Finishing touches on the pigeon coop

The important details.........
Selves are in place with heavy duty braces that were screwed in . We chose 2X 12 boards for the landings brought out a few inches from the wire wall so Pigeon poop does not accumulate. We used stain on the boards instead of paint, we found that the boards are easier to scrape clean when there is not a layer of paint that seems to chip up easily.
Richard built these screen doors between the cages and attached springs to close the doors automatically when he passes through.


Richard attaching the heavy duty braces with long screws, there is no way the landings will ever move!

Side Stories/The BEST Face care

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I am always looking for a natural way to care for my face that is not full of chemicals and reasonable priced. The products at this site are high quality and they deliver. I really LOVE THEM!!!
The botanical oils absorb into the skin and I feel the nurturing instantly . I have received comments on how they make my face glow!

I am so impressed with their quality, effectiveness and price. Check it out for your-self..........

Garden in HOT JULY....

Shading of the heat sensitive plants has really helped. It is becoming the hottest July on record, over 100 degrees!
The garden always looks a little rough this time of year, overgrown and aged.
The peppers are busting through the roof and are still producing!
Squash is done , everything is struggling with the heat.
The okra on the left is doing well but not producing yet and the strawberries are holding their own.
The grapes are ready for harvest and healthy. Having the cage keep the large animals out, but I found the tiny birds made it through and I ended up sharing some meals with them.
The blueberries will be picked clean this week, finishing a record season. Although I did not measure the crop , I believe I picked about 4 gallons!

Pigeon flight cage

This project was done over a period of about 6 weeks. It was very slow going because of the HOT 100degree days and alot of slow details.
At first the chicken wire is very loose , but as we stretched and nailed , it became very tight.

Against the building we had to raise the wall with a facade of tin to let the building appear to be taller and we decided to put in a window for ventilation for the end cage. The posts were painted to match the building color, this made the posts disappear.
The top chicken wire is stretched first. We started from the building , attaching the side closest to the building first by laying the wire on the first section and temporarily tacking the wire over the area to be covered. Inching our way along pulling and stretching the wire tight with each nail. The next section was laid on the first section , tacked down along the side closest to the building first (because we could reach it) and then flipped into position onto the second section where it was nailed down on the opposite side.
The top perlins were set next, defining the height at eight feet.

Here we planned the scope of the project, deciding on the width and length of each cage. We set the poles against the building as the starting point and extended the other poles out from there.

Upgrade for the fish pond

We love the new water feature.... but these kinds of things come with a price. After buying a larger tank ($265.00) , we had to purchase a new pump ($200.00) and replace the filtering system. After much research, I could not find anything different than what I had in the past. Until I came across a different web site that showed a filter with the filtering pad on top so the cleaning process is very fast and easy ($360,00). It does take up alot of room in the tank, but it does a really good job of filtering the water. The problem we have is how to take the pad off of the platform without the material it has collected falling back into the pond.


We have always had a simple inexpensive gold fish pond. The 4 foot round metal tub was rusted at the bottom so we lined it with black plastic and attached with a rope around the end. It slowly developed leaks and was impossible to keep clean because it had so many folds. The only filter we could find was labor intensive to change and keep clean. So when we decided to retire this old tank we wanted a larger pond. We did not want to have to line it with plastic so we invested in a new 7 foot diameter tank and moved it to the center of the yard away from the fence corner. SoOOO the "have to do this right" research changes what we thought we were getting into.......