A couple more (landscape) pics of my run...

I

Icemaiden

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slabs down (800x600).jpg
walls all fenced (800x600).jpg
Nearly finished since taking the photos; just a little more "stitching" together of overlapped lengths of chicken wire, to stop squirrels or rats from getting in, before wiring together (800x600).jpg
then the greenhouse to hose out if it's above freezing this w/e, a couple of hooks to put in the greenhouse to hang feeder & drinker from, & I can breathe a sigh of relief.
 
Nice job Icemaiden. You can get clips to fix the overlaps together. I've bought some for our run in boxes of 200. Just squeeze them together. Getting them apart for the next move may be a bit of a pain though. But if it's difficult for me with tools perhaps the predators will struggle even more?
 
Very nice set up. Will be well worth the effort you've put in.
 
Thank you both. Your encouragement is greatly appreciated.
Chris - I saw the clips but blanched at the price at my local suppliers', so I bought some galvanised wire instead, which I'm using in a kind of "running stitch" to join the two layers together.
 
We've used a wire stitch on the runs we had in England Icemaiden. But with 200 metres of fencing to do I hope the clips will be faster. We are stringing three tension wires around the enclosure and hanging the wire off it. The enclosed runs will be set inside this enclosure. Keeping it slightly loose to stop climbing dogs or foxes. It has to be loose anyway to let the trees it will be strung to move in the wind. I'll photograph it when done.
 
Icemaiden said:
Thank you both. Your encouragement is greatly appreciated.
Chris - I saw the clips but blanched at the price at my local suppliers', so I bought some galvanised wire instead, which I'm using in a kind of "running stitch" to join the two layers together.
Click to expand...

Yes i joined ours that way, only I used soft garden wire which is more pliable so you can 'sew' with it more easily. I made a sort of curved 'needle' with firm wire bent double and I twisted it in half to make an 'eye' to take the garden wire, rhen I bent the 'needle' into a curve so it went up and down through thw wire holes more easily. But I see you are using wire with larger spaces than mine, which is 1/2 inch squares, so it may be easier for you to get the wire through. However, if you do have problems use soft garden wire. The strength of the join comes from how many short 'stitches' you can make, rather than how thick the wire is, so the softer sort makes it easier to do a really good job. I did it along both sides of the overlap and it has held well for aeveral years now.
 
Went to an electrical supplier and bought 100 black tie wraps for £1. Actually I bought many hundreds just in case we needed them for emergencies -which we did. They are very secure and easy to fit so make another 'stitching' alternative. We started here with blue baling string but was taking forever!
 
I used small plastic cable ties with wire twists every so often for added protection. Figured the plastic would outlive me !
 
I thought about cable ties. but they'd be too easy for our squirrels to chew through; I'd have had to use the metal clips.
For the roof & the stretch behind the greenhouse, where I could only access one side of the fencing, I used the thinner wire that was wrapped around the wire mesh when it arrived, as it's thinner than the stuff that my local shop had. (Hope it doesn't rust...) Because the other "stitching wire" is thicker than I'd have liked, it's difficult to bend backwards and forwards through the chicken wire (13mm holes, to keep rats & squirrels out, I hope), though easier with a person each side, passing it back & forth.

I'll be interested to see Chris' photos; do you have squirrel problems where you are now, Chris?
 
Haven't seen much wildlife here at all Icemaiden. No ground rats or tree rats. What looked like a Jay landed by Claude's run yesterday to eat spilled feed -he started the alarm call immediately. We have camped over in Burgundy and seen loads of red squirrels and hedgehogs. But that region is much closer to sea level than here and the climate is milder.

I've started the simple gate framework for our enclosure. Using some of the local trees we cut down a month ago, so it will have a very rustic look. My woodcraft tools are limited at the moment but I have decided to practice the pegged timber roof truss joints they used in olden days. The wood is Hornbeam; a very close grained local timber harder than oak. You can't actually see the grain it is that fine. As it is green it can be cut more easily but still took best part of a day to make one joint. They use it for fence posts here as, even untreated, it can last 50 years. Because there is little soil over the limestone bedrock the frame has to be free-standing, rather than dug in. But there are plenty of rocks to hold the bottom of the wire down!

Using the remainder of the trees to terrace a vegetable plot. Any bits left over will be cut, split and seasoned for fuel next year. We need 8 cubic metres for fuel, which is a big pile of logs and a bit of a storage problem. Taking an age to do all this work as it is unusually wet this year and getting colder and Rosie's car has chosen the wrong time to break down!
 
Sorry about Rosie's car, but looking forward to seeing photos of your woodwork; don't forget some close-ups of those joints. They sound like a real labour of love :-)08
 
As we have 5 days of rain forecast, but mild weather, the gazebo is going to cover the woodworking area Icemaiden. So I'll take some pics as I go. Car fixed. Turned out to be a failed 14 month old Bosch battery! Quite unexpected, particularly as it came with a 36 month guarantee. Now -6 degrees outside but forecasting 18 next week!
 
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