Joe.....the FP netting went up this morning.

[Dave Parks]

Mac showed up early this morning and we got the netting on the flight pen up within a couple of hours. Here are some pic's as the job went along.


This stuff is tough, 232# breaking strength, 2" mesh netting with 10 year warrenty. (it should for it's $500 cost). The netting in a roll 150' X 50', so I will have plenty left over for the other pen tops. The flight pen here is 120' X 30'. Posts are spaced at 10' apart.


Once we got the netting rolled out and over-lapped on the far end of the FP, we went down one side over-lapping the NZ wireabout a foot and started attaching the hog rings throught the netting and onto the NZ wire every 8" or so. Once this was done we did the opposite side pulling it over until we had the excess on the ground on the outside and just the right drop in the middle where the support posts will go. Here Mac is attaching hog rings.


At the far end (where the brooder/feed building will go) we cut off the excess length as well as the excess width on the left.


It's a little out of focus, but you can see how the ring attaches to the netting & NZ wire. Next step will be to attach the 72" chicken wire, pull it tight with the ATV and hog ring it to the netting and the NZ wire at the same time. Then we will weave a special high strength carbon cable through the chicken wire, netting and NZ wire to give it all extra strength along the NZ wire to handle the snow loading in the winter time. Which is not much of a problem here in this area. Inside the pen will be three 8' posts placed about 30' feet apart with a freezbe nailed to their tops that will support the netting in the middle of the pen and give the pen more height. These poles are also used to shake off any snow load that may get on it during the winter months. Pen should be ready for the birds by this coming weekend.


BTW here's some old 12'X12"X24' barn timbers that I have been saving for this occasion. I pulled them into place here at the cabin site with the ATV, that thing earns it's keep everyday!

These will be placed on the big granite foundation rocks and used as the base to build the cabin on. I'll nail on some 2'X8" treated wood right on top of these timbers and build teh floor atop them. The timbers will help make the cabin look "Old Timey" for us Old Timers!

I'm not looking forward to un-loading another 2,370 pounds of those concrete blocks tomorrow, but with Judy handing them down to me from up in the truck, it sure makes it easier on my...........my advice........always marry a strong squaw!

Dave

 

[Wispete]

Looking good Dave, I don't envy you unloading those cement blocks. I use to cheat and park the truck near a sand pile and throw the blocks on to the pile and after five or six I would get down and pile them. Works good as long as you don't hit a block with another block. But thats why you buy extra blocks ( : )

 

[Dave Parks]

I'm not looking forward to unloading them either, but the delivery chage is almost as much as the blocks are. Monday I have 80 tons of 1-1/2" granite rock being delivered for road base use and for use around the pens and road up to the pens from the barn. There was no way I was going to haul all that rock myself.........the 4,740 pounds of blocks are bad enough to mess with by hand. You would think that Joe would at least offer to help with them? :^)

I think I'd better eat SPINICH for breakfast in the morning!

Dave

 

[Joe O]

I sure would help.Can't be two places at once.You're never going to heal that hamstring at the rate your going.Pen is looking good.

 

[Dave Parks]

I'd settle for half your help....if ya gotta be in two places at once, Haha. The ham string is history and like my broke toe....it only hurts when I think about it. I'm off to go get that other load now.

Dave

 

[Dave Sikorski]

Looks like things are coming along great Dave.

I missed this whole cabin thing. Whatcha building?

-D

 

[Dave Parks]

Things are coming together and I'll have plenty of birds soon enough. The Cabin thing........Judy and I were up by the pens awhile back and see looked down toward the upper pond and said "this would make a neat spot for a little cabin overlooking the pond". A few days later when my backhoe guy was cutting the pads for the partridge and quail pens, I had him clear off a small pad area for a little cabin and when I get the rest of the pens built I plan to build an "Old Timey" board and batten one room cabin about 14'x20' in teh spot just for the hell of it. It will have a "Two-Holer" outhouse and a wood cook stove (which we have), some old 1900's beds, which we have and be filled with old goodies that would be found in an old cabin in the woods. It will be a place for our friends who want to comune with nature :^)

Before:


and ten minutes later........"insta-pad".

Just one more project to get finished before winter.

Best,
Dave

 

[Dave Sikorski]

Good spot, but you might want to move it a few feet to the right.

Just kidding of course.

You've got plenty of work ahead of you. Can't wait to watch everything take shape.

That cabin sounds like one I stayed in on top of the Bighorns. The pond in front of it had a bunch of 18"+ rainbows in it. We would sit on the porch and grill steaks and sip on a cocktail, then walk over to the pond and cast a dry fly one guy at a time. If you missed the strike you might get one more shot, but if you hooked up, it was all she wrote for about 20min. Just enough time to fill up the glass and eat a steak!

This particular place had propane for the fridge, heat, and stove. The owner had to hide the albums of past Lion hunts to keep the sissy fly rod guys from being scared. They had a skinning pole that was 8' tall and the cats would touch the ground when hung.

What a place.

-D

 

[george w]

_Parks, you gonna raise the center section a bit?
Just curious

good job on the netting===are you going to put a couple of strands of electric around perimeter, to discourage varmints?

 

[Dave Parks]

Hi George,

Yes, this was with one of the photos:

"Inside the pen will be three 8' posts placed about 30' feet apart with a freezbe nailed to their tops that will support the netting in the middle of the pen and give the pen more height. These poles are also used to shake off any snow load that may get on it during the winter months."

And in an earlier post I had mentioned that I bought a solar powered fence charger that was good enough to still have a zapping sting at the end of a 5 mile long wire. I will have a strand about 3" off the ground, another at 8", then every 12 inches up to about 5 foot all around the flight pen as well as the partridge and quail pens.

The worst time is the first 2 months, after that the local critters usually give up or have been trapped. Four large Hava-Heart type traps are placed at each corner and kept baited year round. It has to be that way around here due to so many predators, coon, etc.

I don't plan to hold a lot of birds over the winter months, just some breeders for the Spring egg laying season to place in the incubators to supply birds for releasing during the fall dog training season here on the place as well as birds/eggs that will be for sale from Spring thru Fall. Wew will see how it goes.

Best,
Dave

 

[george w]

you gotta understand that pictures are less cumbersome than writing!! i assume you also did a trench around the pen and fitted with rat wire or something that would keep burrowers out. My referencing on the electric was due to an experience over 15 years ago--we did a system that even kept weeds and grasses at bay--two strands, the lower at about ten inches above dirt and the second about a foot higher--Solar is a good idea--i assume you are planning on running the current continuous. We set up a double door system at the entrance, which made for easier entrance and exit--good asset when going in to feed, etc. if i find pics, will scan and send to you--Do me a favor and put your e mail addy up on this post.
thanks

 

[Dave Parks]

George,

yes, all these points were covered in the text with the various photos that I have been posting to keep those that have asked me to show them how the project is coming along. Ya just have to read between the photos :^)

Plenty of wire in the ground outside the pens, a couple of inches of dirt thrown over the wire and then special "slope grass" seed planted atop the dirt. The traps along the pen corners and edges do more than anything else in pest control............if the bear start to be a problem I may be forced into using Claymoors and trip wires........but only during the bear season ofcourse:^)

Dave

 

[george w]

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

 

[Wispete]

Dave when you get all those pens done and get time to work on your cabin. I talked to a neighbor and he has a old fashion old time cabin, kinda rustic. I sure you could make a deal. It's a real period piece. Might even get some ideas from it. ( : )

 

[Dave Parks]

Haha...........your description is close Pete, it should be "A real piece PERIOD!"

I will be covering the outside walls of ours with cedar "board & batten" like the one in your photo. But I think I will go with green metal roofing instead of shingles. Judy and I have most all of her grandparents old furniture that they had in their cabin that used to be just down road from us.

The old beds, tables, chairs, kerosene lamps and wood cook stove that were made before 1900. About the newest thing we have of theirs is the grank-up telephone and wind-up Victrola with stacks & stacks of WWI period records. That will all be going into the "old timey" cabin.

At least this is what Judy has in mind for the old cabin, I'm leaning more toward more of a "Trapper's Cabin & Saloon" type of a placer where we can have some music (Turkey in the Straw) and party with the game birds :^)

Dave