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Hi folks. I decided today to make a start towards replacing the crumbling wall surrounding a part of our garden. I thought it would maybe be fun to do a thread to document this, so here we are. I have no idea how long this going to take me or how the finished wall is going to look, as is normally my way, I'll sort of work it out as I go along. I suspect I'll often be sidetracked along the way, as has already happened today. I've been collecting stones for a while now and I don't intend to replace the wall with bricks. Instead I'm going to use stones which are not all of the same type of stone, but that's what I have, so that's what I'll use. The first few photos show the condition the current wall. The first photo is the end of the wall nearest my woodshed and as you can see, it's not looking great.
The wall is only a small one but has been here for many years and is now crumbling badly and really insecure and wobbly at bits. This photo shows the wall behind some of the stones I've collected.
A view of the wall with the large stones moved away from it.
And a more detailed view of the extent of the damage.
As we all love the birds, I'll see if I can photograph some of them along the way, like these Starlings on my neighbour's TV aerial.
I also decided to stuff some straw into a suet ball feeder and hang it in the holly bush in case the birds might like to use some of it as nesting material.
I've decided that probably the best way to go about this is to lay out all the stones that I have and hopefully this should maybe help me to select the stones easier as the build gets under way. The next photo is of the stones that were piled along the edge of the old wall. I've tried to lay them out in a sort of organised way, (to me anyway).
At around this point, Mrs A called down to see if I fancied going to the garden centre with her for a cup of tea. This sounded great to me, so off we went. As is the way of things, we ended up having a light lunch and returned with a new adapter for the garden hose, a 12.5kg bag of peanuts and two new peanut feeders, one of which is shown here. We liked the look of these feeders because the wire mesh goes all the way around the bottom an back up the other side which should help to prevent the peanuts at the bottom from becoming damp, although the Sparrows around here take great pride in preventing this from happening by scoffing as many peanuts as they can, as often as they can.!!
When I got back down the garden to start again, I found that the supervisor had arrived and was carrying out a detailed assessment of the site. This is Tee Tee, one of my three cats. She likes to ‘help’.!!
Assessing and helping can be very tiring however, so it wasn't long before mental and physical exhaustion got the better of her.!!
Mrs A called down the garden again, reminding me that she'd promised the elderly lady next door that I'd dig out a few very small trees that had taken root close to her front door. Also I was to dig out some Peony Roses from the same area as well. I actually broke the first garden fork that I used, but think I may be able to repair it with a small exhaust clamp. I got another fork from the shed, which we actually found lying in the middle of the road when we were out in the car one day.!!(the fork, not the shed).!! I've actually found loads of things lying in the road now that I come to think about It.!! The list includes a pair of safety goggles, one of those hard hats with the ear protectors fitted to it, a small digital camera, three battery powered inspection lamps (all at different times and in different locations) and my most recent find was one of those clamp things that mountaineers use to help them when they're climbing up a rope,.. you know the type of thing? You attach a bit of rope with a loop on it to put your foot in, and as you take the weight off your foot , the clamp thing is slid up the rope and then grips the rope again as you put your weight back on the loop.!! Quite ingenious actually... In actual fact, it’s in the drawer downstairs, I’ll go get it and take a photo of it to show you… back in a ‘tic.......... Here it is..... Thanks for waiting.!!
Never be afraid to stop and pick things up (safely of course), you never know what you'll find. I actually doubled back to get the safety goggles.!! Anyway... I dug up the small trees and Peony Roses but I hate to see things go to waste, especially as they're living things, so the small trees are now planted in my garden and Mrs A found a place for the Peony Roses. I've no idea what kind of trees they are but here's a photo of one of them in it's new home, half way down the garden. I put it in the middle of some other plants that Mrs A has got (with her permission of course).
I am in all honesty trying to get back to the wall but the way things went today I was all over the place. Mrs A once again called me to see if I wanted to see a Bee that was on the ground at the front of the house. This is a photo I took before we moved it to a safer location in the garden amongst the plants. It was moving very slowly on the ground.
Whilst I was down on the ground I took a few snaps of a couple of the plants that are out at the front of the house. The first one as I'm sure you'll know is a Heather but I've no idea what the second one is. I'm not great when it comes to idenyifying plants.
Another bit of crumbling wall at the front of the house. I'll have to sort this at some point too.!!
On the way back round to get on with sorting out the stones I thought I take a few pics to show you some other stuff. It may surprise you, but I actually found these tubs (I have two of them) in the field at the back of my house. They were much taller than they are now and someone had made then into garden seats, obviously didn't want them any more and threw them into the field. There is a pile of wood in the corner of the field that the farmer doesn't bother about, so long as it's only wood or garden waste. Every now and then he sets fire to it. It’s really handy actually as all of our trimmings and stuff can go out there without the need for us to bag them up and take them to the council's waste centre. I cut the top off the seats, painted them up, and Mrs A planted some sort of butterfly friendly plants into them.
I also found this small tree lying in the field, minus a pot. I rescued this as well and put it in a pot over the winter. I planted it today in another bit of the garden but have really no idea what it is.
A view looking down the garden from the other side of the fence from the barrel planter. I built the wee hand cart thing myself out of some wood that I had lying around. Mrs A puts flowers in it in the summer and it looks really nice. The wheels were bit of a nightmare to build and I tried to persuade Mrs A that a broken cart with only one wheel would be nice, but she was having none of it. I had to build the second wheel.!! It's full mostly of the soil you get free from the council recycling centre once a year, mixed with some garden centre compost as well. The box behind the cart to the left which looks like an oversized Rabbit Hutch is Harry's house(one of my other cat's). I actually built it for Tee Tee when we moved here but she looked upon it with spectacular indifference. When Harry adopted us he moved in without a second thought. He has a comfy bed in the top half where it is nice and dry.
Heading back to continue with the wall, I took a photo of some House Sparrows leaving the tree. I'm not sure what type of tree it is but I think it may be a type of ornamental pear willow....I think. It does bear very small, hard, pear shaped fruits every year.
It's a great tree for the birds. It's close to the feeding area and the Starling and Sparrows love it. Another photo of House Sparrow’s in the tree, and arriving at the tree.
A quick stop over for a refreshing drink of Lager Shandy.
An artistic look through the stones.
Since I'm at the bottom of the garden I'd be just as well to show you a view out over the fields at the back. The farmer had been spreading....stuff...on the field the other day but you tend to get used to it...if you know what I mean.!! He puts cattle in here later on in the year so maybe expect a post about cows at some point.
This is my chimney thing that we sit round on the summer nights, and as you can see, it hasn't has the best of winters this year. Another job to add to the list.
I have plans to use this barrel as a Water Butt, but I need to put guttering up on the shed at some time and use the run off to fill the Butt. Yet another one for the ever lengthening list of things to be done.
Almost back to the stones again, but first a quick photo of one of those insect home things that we have in our Holly Bush.
I do have another pile of stones which I now got round to bringing out and organising, but before I show you a photo of all the stones together, I thought I'd introduce you to Harry. Some of you may remember him from an earlier thread, but if you missed that, here he is. He's quite old we think, and he's also a bit deaf, especially with lower frequencies. He has only recently taken to coming into the house for a wee while in the evening, before wanting back out again. He lives outside most of the time. Tee Tee hates Harry and they constantly go through a ridiculous charade where Tee Tee does what we call 'The Slow Walk'. She postures herself and passes by Harry's box with exaggerated slowness, looking at absolutely everything around her..Except Harry.!! He flattens himself to the base of his box during this and watches her intently. Totally ridiculous behaviour from both of them. Occasionally though, it does come to blows, but happily not as often as it used to. This is Harry in the bottom part of his box, pretending he doesn't know that Tee Tee is watching him from further down the garden.
This is Tee Tee, watching Harry from further down the garden, no doubt planning a 'Slow Walk' up past him.(note the condition of the wall behind her).
A pair of Goldfinch paid a brief visit, this being one of them.
And finally, these are all the stones that I have for the wall.
I think there are enough stones here to do the job and if I need smaller ones I can maybe use the sledge hammer to break up some of the more awkward shaped ones. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to do this in small steps (mixing the cement by hand) or if I'll maybe get hold of a small cement mixer and try to do it in one go if I can get a good day for it. It’s taken ages to put this post together and I do realise that it did veer off course at bits, but I hope you’ve enjoyed it and I’ll update this maybe next weekend if any further progress is made.
Paul
My bird photos HERE
Hi folks. Higgy, I think that all the dust from my stone cutter will have been well and truly washed back to earth with the amount of rain we have had through the night here, but on the bright side, the slabs that I levelled out next to the wall no longer have a pool of water in them where mud used to accumulate. Thanks for your confidence in me Wendy, I take it as a compliment as Hadrian’s Wall is still standing at bits after almost 2000 years,(my wall may just collapse if an overweight Sparrow lands at the wrong bit).!! Bente, all is forgiven. It's great that we can all have a bit of fun and a laugh as we plod along through all the various threads; it makes it a real pleasure for me.
Hi folks. Just another update on the progress of the wall but I have to admit that even though good progress has been made, most of the photos in this update are of birds. It’s just been a great weekend for bird action in the garden as you will see. To start us off though, I noticed on another Thread a nest box that was inside instead of outside, so I thought I may as well give it a try. I’ve fitted the new box to the woodshed and even though it may not be too high off the ground it’ll be interesting to see if any birds use it. The first photo shows the entry hole which is high enough off the ground so the cats can’t reach it and it’s also far enough down from the roof for the exact same reason. I thought that with the Holly bush and the Willow tree being so close it may be attractive to the Blue Tits. Time will tell I suppose.!!
The Woodshed with new entry hole.
I drilled a 25mm hole specifically to tempt Blue Tits or maybe Cole Tits but this has gone through three layers of wood (Including the nest box). I wasn’t sure if the depth of the entry hole was perhaps too much for the birds to squeeze through so I used a cone boring tool and tapered the entrance out to 30mm but the minimum diameter is still 25mm over at least the thickness of the nest box wall. As you can see, the hole is funnel shaped which I hope may help the birds to enter if they choose to use the box.
The box was fitted on Friday evening and this is a view from the inside of the Woodshed. As you can see, the original entry hole has been blocked off and the box is attached to the inside of the wall using screws. I had drilled the hole in the Woodshed first of all and then marked the back of the nest box with a cross. It was then only a case of lining up the cross with the hole, fitting the nest box to the wall and then drilling through the nest box itself.
Staying on the subject of nest boxes, I’ve been thinking about my Sparrow Terrace. It’s been up on the wall for three years and this will be its fourth. A pair of Blue Tits nested in the first year but in the second and third years only incomplete nests were found in each of the compartments when I went to clean the box out. It has been suggested on the forums that perhaps the birds have been confused as to which nest hole is which, and that this confusion may help to explain the three incomplete nests. Today I watched a pair of Sparrows checking out the Terraced box and I watched as the male bird took nesting materials into both end compartments a few times. The second time he did this I watched as he came out of the box on the right hand side, flew down onto the lawn and then flew back up to take something into the box at the left hand side. An idea that I’d been thinking of was to somehow mark the nest box so as the birds would possibly be less likely to become confused (if this is indeed the case). We have been watching the box closely for the past few weeks and this is the first time we’ve seen any interest this year. I decided to take a chance and mark the outside of the box when the birds were away so I got the ladder out and waited until I was certain that the box was empty. The first photo is the box as it has been since it was put up.
This is the box after I marked it.
You may have noticed that I actually live in a Timber house but don't worry, it's been here for around 60 years and is very sturdy. I've actually seen exactly the same type of houses on North Uist in the Outer Hebrides so I know that if they’re still standing out there, the chances are that they’ll be fine here. Anyway, the birds came back around an hour or so later and the reaction was instant. They hovered in front of the nest box several times and probably spent another hour looking down from the guttering. There are two drainage pipes that run down to the left and to the right of the box and the birds also flew from one to the other several times, each time checking out the box as they went. The female then landed on top of the box and took some time looking down at the three different holes. The first photo shows the female checking out the box from the guttering.
This one show her checking out the new markings from the top of the box.
Satisfied that all is probably well, she calls for the brave Mr S who has been gallantly keeping guard but definitely not hiding.!!
I have to say that I was relieved to see the birds back and I was even more delighted when Mrs S landed on the end compartment and took it upon herself to have an even closer inspection.
She once again calls on the brave Mr S...
...who returns unflinchingly to her side.!!
He selflessly stands guard as she checks for snakes or ghosts.!!
Tum ti tum ti tum..... she's taking her time... typical.!!
Hope she's Ok in there........I think I can hear a shower running.!!
Ok...you're beginning to freak me out...how long does it take to check for snakes?
I'm coming up....are you decent?
Ooh la la...!!
OK folks, avert your eyes...have you no shame?
A short while later...
Zzz Zzz Zzzz
That was fun, but seriously, I do hope that there's a successful nest in the box this season, and I did on one more occasion today see a bird at the round hole. Both birds were in the box together for about a minute yhen the male left first, followed about five mimnutes later by the female.I wonder if they went into that particular compartment because they were familiar with the circular profile or if it is just a coincidence, I can't honestly say one way or the other,(and before anyone mentions it, I do know that any hanky-panky will take place outside).!! I'm back at work tomorrow but I’ll keep an eye out as the week goes on if I can. I know that I've not even got to the wall this time but it’s getting late now so I think I'll leave that for another day. I also took a few photos of some of the plants in the garden so I've still got loads of photos to add (including unbelievably, another roadside find)..(Oh...and a few photos of the wall). I’ll tell you about it next time maybe.
Fabulous pics & commentary PHA! Obviously not very observant as didn't realize yours was a timber house ... looking at all that wood in the shed ... hope you have a brick chimney?? Lol
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Thanks Birdie. I'm sure it was Ray's thread that I seen the inside box on (a link that Doggie had given to someone recently I think). We also have Starlings nesting in the roof at the front and the back of the house. The Sparrows were in there first I think but the Starlings turfed them out. I hope it works out for them this year, it would be good to see them with a few broods. I wonder as well whether the fact that the Sparrows around here had a good year last year that there may be a lot more competition for nest spaces. I had around 120 Sparrows on the big lawn this afternoon (estimated) but I was in the middle of putting a big stone in the wall so couldn't get a photo of them. If they all breed successfully I can only imagine what it's going to be like later in the season.!!
Thanks too Wendy. We used to have a coal fire in the house but it's been gas for a lot of years now. The wood in my shed is entirely for the use of my wee chimney thing at the bottom of the garden. Purely to put your feet up at with a beer on a Summers evening. I grew up in this house then took it over when my Mum passed away and I remember as kid's my brother and I threw a glass of paraffin onto the fire and both fell onto our backs as a huge flame rolled up the wall and across the ceiling.!! We didn't do that particular one again.....boys will be boys I suppose.!!! Really stupid though.!!
Morning Paul, a week later and I'm catching up with your fantastic progress on the wall, its looking really great but sorry you had to sack the security guard lol Working with sand, cement and heavy stones is a killer so don't know how you have managed it but very well done indeed. On the sadder topic of the Owl you found a few years ago, I can imagine how sad it must have been but good the bird didn't suffer any longer with its torn wing :( all we can do is balance out what is best for the animal at the time and do our best for it so well done making the efforts to get it help. Looking forward to your next update on the garden :)
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Regards, Hazel
Think that should read 'boys will be little b****rs' ... At least you learned a lesson PHA .. My OH confesses to being a young pyromaniac, worst experience was setting fire to a wellington boot which was situated under his Mother's fireside chair ??? don't ask!!
WendyBartter said:My OH confesses to being a young pyromaniac, worst experience was setting fire to a wellington boot which was situated under his Mother's fireside chair ??? don't ask!!
Brilliant update Paul, I don't know how you find the time. I hope your symbols work on the nesting boxes.
I was thinking about your tapering hole & hope a fat bird doesn't think it can go in & get stuck half way, a bit like pooh bear after he'd eaten the honey.LOL
Best wishes
Hazel in Southwest France
Thanks everyone. I'll maybe try to add a few more photos here during the week as there aren't actually any photos of the wall in the last bunch. The whole post seems to have veered off topic, but I don't really mind. The latest on the Sparrows is that Mrs A spotted a head poking out of the same hole today, so that's looking promising.
Hazy: Thank you for your kind words in regards to the Owl.
Wendy: When I was a young boy there was a guy I knew who had set fire to the inner tube of a bicycle tyre and was spinning it around on the end of a stick, until it managed to wrap itself around his hand and wrist. Luckily he was playing at the side of the burn at the time so he managed to get his hand under the water very quickly. Still pretty nasty though. I don't imagine that he ever done that again.!!
Hazel: In relation to finding time, if ever I was being impatient or trying to hurry up, an old colleague used to always tell me, "The man who made time made plenty o' it". A great saying I think.!! Also, you’ve now you've got me worried that I'm going to go down the garden and find the rear end of a bird sticking out of the hole in the Woodshed.!! I couldn’t even put it on the ‘Bottoms Up’ thread for fear of being accused of cheating.!!
Paul H A you don't half make me laugh. Loved the commentary with Mr S waiting on the box. I hope that there will not be any overly large sparrows that get stuck!!! We await the next episode, whether it is the wall, the birds or the latest loot that you found!!
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.