Greensage45
Deeply Rooted
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- Mar 14, 2009
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I am typically a builder or artist of sorts. I love my gardening, but I am also an addict when it comes to structures. I have built a wonderful potting/artist building at another house (rented), but lost because of bad circumstance.
Ever since I arrived at this house, I have wanted a greenhouse. I had two hens and one rooster when I moved in here and there was already an existing (40+ year old coop here). Completely open to the elements, very awkward. Apparently, there must of been some odd connection to that coop and my landlady because she felt it was fit and to just leave it and use it as the bird coop??? This lasted a year, and all seemed fine. I enclosed one side to make a building of sorts, and my birds were pets and freeranged during the daytime anyways.
I started a Greenhouse!
Here is where I decided it would go...you can see the old coop off to the right. My new greenhouse would stand where that compost heap is. Surprisingly, there is already a concrete pad under this bin and to the right side (you can detect the slab). Building it here made sense!
Like a worker Bee :bee
It was eventually fitted with a fiberglass roof....but then suddenly before I could begin to attach fiberglass to the outside walls, a predator struck! It was my best friend and first cochin hen of my adult life...a tiny little birchen hen! I was devastated....something killed her during the night where she slept!
I immediately switched gears and it became a new coop. I redid the roof, and allowed the flight to become and so forth and ...yeah! I tore that old coop down just to let it out! In a day!
It would have made a wonderful greenhouse...
Fast forward a few seasons!
I then started building a Rooster coop ...because like a silly I was ordering chicks with boxes filled with Roosters!!! LOL It all got out of hand...but my building ways would not stop.
This eventually led to overcoming the Rooster dilemma and I was just about ready to finish wrapping the flight into a Greenhouse, then the bunnies arrived, and the story goes on and on! Still no greenhouse...and the 6 mil plastic I used on the flight barely lasted a Winter before going brittle and just shattering when the Spring winds began.
here the bun-buns spent their first winter in an almost enclosed greenhouse...I stopped because this thing would heat up fast, and did not want to cook the bunnies.
With both of these buildings, I did utilize them for housing plants over the winter. At one point the bunnies run had sawhorses and boards supporting a ton of plants in gallon sized pots! It worked nicely! ....but still no greenhouse!
Zip...zip ahead a bit.
During all this some time ...gosh it seems years! I was handed over a cage full of Peach-faced Lovebirds. I said yes sight unseen, and was then handed over the cage with 7 adults and the door was shut in my face, I didn't even get to walk inside! Oh well, now I have 7 lovebirds...lovely! What was I thinking. I put them into my kitchen and they screamed to high heaven! For weeks! ...Oh God! They had to go out! There was no way they could stay indoors!
So...they got a cage! ...an Aviary! It gave me the excuse to build something cute and I was itching to get an empty spot filled in the yard....here is the site location
Fast forward 4 years ( I am lost with exact dates ), but this project only took me a month to complete!
Concrete footing was created with standing bolts and then a 2 x 6 was fit and bolted down, and then a 2 x 4 was screwed onto that...making the step-up shape on the foundation.
the roof was created on top of the footing to recreate the exact angle and dimensions. Then the stand-up beams (2x3)...the roof was completed on the ground, and then lifted onto place. (the only part where I needed an extra hand!
It all became very rigid once the screening was in place. I added windows with plexiglass and shaped and painted them to sort of look art-deco or turn-of-the-century.
I was happy to get the Lovebirds outside, I also installed a nice rope arrangement and a cool twisted branch. I gave them nest boxes to keep safe in bad weather, and I installed 3 radiant heaters. The radiant heaters are those that are sold for use in zoos with reptiles. They are not designed to heat the air, only what ever stands in front of them (to 140F).
This has been a Pride in my Garden! The Lovebirds have been a Joy!
...... :coolsun
Skip all the way to Yesterday! ...well, this past 3 weeks to be exact!
My Lovebirds were 7 original, from that they produced 12 in the first year in the aviary! I managed to removed at least 100 plus eggs.
I found homes for all but 4 of them over the years. I subsequently lost one pair (old age I presume). Leaving me with 2 in the house as pets, and 7 in the aviary! LOL ..I keep asking myself how this happened? Finally I found myself with two more additional babies! I ran an ad and this wonderful woman came to visit with pictures and everything. Wow, well, it turns out we knew each other through mutual friends and I had often heard about her, about her Lovebirds and breeding (she would hand feed babies).
Turns out her 'somebody', while she was on a trip, did not water the birds for over a few weeks time this Summer; she lost everything but a few strongest birds.
Well...we visited, we spoke on the phone, I sold her one baby (the other went to another caller)...she visited again, and then we traded flower seeds! LOL (of course!). I knew she would be a perfect home for these outdoor birds...All of them except the oldest of the oldest.
So one pair outside, and my pet pair (of several years) inside.
This old pair, the hen is a tumor survivor of 3 seasons (badly scarred leg) and her mate whom she has taken to plucking to a handsome skin tone! Poor thing looks like he has a boa around his bald neck. She even keeps his tail plucked! LOL I have separated them several times, but they wont change and they LOVE each other dearly! They have never laid eggs...of all the birds, these two never produced.
Well, I got to thinking this is their last Season in this World! So I decided to bring them in for the Winter, something they have known personally year after year! I think they will do fine indoors and may even last longer from here, but they show signs of advanced bird geriatrics; a yellowing of the natural feather coloring...first starting around the face and moving outward. They have been adored, and they have seen life in a Natural and Safe way! Outdoors...flying! SCREAMING! LOL
So now you know how it hit me! A Greenhouse!
....I will post this, and then as I begin to do the bird shuffle here in the house and start to clean this aviary out to become a greenhouse, I will begin to post new pictures of the steps I take. I want to build shelving and use my heaters (which I have not shown yet). I also want to install my cheapy creepy UV grow lights that do not grow anything! :coolsun
Wowzer...that was long...Thank you Broke for my Blast of Inspiration. Amazing! Hope you guys are still awake!
Ron
Ever since I arrived at this house, I have wanted a greenhouse. I had two hens and one rooster when I moved in here and there was already an existing (40+ year old coop here). Completely open to the elements, very awkward. Apparently, there must of been some odd connection to that coop and my landlady because she felt it was fit and to just leave it and use it as the bird coop??? This lasted a year, and all seemed fine. I enclosed one side to make a building of sorts, and my birds were pets and freeranged during the daytime anyways.
I started a Greenhouse!
Here is where I decided it would go...you can see the old coop off to the right. My new greenhouse would stand where that compost heap is. Surprisingly, there is already a concrete pad under this bin and to the right side (you can detect the slab). Building it here made sense!
Like a worker Bee :bee
It was eventually fitted with a fiberglass roof....but then suddenly before I could begin to attach fiberglass to the outside walls, a predator struck! It was my best friend and first cochin hen of my adult life...a tiny little birchen hen! I was devastated....something killed her during the night where she slept!
I immediately switched gears and it became a new coop. I redid the roof, and allowed the flight to become and so forth and ...yeah! I tore that old coop down just to let it out! In a day!
It would have made a wonderful greenhouse...
Fast forward a few seasons!
I then started building a Rooster coop ...because like a silly I was ordering chicks with boxes filled with Roosters!!! LOL It all got out of hand...but my building ways would not stop.
This eventually led to overcoming the Rooster dilemma and I was just about ready to finish wrapping the flight into a Greenhouse, then the bunnies arrived, and the story goes on and on! Still no greenhouse...and the 6 mil plastic I used on the flight barely lasted a Winter before going brittle and just shattering when the Spring winds began.
here the bun-buns spent their first winter in an almost enclosed greenhouse...I stopped because this thing would heat up fast, and did not want to cook the bunnies.
With both of these buildings, I did utilize them for housing plants over the winter. At one point the bunnies run had sawhorses and boards supporting a ton of plants in gallon sized pots! It worked nicely! ....but still no greenhouse!
Zip...zip ahead a bit.
During all this some time ...gosh it seems years! I was handed over a cage full of Peach-faced Lovebirds. I said yes sight unseen, and was then handed over the cage with 7 adults and the door was shut in my face, I didn't even get to walk inside! Oh well, now I have 7 lovebirds...lovely! What was I thinking. I put them into my kitchen and they screamed to high heaven! For weeks! ...Oh God! They had to go out! There was no way they could stay indoors!
So...they got a cage! ...an Aviary! It gave me the excuse to build something cute and I was itching to get an empty spot filled in the yard....here is the site location
Fast forward 4 years ( I am lost with exact dates ), but this project only took me a month to complete!
Concrete footing was created with standing bolts and then a 2 x 6 was fit and bolted down, and then a 2 x 4 was screwed onto that...making the step-up shape on the foundation.
the roof was created on top of the footing to recreate the exact angle and dimensions. Then the stand-up beams (2x3)...the roof was completed on the ground, and then lifted onto place. (the only part where I needed an extra hand!
It all became very rigid once the screening was in place. I added windows with plexiglass and shaped and painted them to sort of look art-deco or turn-of-the-century.
I was happy to get the Lovebirds outside, I also installed a nice rope arrangement and a cool twisted branch. I gave them nest boxes to keep safe in bad weather, and I installed 3 radiant heaters. The radiant heaters are those that are sold for use in zoos with reptiles. They are not designed to heat the air, only what ever stands in front of them (to 140F).
This has been a Pride in my Garden! The Lovebirds have been a Joy!
...... :coolsun
Skip all the way to Yesterday! ...well, this past 3 weeks to be exact!
My Lovebirds were 7 original, from that they produced 12 in the first year in the aviary! I managed to removed at least 100 plus eggs.
I found homes for all but 4 of them over the years. I subsequently lost one pair (old age I presume). Leaving me with 2 in the house as pets, and 7 in the aviary! LOL ..I keep asking myself how this happened? Finally I found myself with two more additional babies! I ran an ad and this wonderful woman came to visit with pictures and everything. Wow, well, it turns out we knew each other through mutual friends and I had often heard about her, about her Lovebirds and breeding (she would hand feed babies).
Turns out her 'somebody', while she was on a trip, did not water the birds for over a few weeks time this Summer; she lost everything but a few strongest birds.
Well...we visited, we spoke on the phone, I sold her one baby (the other went to another caller)...she visited again, and then we traded flower seeds! LOL (of course!). I knew she would be a perfect home for these outdoor birds...All of them except the oldest of the oldest.
So one pair outside, and my pet pair (of several years) inside.
This old pair, the hen is a tumor survivor of 3 seasons (badly scarred leg) and her mate whom she has taken to plucking to a handsome skin tone! Poor thing looks like he has a boa around his bald neck. She even keeps his tail plucked! LOL I have separated them several times, but they wont change and they LOVE each other dearly! They have never laid eggs...of all the birds, these two never produced.
Well, I got to thinking this is their last Season in this World! So I decided to bring them in for the Winter, something they have known personally year after year! I think they will do fine indoors and may even last longer from here, but they show signs of advanced bird geriatrics; a yellowing of the natural feather coloring...first starting around the face and moving outward. They have been adored, and they have seen life in a Natural and Safe way! Outdoors...flying! SCREAMING! LOL
So now you know how it hit me! A Greenhouse!
....I will post this, and then as I begin to do the bird shuffle here in the house and start to clean this aviary out to become a greenhouse, I will begin to post new pictures of the steps I take. I want to build shelving and use my heaters (which I have not shown yet). I also want to install my cheapy creepy UV grow lights that do not grow anything! :coolsun
Wowzer...that was long...Thank you Broke for my Blast of Inspiration. Amazing! Hope you guys are still awake!
Ron
