Next step to freedom

Over the weekend Sara and Mike helped me with some projects. One was building a training ground for the baby GHOs to learn how to hunt live prey. Because a baby wading pool has sides too low, the mice can jump or climb out, I decided to make taller sides with some of the poly panels I have.

That was the easy part. The rim is too thin and would hurt the babies feet when they landed on it. Sooooooooo, I used some old irrigation pipe that is quite large in diameter. Cutting 147" lengthwise was way too hard so we used metal screws and attached it along the top edge. And to protect those big feet I also covered the pipe and edge with very wide Gorilla tape. What would I do without that stuff. I'd already pained the outside with white primer and then a dirt/sandy color brown so it wasn't as brilliant. The inside I left white to reflect light and make the moving prey easier to see.

As you can notice in this photo, there are two babies up on the high perch to the left, one inside the box and three up on top of the tower. I did put food inside and all around the training ground but they're not live. I want them to get used to going into the space to find food. Hopefully this will work as all the babies are now flying and will be ready for release in a few weeks.

New mews

The new addition to my cage room is coming along nicely. John has put the sheetrock on the doors and walls, the vinyl coated wire dividers are up and the storage room is now full. These mews are for large birds that need to be inside for treatment. In the past they've had to live in dog cages meant for smaller animals. That made it hard to treat them, mostly for me as I had to do it on my hands and knees. Some final trim work and paint and this will be a very welcome area for the birds.

Owl barn finished

Well the final work was completed today on the owl barn. Now all the mews and flight areas match except for their doors. As they are all used I have to get busy with my paint brush. The top photo shows the barn as it was before John and Alan did their magic. The bottom one was taken today. Now the two resident Great Horned Owls, SEEDY and SMIDGE have a fancy place to live along with any baby GHOs that come in for fostering.

I still have to do a bunch of raking up to clean the area and make a run to the dump. I think this will be the end of large construction projects but there are always small things that need to be tweaked. One is replacing the outside door to the hawk flight barn. Another one of the used doors will be used for that after John makes an adjustment in the opening. I still want to put a 6'x6' pen inside the cage room for the larger birds where I don't have to crawl into a small cage to treat them. It's always something.

Getting closer to being done

This morning I had to go to town for some feed and left about 10:30. The weather had gotten bad, cold and windy, so I figured John wouldn't be here to help me put the jailbar windows into the owl barn. When I got back a couple hours later lo and behold, they were in place. I don't know how much trouble he had and assume that Alan came along to help. The barn is looking so great now, only the metal siding is left to put on and also replace the worn out door with one made for being outside in the elements. I found some great doors at a place in Billings called ReStore. It's a shop run by a group that builds Habitat for Humanity homes. Whenever anyone is remodeling their home and has "stuff" to replace they can donate the old cabinets, furniture, appliances, doors, etc. to this group. Then people like me find just what they need to complete a project or upgrade a room in a house for very low prices. Super people, go there and check it out.

No more captures of the elusive fox yet but I did trap a skunk yesterday. As there has been a history of rabies in skunks in this area this one was not allowed to live. That and they seem to dig into the mews and drag off anything the birds haven't finished eating. I know everything must eat but not with the cost of these feeder animals.

Oops.....

Today I got started making the 10 windows with jailbars for the owl barn. I've made all the others with no problem but today, after finishing putting together all the frames I realized that I failed to adjust them for the 1/2 inch panel on the bottom to keep the bars from falling out when the window is lifted into position. Geez, did I feel like an idiot for not noticing until all of them were finished. Okay, necessity is the mother of invention. What in the world did we do before duct tape was invented. With very little wiggle room I decided to put a couple strips of tape along the bottom to take care of the problem. May have to staple it in places as the PVC pipe does weigh a bit but somehow I'll make it work. I'll add a photo of the finished windows when I'm through.

New construction

An update to all the construc-tion going on here. As you've seen in earlier posts, the new mews are done and being used. Next on the agenda is metal siding on the bunny barn and the owl barn. Both these buildings have been in use for more than a decade and are showing it. The bottom photo shows the newly sided bunny barn, isn't it looking great? Of course I now have to redo the inside as some of the cages are also showing wear and tear and probably half the mice in Cody live in the ceiling.

The top photo is of the owl barn as a work in progress. As you can see, the plywood siding is deteriorating even tho it was painted not too long ago. The three owls are now in one of the new mews next door so we could work on this one. The netting is off the openings so I can now make the jail bar inserts for them. As soon as that is done, hopefully by the end of this weekend, then John and Alan will be back to put on the metal siding.

I am so thrilled to see all of this getting done. Sometimes it seems as if I march in place but then great workers like John McGee and Alan Becker come along and get the jobs done just the way I planned. I'll be sure to post a photo of the finished owl barn when that happens.