll be adding bedding. The nesting boxes will probably get straw, but I plan to get pine shavings for under the roosts inside.

With the coop right up against the retaining wall, we can potentially secure it to the blocks so it won’t get blown over in high winds.

We will probably not be able to keep it there, though. It is facing west and the sun can shine right through the wire mesh, the sides might create too much shadow for the garden bed behind it.

One of the things I want to do if find a way to add wheels to it, so it will be easier to move around as needed. It might be easier to just make a pair of wheeled platforms that can be tucked under the ends, then removed once the coop has been moved.

This coop will work out fine for when we get our first chickens, and for the summers. It is not the strongest of structures and definitely not suitable for a Canadian winter, but the plan is to build a polytunnel in the garden this year, so that we can move the chicken coop into it for the winter. It will do until we can build a proper, sturdier, chicken coop. We’re just getting a few chickens to start; enough to supply us with eggs. Over time I want to get more, including meat hens, so we will need to expand things quite a bit. It will take time and materials we don’t really have, but at least now we can get started.

Meanwhile, we can get ready for the chicks to arrive at the end of May. We’ll need feeders and waterers (the ones my parents used are still in the old chicken coop, but I don’t know that any of them are useable, after so many decades since my parents had chickens), both for while we have the chicks in a brooding pen indoors, and for when they get moved outside.

Something else that will be coming at the end of May is our order of basket willow. I got an email from the nursery with several shipping dates available, and I requested the latest one. That will give us time to prepare where we will be planting them, beyond the outer yard, and working out how to protect them from the renter’s cows.

On a completely different note…

It is confirmed that Slick lost her litter. While working outside, I heard a commotion and it was Slick. She’s gone into heat again, and had a whole crowd of dudes wanting their turn with her. She was not happy about it, either. I sent a quick message to the rescue and they want me to trap her as soon as possible. I don’t think we’d be able to trap her specifically, though. However, she has been super friendly when we do the morning cat feeding, and we might be able to get her into the big carrier. Tomorrow morning, my daughter is going to come out with me to try and get her. If we can manage it, she’ll go to the rescue for however long it takes for them to get her spayed, then she will come back here.

If we can get her contained!

Here’s hoping!!!

The Re-Farmer

Chicken coop build, day two – modifications

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Normally, I would have gone into the city today for our first stock up shop. I’d forgotten what day it was when I arranged for someone from the hospital the TCU my mother is in to call me.

No one called.

*sigh*

I headed out to work on the chicken coop in the early afternoon. I had decided last night on how I would modify the coop to include roosts in front of the nesting boxes, if I could find the materials for it.

I did.

After taking some measurements (it was very awkward to reach where I needed to measure!), I dug around the scrap but useable lumber bits in the garage my brother gave me and found a 2×4 that was long enough. I cut it to the length I needed for the roosts with my miter saw, but was stuck trying to figure out how to cut it in half length wise. A hand saw would just take too long, and the old table saw we have stored in the sun room would have been too much of a pain to get out and use for just one cut. In the end, I got my jig saw out of winter storage and used that.

The down side is that I got a wonky cut out of it. When it came near the end, I flipped the board and restarted at the uncut end. Of course, it went wonky and I ended up with a jaggy bit where the cuts met. I ended up taking the pieces to the vice in the other side of the garage and smoothed the roughest parts with my draw knife. Then they got a sanding, just with some course sand paper, so the pieces were smooth on all sides, and the edges were slightly rounded. Should be much nicer on chicken feet!

While getting the jigsaw out of storage in the basement, I looked through the scrap we had there and found a leftover piece of wood that was the right width to use as uprights to support the roosts. I measured off and cut two 12″ pieces, then took everything to the coop to see how they fit. I found I needed to trim a bit on the cross pieces, then remembered that I needed two more upright supports. The remaining piece of wood was just shy of 2′ long, so I ended up cutting it in half and getting two pieces just barely over 11 inches long.

I also had a package of right angle brackets and used those to attach the uprights to the cross piece, though I did have to trim just a touch off the cross pieces for them to fit. Unfortunately, the angle brackets I had are dollar store cheepies, and the screws just did not want to bite! It almost took longer to screw on the angle brackets than it did to cut the wood to size!

I got them done, though, and have set them up inside the coop, in front of the nesting boxes.

I had to use a little household step ladder to be able to reach in and set one end in place, from above. Ideally, these should have been installed when before the end walls were attached, but I hadn’t figured out how to add the roosts inside, yet.

You can see the new roosts in the second and third photos of the slideshow above. At this point, I had to stop. The uprights need to be secured to the walls. Otherwise, they’ll just fall loose while the coop is being worked on and moved around. I’ll have to screw them in place from the outside.

After going through my collection of screws, I realized I didn’t have anything the right size. I will be going into the city tomorrow for the stock up trip I normally would have done today, and one of my stops is Canadian Tire for litter pellets, so I can pick up the right screws while I am there.

Which means there will be no progress at all on the coop tomorrow, nor probably the day after, as that is when I would be going into the city again for the Costco shopping. My daughter will probably be coming with me, so she won’t be working on it for me, either.

Thankfully, we don’t actually need it for quite some time, and by the time we can get back at it, the weather should be warming up again.

As I was putting everything away, I spotted these adorable ones.

They really love that pile of straw mulch I’d moved under the mock orange bush!

When doing the evening cat feed, I saw Slick. She didn’t show up this morning, so I was glad to see her. As I put food on the cat house roof, her favourite place to eat, she actually came over, purring, and wanting pets! Which I stopped to do, and made a point of trying to feel under her belly. I was hoping to feel and active nips she had, to get an idea of how many kittens she has.

I felt none at all.

Which is very strange. I’m sure I would have felt something if she were nursing kittens. Either she just has one and the active nip was somewhere I wasn’t able to touch her, or … did she lose her litter? It’s really hard to know at this point. After she ate, she suddenly got strange on me again and moved away as I came close, even if it was to pet a different cat. As she moved around, I tried to see her belly fur, and still, nothing.

I don’t know what to make of it.

As I continued my evening rounds, I checked on the fruit and berry bushes. It’s too early to see if they all survived the winter at this stage. One exception is the silver buffaloberry.

The branches are absolutely covered with these tiny little leaf buds!

I may have made a mistake in not covering the trellis bed, with the peas and carrots. Peas are cold tolerant, but newly uncovered sprouts may not have been strong enough to handle the overnight temperatures we’re having right now. Some of the other beds, the rows got re-covered in leaves by the wind, which I’ve left, as it may be protecting any seedlings from the overnight cold. It’s too early to tell, even with the beds that are under plastic.

The colder temperatures are good for the poppy seeds I sowed, though. This is nature doing the cold stratification for me.

Hopefully, the winter sown beds will make it. If not, I’ll have a lot of free space to plant into, when things finally warm up!

I might just pick up more packages of certain new seed varieties I was trying, just in case…

😁

The Re-Farmer

Chicken coop build, day one

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Well, we did get a lot done, but it isn’t complete.

I didn’t even head out until the afternoon. I wanted to wait until it got at least a bit warmed. I’m glad I did, because I got a phone calls from my mother and brother. They are back from their pilgrimage and he even visited my mother on Saturday, not longer after I’d left! We must have just missed each other that day!

The first call was from my mother, giving me the name of a doctor at the clinic in the same hospital building the TCU is in. Someone else there gave her the name of his wife’s doctor, and I got all sorts of details that were absolutely irrelevant. I eventually found out that her hearing has gotten worse, especially in her right ear, and so on.

Now, that last time I talked to someone at the nursing station about this, I was told that because the doctor in charge of the ICU does his rounds only once a week and can’t stay with any one person for too long, I would have to make an appointment at the clinic, instead. I had passed this on to my mother, but that was as far as it went.

I managed to get my mother to let me off the phone so I could call the clinic. I looked up the clinic’s website for the phone number, and also looked up the names of the staff.

The name she gave me was not for a doctor, but a Registered Nurse. There is no permanent doctor at this clinic; all the doctors come in from the city on some sort of rotation, so most of the appointments are doing by RNs. I knew my mother wasn’t going to like that.

Still, I called up the clinic and talked to the receptionist, explaining that my mother was right in the building in the TCU and wanted to make an appointment.

They can’t do that. It doesn’t work that way.

???

I told her what I’d been told by the nurse, some time ago, and it was not the correct information. In short, we have to book a family meeting with the doctor, an administrator, my mother and any family members that can be there (which would probably just be me) to talk about my mother’s needs. Which would need to be arranged through the administrator. Who wasn’t in today. She’d be in tomorrow, though.

So I called the nursing station at the TCU and talk to the nurse there. Not the same one I spoke to about this before. I explained the situation about not being able to book and appointment and my instructions, and she was all, yeah, that’s how it’s done.

*sigh*

She got my name and phone number and the administrator should be calling me tomorrow.

That done, I called my mother back to let her know. She was eating her lunch at the time, so I kept it short. She still tried to keep me on the phone longer, as she was eating and talking to me at the same time.

It took me a while to recover from the noises. I don’t think she had her teeth in.

Then, just before I was going to head outside, my brother called. He had just talked to my mother, having to do a three way call, because he needs to do her taxes and there is stuff missing. As her PoA, he could take care of it, but it would have taken 90 days, but if my mother talked to them in person and gave permission, they could do it right away. My brother wanted to make sure I knew about it all in case I got a call from my mother and she was sounding flustered or something.

I’m so glad he did that.

Finally, I could head outside and get started. I had been trying to figure out how to move the two big boxes from the garage to the yard, where we’re thinking to set it up, and never quite came to a conclusion. In the end, once I dragged a box out of the garage, I found I could simply walk it, rocking from one corner to the other, all the way across. It was surprisingly fast that way. The boxes where not the same size and shape, and one of them was more awkward than they other, but I got it done.

The next thing to do was unpack them both and sort everything on the lawn.

Then I brought my tool bag and a chair, then sat down to start going through the instructions.

They are pictographic instructions.

They’re not very clear.

Still, I got a fair bit of progress on the first section before I had to message a daughter for help. It needed to be stood up, but it wasn’t very stable yet and I didn’t want to risk breaking anything. My younger daughter came out to help – then stayed! In fact, she pretty much took over for me.

Which I really appreciated when I realized I hadn’t eaten lunch yet. She kept working on it, trying to decipher the instructions for the next stage. We’d already had to take some things off and reverse them, because the images in the instructions looked the opposite of what it was supposed to be.

As I was eating, the phone rang again.

It was my mother.

She told me my brother had called, and it was about insurance. She doesn’t have insurance.

Did I mention how glad I am my brother filled me in already?

I explained to her that he called about her taxes. One of the things he had to get for her claim is her prescription information. Our province has insurance coverage for that, connected with our provincial health care.

She still doesn’t understand it. She knows she sometimes has to pay for her medications, and sometimes gets them for “free”, but doesn’t understand the concept of a deductible, or that the “free” is when the insurance covers the cost.

Then she started complaining about how my brother never phones or visits.

I pointed out, he’s been back from Spain for maybe 2 days, he just visited her recently, and phoned her today. “Oh, in general”. Then she complained my sister doesn’t phone or visit, and passed on stuff she wanted me to tell them for her. It seems she’s lost track of their phone numbers, and can’t figure out how to use the contacts list on her phone. The number here at the farm hasn’t changed since they had a telephone installed some time in the 60s, it’s the only number she remembers.

I had mentioned to her that I was eating and that I had to get back outside to help build a chicken coop, but still had a hard time getting her to let me off the phone. I messaged my brother right away, before I could forget anything, inhaled the rest of my “lunch” (it was well past 5 by then), then went back to help my daughter.

When I’d done in, we’d done as much as we could on one side of the coop at this stage, and the second side needed to be assembled. She had gotten some good progress on that by the time I got there again, but she was stumped at the next part.

It turned out she had attached the floor in reverse. There was nothing in the pictographs to show there was a difference. On the side that’s supposed to face the end of the nesting boxes go, there were pre-drilled holes for pegs. The walls for the nesting boxes are set in place with the pegs, first, then screwed into place through pre-drilled holes under the floor.

We had to take almost the whole thing apart again to fix it. The side walls also had wooden pegs, and a couple of them broke in the process. They were placeholders, though, so with two of us there, it got reassembled just fine.

We finally got to the point where the two sides are attached to each other at the back, then brackets added for the floor runs from one side to the other.

Before the section of floor was added, though, the roosts were supposed to be attached below.

The pictographs were particularly confusing.

By then, it was starting to get really cold. We were both in t-shirts, since it was nice out early. When I got inside and checked, I discovered we were at 5C/41F, but the windchill was -2C/28F

Definitely not t-shirt weather!

Here is a slide show of today’s progress.

The pile of packing foam sheets in the second picture got put back into a box to get it out of the way before I started assembling things. Even then, the wind was high enough to try and tear it out of my hands and snapped a couple of pieces!

While reading the instructions, I unbagged and sorted out the parts and pieces, which are in the second picture.

The third picture is when I had to get assistance to flip the whole thing upright. The mesh sections just didn’t have anything to support them, yet.

Also, I screwed up. I put two back panels on. My daughter fixed that while I’d gone in to eat. The front panel has a door that opens for air circulation.

I was too late when I got the fourth picture of Judgement. He had been napping on the roof panels for much of the time, but then he started rolling around luxuriously on them. Of course, once I got my phone out to take some video of his adorableness, he stopped. At least he pretty posed for a picture! 😄

The fifth and last photo is where we stopped. My poor daughter’s back was killing her by then, so I took care of stacking the remaining pieces close to what we’ve got assembled so far.

What I should probably figure out before we put the ramp, door and roof on, is where I will be adding roosts on the inside, in front of the nesting boxes. There are two roosting bars, under the floors on each side. Which, to me, seems completely exposed. the bottom is wire mesh on all sides. We get a lot of wind. Unless we make covers for the mesh bottoms, the chickens aren’t going to enjoy roosting there!

This is most definitely a “summer” only coop. We’ll have to prioritize protecting it in the winter. That’s one of the reasons I want to build a polytunnel in the main garden area. We can stick the whole coop inside for the winter. The entire structure is relatively light, so moving it would not be that difficult.

It’s going to be another month before we get chicks, and another 4-6 weeks before they go into the coop, so we will have plenty of time to figure it out!

The next several days will be chillier, and then we’re supposed to warm up again. If all goes well, the coop will be finished tomorrow. I don’t want it to be sitting outside, partially finished, for too long. At this point, if we get high winds, it could be blown over quite easily.

One other thing that has made the built more difficult than it should be is the fact that we have no level ground, anywhere. We’re working on one of the most level places, and it should be okay once it’s completely assembled, but it made two people a necessity to attach some parts – one to pick the corner of the coop being worked on and hold the pieces aligned with each other, while the other drove the screws in.

In other news, I’ve heard from the foster that’s taking care of Frank. Her two babies that she rejected are in another home with experienced kitten bottle feeders. Frank is absolutely traumatized, though for a cat that just had major surgery, she sure is active! She growls and hisses at humans, but is curious about the cats that show up at the special screen door they have. Looking at some video I was sent, I think she actually is liking the amenities of indoor life. As much as a traumatized cat can! Considering all they had to do to get her to the vet for her C section, then get her back again, it’s going to be difficult to calm her down. Still, it will be easier than when she was outside. After she escaped when we tried to get her spayed, it took months to regain her trust, but we didn’t have constant access to her to work on it, either. We just saw her at feeding time, mostly.

Hopefully, it will all work out in the end. Frank really is a sweetie, once her trust is gained!

We shall see.

The Re-Farmer

Trellis build progress

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I wasn’t sure how much we could get done on the trellis build today, and it turns out to be just two vertical supports. Which is actually pretty good, all things considering!

Here’s the start.

I selected and de-barked logs for the verticals something like a year ago, and that was about as far as things got for quite some time. Having been sitting out over the bed like that all winter, I went over them and took one out completely, as it cracked too badly to be used. After going through the others, I debated whether I wanted to do four or five verticals, and decided to go ahead and with five. The two largest would go on each corner.

We had debated various ways of setting these up, including digging holes and sinking them, but decided to just attach them directly to the frame of the raised bed. The one last minute decision we made was to set them on scrap bricks, so that the bases wouldn’t be in contact with the soil. We went through the pile of bricks from the old chimney that was removed when the new roof was done and found several chunks that seemed suitable.

The first thing to do was to trim all the bottoms so that they’d be straight. Then, we needed to create flattish, straight-ish surfaces on the sides where they would come in contact with the frame.

With the first corner, the bottom log of the end cap got trimmed a fair bit. With the brick in place, we worked out where we needed to trim the vertical. We still ended up needing to cut extra out near the bottom to fit over that bottom end cap log. Once it was snug enough, we used 3 inch screws to secure it. For now, there’s just two of them. We’ll secure it more, later in the build.

The opposite corner needed a lot more work. We had to cut away more from the frame itself, to create more of a surface to attach to. Then there was cutting away the excess on the vertical. In the end, though, the vertical log was still too thick for our 3″ screws, and we didn’t have anything longer, so we used metal strapping to hold it in place. After using shorter screws to secure the strapping in place, we used a few 3″ screws to tighten it up even more at the gaps.

We weren’t after perfection, by any means. Which is good, because cutting away the excess wood was quite a pain. We mostly used the mini-chainsaw (a Stihl pruning saw) until we drained both batteries, as well as using whatever other tools we had on hand, including a hatchet, a chisel and even the draw knife.

We had “help” while we were working!

Syndol was especially eager to “help” any time I bent over, wanting to jump onto my back! Then, while using the drill or driver, he kept trying to get in on things. My daughter and I had our hands full either of tools or holding the vertical post, and he took full advantage of the fact that we couldn’t really stop him from getting in the way!

In the end, it took us about 2 hours to get just those two verticals up. This is how it looks now.

We reached our high of 16C/61F today, and we were working in full sun, so it got really hot out there.

After this, we’ll measure out where to put the remaining three verticals, with each on top of a piece of brick. They are not as thick, so it shouldn’t take as long. They can only be attached to the top log, though, as the bottom one bows inward quite a bit.

Once those are in place, we will measure and mark the tops and trim them to all the same height. One those are leveled, horizontals will be put across the top. I’m still not decided on whether I want to put the horizontals directly on top, or on what will be the inside of the trellis tunnel, when the matching bed is built. Probably directly on top. Once that’s in place, support pieces at 45° angles will be added.

With the end posts, I am thinking to add angled posts reaching from the opposite corners of the raised bed to the top of the verticals to secure them more.

Eventually, more horizontals will be added – much thinner horizontals – from vertical to vertical, near the bottom. For now, we will probably use plastic trellis netting, but these will eventually be used to create squash tunnels. They will eventually need to hold quite a bit of weight, so more durable material will be used over time. At this point, I just want something up and useable! It will probably be used to support pole beans or peas this year.

We still have a pile of posts meant for verticals as we build more of these beds and, eventually, join them in pairs to create trellis tunnels. Many are completely hidden in the tall grass! We’ll have to dig them out and see how many are still usable. There was more cracking and splitting in these ones than I expected.

I’d gone walking out to the gravel pit and pond beyond the outer yard the other day and one thing I noticed was that there are a lot of nice, straight poplars that we can potentially harvest for projects like this. It’s the “straight” part that’s harder to find. It was good to see that, if some of the logs I’d already cut for posts are too weather damaged, I can replace them fairly easily.

For now, I’m happy with what we got done today. I’m not sure when we’ll be able to work on it next. Tomorrow there is a homesteader’s show near the city that my daughter and I want to go to, and we might be able to do our first stock up shopping trip at the same time. CPP disability is due to come in on a Monday this month, which means it might show up in our account tomorrow, instead, so if I can save a trip by doing both tomorrow, I will! I doubt either my daughter and I would be physically up to working on the trellis for 2 days in a row, anyhow. I’ve already started to stiffen up quite painfully, and I’m sure she is, too. I don’t plan to work on it on Sunday, since I try to keep that my regular day of rest, but Monday is supposed to be much colder and very windy, so Sunday might be my only chance for quite a while.

Working around our physical limitations, plus the weather, can get complicated at times!

I’m going to go take some pain killers now, while I can still move.

The Re-Farmer

Finally (video)

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It took me forever to get this video done, a little at a time.

Which actually worked out, in the end.

This is a video of the isolation shelter build and, because it took so long, I was able to include files of it actually in use for the first time, at the end.

I hope you enjoy it!

The Re-Farmer

A quick isolation shelter build

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Yesterday, we had my husband’s prescription delivery and I headed out too early. It was cold, so I went into the garage to get out of the wind and started poking through the lumber and other left over building material my brother gave us while they were moving things out.

I struck gold.

I found a few pieces of plywood that looked liked they were the size I needed and brought them to the house, after the prescription delivery.

Today, I could have gone into the city to do our Costco shop. It is, however, Black Friday. I don’t know why we have Black Friday in Canada, since our Thanksgiving is in October. Truthfully, I was really confused about when the US Thanksgiving was, since these sales have been going on for about two weeks. Even so, this is the “big day” for sales which, for me, means, staying away from stores as much as possible! It’s not like we’d be buying anything different that we usually do, and that stuff tends to not go on sale.

I’ll be doing that tomorrow. Even shopping on a Saturday at Costco would be better than shopping on Black Friday!

So, today was a home day.

As I write this, we’re currently at -16C/3F, with a wind chill of -29C/-20F Our high of the day was supposed to be -13C/9F, but I don’t think we reached it.

With that in mind, I decided it was a good day to see what I could do with those pieces of plywood, and whatever else I could find.

What we have been wanting to do is build some sort of shelter over the isolation shelter opening. It’s a large opening and the winds can blow right in – and would blow in snow, as well. We needed something to keep the weather out. It needed to be easily moveable, but also heavy enough that it wouldn’t get blown away. The plywood I found looked like it would fit the bill for making a box that would fit over the ramp door.

All three pieces were exactly 2′ long, but one was slightly narrower. The narrower piece became the top. I made the 2′ the height of the box, since the bottom level of the isolation shelter is 2′ high. That does not count the pallet floor or wheels, though, so I knew I would need to keep that in mind, too.

The slideshow below is a couple of photos of the basic box shape.

That bit of a gap from the narrower piece would go against the isolation shelter. I didn’t take any measurements, so this was just in case it lined up with the top of the latch on the frame.

I had some lumber left over from making the garden bed cover frames, so I cut 2′ of that to join the bottom of the box and stabilize it. That is meant to go under the ramp door. I might end up removing that, though. The wood split on one side as I nailed it in place. I found a skinnier but longer nail for the other side, and ended up splitting the plywood.

As you’ve probably guessed, this entire projected was made with scavenged materials.

Speaking of scavenged materials…

I had found another piece of plywood with a perfect circle cut into it that would have made a great “door”, but it was too small to fit the front of the box.

I did, however, still have a panel of the old tub surround in the house.

So, I laid that down and used the box itself to mark out a piece large enough to cover the front completely. I decided I would use that to cover the front and make a cat flap door. You can see progress photos in the slideshow below.

One the front panel was cut out, I found the center, the marked off four inches on either side, then … I forget if I went 10 or 11 inches from the bottom. That got cut out to make the door flap.

I then cut about half an inch off the bottom, and less than 1/8th of an inch off one side. I didn’t measure. Basically, I had a piece of wood I was using as a straight edge to cut against, and it was whatever amount looked right. The main thing is that the flap had to be able to move freely in the space. With a gap on the bottom, I figured it would be easier for the cats to figure out how to use the flap, as they would instinctively snuffle at the gap to try and get in or out.

All I had to create a “hinge” for the flap was duct tape, though. So I secured that as best I could, while still allowing for the flap to freely swing in both directions.

The next thing was to attach it to the front of the box, and secure it. Slideshow below…

I had some smaller nails that were white that I bought for something else quite a while ago, and those were perfect for attaching the panel.

I used a lot of nails, since I figured cats might end up dashing out and bashing into the sides when startled.

Which is also why I added a cross piece above the cat flap on the inside. I was able to nail that into place at each end, but I also wanted to attach the panel to the cross piece, and for that I needed smaller nails.

After scrounging around through various buckets we found while cleaning the old basement, I found three short little nails.

They would do!

I’ve kept a chimney block in the basement because it’s been such a handy work surface for various projects, and it came in handy again. I set it up inside the box, under the cross piece. It was shorter than the height needed, but a piece of scrap 2×4 was enough to make the difference. The panel is now secured to the cross piece above the cat flap, where I figured it would need the most support.

I then spotted a potential problem. All of this exposed wood that’s going to be in the snow all winter. Even if we had paint, I wouldn’t have wanted to use it, as it would need time to dry, and I wanted to get this out as quickly as possible.

Tub surround to the rescue, once again.

I made a roof.

That could only be nailed down on the sides, as the nails I had are 1″ and the plywood is 3/4″, so I used quite a few to secure it. In the first photo of the slideshow above, you can see that I also used more duct tape around the edges of the panel at the cat flap, plus added another strip above the flap, just in case.

The next image shows how it looks on the inside, with the cross piece, and the last image from the back. I’d laid the top of the box to mark out how large it was, on the back of the tub surround piece. This piece has holes in it from the arm bars, which didn’t matter for the front panel, but for the roof, I made sure there were no screw holes. This time, when using the piece of scrap lumber as my cutting guide (I just used a utility knife to cut it), I lined it up with my marks, then cut on the other side of the wood, to create an overhang on three sides.

It was now done!

Next year, when we get more paint for the isolation shelter, we’ll paint the exposed wood on this, too, but there is no urgency on that, now that there is a roof in place.

At this point, I needed to get this up the basement stairs and outside. Between the unfortunate way the door is hung (it swings over the stairs instead of into the entry) and the cats, I commandeered my daughter for assistance. She helped me get it outside and set up over the ramp door, lifting it so I could slide that back cross piece under it.

I foresaw a few potential problems, once the box was in place. I’d hoped to avoid them, but nope.

In the first photo, you can see the first problem. The patio blocks are not level, and one in particular has been heaved by the roots of the elm tree in front of the house, quite a bit. It actually cracked the front panel at the corner. In the next photo, you can see that not only is it lower than the frame between floors, but not at all level.

What you can’t see is that the cat flap could only swing outwards. Inwards, it was hitting the ramp. The extra height the pallet floor and wheels added were causing this problem.

All I needed was a raised the box higher by a couple of inches. Leveling it was not going to happen, but it at least needed to be raised up and supported enough to not wobble or anything like that.

Bricks from the old wood burning furnace chimney to the rescue! I found four that had the least amount of mortar stuck to them.

It was enough. The flap can now freely swing in or out. The bricks provided a stable enough lift that there is no wobble at all, even though it’s still not level.

In the future, we need to rip out this patio and redo it so it’s level again, but there’s no point in doing that until we get rid of the tree in front of the house. Not only is it lifting the patio blocks, but there are cracks in the basement wall.

While setting up the box over the ramp, there were several cats inside the shelter, very interested in the goings on. Others had already dashed out as soon as we started fussing around the shelter.

For the cats inside, it would be an easy thing for them to figure out the cat flap. What we need to watch for is if they can figure out they can push against it to get in. If it seems that this is an issue, we can prop the flap open, or even remove it entirely. That would allow some of the weather in, but it’s far enough away from the entrance that it should not affect much more than the ramp itself.

When we have cats isolated in the shelter, we’ll need to move the box away completely and close the ramp door. Once that is closed, the box won’t be needed to keep the weather out. There is enough space beside the shelter to store the box until it’s needed again – where it can double as another shelter for the cats. We already have a small food bowl beside the shelter for cats that aren’t willing to go inside it, but it’s completely exposed. Even if it’s for just a couple of weeks while there are cats recovering from spays inside, that would be useful, as long as it doesn’t block access to the sliding door we use to refill the kibble bowl in the second level.

What I’ll probably do in the spring is add legs to the box to raise it up a few inches, so we don’t need to use bricks. The bricks we are using now will be just fine for this winter, though.

When we first moved out here and started cleaning up around the yard, it amazed me just how many bricks I was finding, all over the place.

Now that we’ve been here a few years, we’ve found those bricks incredibly handy, and I even find myself thinking, we need more bricks! 😂

So that’s one more job done for the isolation shelter. Hopefully, the cats will be fine with it, because it will make a big difference in the conditions inside during the winter. Especially when we get hit with winds from the south.

I’m rather pleased with out it turned out, and really grateful for all that scrap wood my brother gave us. The pieces may have been too small for projects my brother needed to work on, but they are perfect for small projects like this!

The Re-Farmer

What a great day, with some excellent updates

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I am really happy with how things have turned out today!

First, we have the cat isolation shelter.

It took all day, but it is now useable! It has been moved close to the house, and the cats love it. Here is a short video I took to post on Instagram.

I was able to make the sliding doors, but one of them turned out to be a real pain. The wood lath covering the insulation on the other side, were not all the same widths, with some sticking out further than others. There was no way the panel could slide over it. So I made a stopper, instead, and it can only slide the other way. We’ll just have to be careful not to slide it out so far that it’ll fall out.

The other side was downright easy, after that!

Once those were in, I got my daughter to hold the front window in place while I drilled some pilot holes and put screws into the corners. Once that was done, she could let it go, and we added more screws to secure it.

Then, finally, we could put the roof pieces on.

Which turned out to not be as long as the boards they were being attached to. We have excess wood sticking out, front and back The back is the “handle” to lift the roof, anyhow, so I’m not too concerned about that, though at some point we’ll want to replace the strip of wood lath across the back with something sturdier. As for the pieces sticking out the front, I ended up using them to help steer as we moved it. We might cut them flush with the roof later, though.

I had to abandon my daughter part way through moving it, as my brother arrived with another load to drop off. After greeting him and he went to unload, I had a chance to take a short video of the isolation shelter. My daughter had left it in an open spot for me to do that. Eventually, I will put together a video of the entire process, which dragged on for so much longer than expected. After that, I moved the shelter closer to the house.

The door/ramp doesn’t have a latch, though – the ones I had were not large enough – so it kept dropping open, even though we’d taped it shut. The down side of using salvaged materials. One of the boards of the ramp cracked after hitting the ground. I had to add a couple more screws to fix it. Which was fine, but it required closing the door to do it.

The kitten that was inside the shelter was not happy about that! 😄

The last thing that really needs to be done is to find a latch for the door/ramp. We also need to get more paint, but that’s mostly cosmetic.

Once we work out exactly where it will stay for the winter, we’ll hang the clamp lamp with the heat bulb under the roof and get that ready for plugging in for the winter, preferably with a timer. I’d also like to attach handles to make it easier to move. The handles I had that I thought we could use are not strong enough.

After moving the isolation shelter closer to the other cat shelters, I grabbed a couple of winter squash as a gift for my brother, and went to join him while he worked. While we were there, we started hearing a noise.

A noise he identified as splashing water on metal.

From the septic expeller.

I couldn’t believe that’s what we were hearing, so we went to take a look. Sure enough, there was water coming out of the pipe!

It was not coming out as well as it should have been; it was almost dribbling down the outer pipe, and the sheet of metal that’s there to prevent erosion at the base was being partially missed. The pipe itself is leaning a bit back and to one side, instead of being straight up, which I’m sure isn’t helping, either.

I’m amazed that it was working at all. I was just there earlier today, taking photos, and saw no sign that water was being ejected from that pipe.

Oh! I completely forgot to mention!

With the one septic company ghosting us, I called the other and left a message this morning. The owner called me back less than half an hour later. They will be able to do the job for us. They are really busy and he couldn’t tell me when they can come out to fix the leak – it might be 3 or 4 weeks – but he told me that they could do the work even if the ground were frozen.

So that was definitely good news!

He asked me for photos of the expeller. While I was there, I made a point of looking to see if there was any sign that greywater has been flowing over the sheet of metal. That fact that there is some water flowing out the pipe, and not all just seeping into the ground, is actually a bit of a weight off my shoulders, making the timing of getting the repair done is not quite as urgent.

So that was more good news.

My brother had been able to come out sooner than he expected. It was still light out when he was done unloading, so he and I did a walkabout, including out to the car graveyard and the old farm equipment. I now know which things he wants to keep, and what can go to the scrap dealer – and it’s added a lot more to what the salvage company can come out for!

Oh, it’s going to be good to clear out this stuff.

My brother then came in to take a look at the bathroom, and the rot on the walls.

In the end, he said it’s not actually that bad. He said he wouldn’t bother taking it out at all, which would require taking the tub out. He suggested we just fix the taps from the other side, then cover it all with the new tub surround we already have.

Then we went around to the other side of the wall to talk about cutting an access panel. He’s pretty sure there is more aspenite under the paneling. We could take off the entire panel, but that would require removing the molding that’s over it, too. He suggested drilling through from the bathroom side to mark where to cut. Which is what I had been thinking, but only after cutting away the rotted aspenite around the taps. We have to figure out where the joists are; they should be 16″ apart, but the bathroom was installed while he was away in college, so he never saw how things were done.

So that is more good news. We don’t have to remove the tub and cut more of the walls away. He recommended we treat the aspenite with bleach, but we have some anti-mold product specifically for bathrooms we can use.

We can now put together a plan of action to get things fixed so we can use our tub and shower again!

Then my brother got his meter and we went to check the hot water tank – after shutting off the breaker! He tested the elements, and it turns out that it is the top element that is burnt out. The bottom one is working fine.

So we’ll be looking into getting a replacement for the top element.

I told him about the powered anode rod we are getting. Looking at the outlet near the hot water tank, I mentioned my thought of unplugging the extension cord that goes into my husband’s closet, then moving the plug for the well pump up, so we have room to plug in the new rod.

He advised against it.

As he put it, we’re already on borrowed time with that well pump, and he wouldn’t touch anything if it can be avoided.

We looked at the other outlet, where the sump pump is plugged in. He suggested running an extension cord from there, instead.

I will trust his advice and do that.

So we’re still without use of the tub and shower, and have only tepid water, but we now have a better idea of what to do next.

Which will be to get at the plumbing for the faucet set from the bedroom side and get that working, first. Then, even if it takes longer to get to the point we can install the tub surround, we can temporarily put plastic over where it’s cut open, so we can use the tub and not have to keep sponge bathing!

So… I rate that as more good news.

There was only one hiccup in the day that is more strange than anything else.

While my brother was unloading his truck, he got a voice mail notification on his cell phone – but his phone never rang. He joked that it was our vandal, because that’s who it was the last time this happened.

Well, after he left our place, my brother checked the voice mail, and it really was from our vandal!

I’ll get a copy of the message later, but it was much the same as last time. He’s wondering why my brother is “catering” to me – and we have no idea what he’s talking about. He also said that his doctor told him that the reason he got cancer is because of us, and that we are evil, evil, evil! He’s dying of cancer, and it’s our fault.

???

I’d say, he was drinking behind his wife’s back again.

At least he didn’t threaten us with “retribution” so extreme, even the Pope would be reading about it in a magazine, this time.

We are perplexed as to what triggered the call. Particularly since my brother was here when the voice mail was left. My brother thinks our vandal has been watching us, and saw that my brother had arrived, but I don’t see how.

Whatever the reason, my brother has our vandal’s number blocked, so he shouldn’t have been able to leave any voice mail message at all. The phone company is going to be getting a call about it, that’s for sure!

One thing else is for sure. When the scrap metal company comes to clean things up, we will have to watch out for our vandal, because he is going to go ballistic. He believes all this stuff rightfully belongs to him – but then, he thinks the entire property rightfully belongs to him.

Well, we’ll deal with that when the time comes. I’ll just be glad to get all this stuff cleaned out – and I’m sure the renter will be glad to see it gone, too, since his cows graze around almost all of it!

Oh, and I told my brother about the guy that wants to buy a couple of cars for parts, and how he will need to bring in special equipment to be able to get them out. I also told my brother that I’d arranged for him to use part of the money for the cars to pay back the guy that put a down payment on the old Farm Hand tractor, since I could see my brother wasn’t happy with the sale. My brother was happy to hear this.

So good news for him, too!

It’s just been a good day, overall, I’d say!

The Re-Farmer

Cat isolation shelter progress; starting the roof

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Today has been a very windy and rainy day, but I still managed a bit of progress on the cat isolation shelter. I kept the garage door closed because of the weather, or course. Usually I have it open for light and fresh air, but the winds were blowing in from the south today, and that door faces south. I was surprised by just how much that door was rattling and shaking in the wind, even with the truck parked outside, right in front of it, acting as a bit of a wind break!

All was warm and dry inside the garage, though, so that worked out well.

I decided to work on the frame that will be supporting the clear roof panels, starting with the board that would support the piano hinge in front.

The piano hinge has 18 screw holes in each half, and came with its own little baggie of screws. I started by centering the hinge on the board, with a plan to attach the hinge at each end, then continuing on the shelter itself.

I had problems with the very first screw.

The head broke off!

If the screws that came with it were going to break that easily, I was not going to use the rest!

I did have the remains of a box of small screws that I used on the catio roof that were the right size, so I used those, instead.

After securing the hinge to the board at each end, I set it up on top of the shelter. I dug around the garage and found a strip of aluminum thin enough that I could use it as a spacer between the frame and the board. The board had a slight bend in the middle, so that got weighted down with a couple of bricks.

I didn’t have enough screws for all the holes in the hinge, but there’s enough to hold it in place. I’ll have to pick up more screws later to finish the job.

In the first photo above, you can see some of the empty screw holes. I made sure the ends and the middle were secure. I supposed I could use the screws that came with it for the rest, but it’s not worth potentially filling the holes with broken screws I won’t be able to get out later.

Once that was in place and the spacer removed, I had three boards to attack to the hinged piece. I used one to work out exactly how I wanted them positioned. The overhang is slightly longer in the front than the back. After marking where it lined up with the frame, I used that to mark the other two boards.

I spent a fair bit of time making sure they were exactly where I wanted them, then screwed them in place.

That left three ends in the back that needed something to keep them from wobbling around when the roof pieces are attached.

Once again, wood lath to the rescue!

The distance from one side to the other is 4′, which is the length of the wood lath. I find the most even piece out of the new bundle I could find, and simply nailed it to the ends of the roof supports.

If you click through to the next photo above, you’ll see what it looks like, open. Instagram doesn’t work with having both portrait and landscape orientation photos in a slide show, so things are a bit cut off in the image. The end of the roof support reaches the rafters!

While the piano hinge would allow for the roof to open all the way flat, the overhang will let it open only so far. Later, I might at something that can be used to hold it propped open, but that can wait.

Last of all, I added another piece of wood lath under the three boards. You can see it in the last photo. I lined it up with the edge of the frame, and then used wood glue to secure it, with the bricks to weight it down as it dries. This piece is to make sure the boards don’t slam right against the frame when it closes. It will eventually be further secured with nails.

The roof panels will not be added until last, though.

From this, I started working on attaching the front door/ramp. After checking how it fit into the opening, I cut a small piece of wood to attach under the horizontal top, as a stopper for the ramp.

It was remarkably difficult to attach this to the underside of the 2×4! Quite awkward, and one of the screws seem to be hitting something harder in the wood.

The next step is to attach the hinges to the door, then to the frame, but that’s when my husband came to the garage to let me know my daughter needed help with the taps. There is no signal in the garage at all, so they couldn’t message me to ask me to come to the house.

Well, at least I got a bit done!

Once the door/ramp is on, and a latch installed, it’ll be time to add the clear panels – which still need to be cut to size! It’s starting to look like we won’t be able to set up the table saw in the sun room, after all, so I’ll need to figure out some other way to cut it. If I can keep it from vibrating too much, I could use a jig saw.

I’ll cut it by hand with the pull saw, if I have to.

Ever since my brother told me this stuff can possibly shatter while being cut, I’ve been incredibly hesitant about using any of the tools we have.

It’s so close to being done, but there have been so many interruptions!

Of course, getting those shut off valves and installing them so we could have running water in the house was most definitely a higher priority!

Little by little, it’s getting done.

The Re-Farmer

Cat isolation shelter progress: the wire mesh is on, and laying down framework

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I finally got to spend some time working on the cat isolation shelter today! It’s been way too long.

I decided to go ahead and put on the rest of the wire mesh on the lower level, and start preparing the upper level.

Here is a slideshow of one side that gave me a bit more trouble.

All the areas needing mesh were done, with the mesh first tacked on with staples. For the short sides, I started securing the mesh with wood lath across the bottoms. I then spent a bit of time working out how best to start framing for the clear panels that will be sliding doors, while further securing the mesh on the bottom half.

The clear panel, which still needs to be cut to the sizes I need, is a quarter inch thick. The wood lath is also a quarter inch thick, though individual pieces have variations in width, so that will work out perfectly for sliding channels.

For this side, I added long, vertical pieces of wood that would both secure the wire mesh on the bottom, while also starting to form a frame around the opening that the clear plastic will be covering. This is so that the panel will slide towards the back, over the section that’s insulated and covered.

If you click through to the next photo, though, you’ll see my problem on this side.

The floor boards were placed flush with the edge on the other side. A couple of boards were slightly longer. When covering the section on this side, I took advantage of that and rested the first piece of wood lath right on top of the parts that stuck out, then worked my way up.

There was no way a door panel could slide across with those there. Mostly, it was the one piece that stuck out the furthest, but a second piece had to be dealt with, too.

Thankfully, I have a pull saw with a very thin and flexible blade – a Bear Saw, which I think is a model, not a brand. You can see how flexible the blade is in the next photo of the slideshow. I was able to saw off the parts that stuck out, then use a rasp to take off any bits that were left.

In the last photo, you can see the rest of the framing in place. Some of this will be hidden from view when the sliding channels are complete.

For the sliding door’s channel, I will need to set pieces across the top and bottom, positioned so they will be flush with the panel. I’ll need to find the thickest and straightest pieces for this part!

I am pretty sure I’ll need to add more framing pieces, but I won’t be positive until I have the panels as a guide.

I’ll probably give a bit of extra space for the panel at the top, so it’s not too snug – but not too much space, or it’ll wobble when being opened and closed. Once those pieces are fixed in place – and I’m sure the panel can slide over the covered and insulated section unobstructed – two more vertical pieces will be added that will overlap the top and bottom of the panel, holding it in place.

If we need to remove the panel for some reason, it can be slid right out one end.

The rest went much more easily.

This is the front section.

The mesh for this section was just a square, but I made sure not to secure it too high. There needs to be enough space for the clear panel that will cover the front of the top level to have the overlap it needs to be screwed in place.

Here is the second short end.

The covered section is over the opening to the second level, so there are no floor boards at the bottom. The bottom piece of wood covering the insulation was lined up with the horizontal frame piece, which made the whole thing slightly lower than the cover on the other side. That gave me room to put a long piece of wood lath across the top as well as the bottom. The rest was done pretty much the same as the other side.

That was it for today. Tomorrow, we need to get the table saw set up so we can cut the clear panel pieces.

Once the clear panels are in place, the door/ramp on the bottom will be installed. Last of all, the roof will be assembled. I have some handles I can add to the sides to make it easier to move it around, too. They were meant for something else, but are needed here, more.

After that, it’s done until we can pick up more paint! With or without paint, though, we can bring it over to the house and set it where the cats can start checking it out and getting used to it.

We’ll need to pick up more heat lamps so that we can have one to set up inside the upper level of the isolation shelter during the winter. Even with insulated walls, the plastic room and clear panels have no insulation. They may be good for passive solar heat during the day, but not very good at night!

I just checked online and the lamps I had in my wishlist are on sale right now, so I’ve just ordered a pair of clamp lamps and a pair of ceramic heat bulbs. I think we still have a timer laying around, too. If it has a light sensor, we can set it up like the one in the cat shelter, so that it will automatically turn the heat on at dusk, then off during the day.

Hopefully, the cats will get to enjoy the shelter soon. Especially the ladies we’re building it for, and their post trap and spay recovery period!

The Re-Farmer