The swalows

I’m happy about it. 

There were no swallow nest at all-in the farm. The windows were kept closed and only the rats had free entrance to the stables. 

In springtime, when the swallows returned, it was funny to see the barn swallow (ladusvala – boerenzwaluw) entering behind you when you opened one of the big stable doors. They took a look and flew back out. Cecilia once told that she came upstairs when one of the windows was totally open and there were 2 birds inside sitting just beside each other and having a whole conversation. And they were very clever as they knew immediately how to fly out. What could it has been? No doubt. This were 2 barn swallows.

So it was quite sure they were eager to find a good nest place. So I opened the windows from the stables despite some protest. And yes after a while the swallows entered and build a nest in one of the stables, just above the rabbit. 

Now the young are flying around on our courtyard together with some friends. Fun to see them tumbling and turning through the air as fully educated stunt pilots. They still like to sit on the lights inside the stable. And if you open the doors at both sides they just love to fly through the stable.

It’ such a fun. I’m proud that we had a nest and young of this fantastic bird on our farm.

The basement 2.0

It’s finished. Our basement has a door, hanging well, sturdy and straight on its place. It need still some finishing touch like a small metal roof above the upper wooden plank and a metal strip on the side of the door. These details will be picked up later when we get through the work what was left behind.

 

Just like it was always there.

It took some time. First I measured and designed it. Then I started the construction. Unfortunately some visitors proposed another and better way of doing it. Better as it overcame the problem with the limited height. So I had to rethink the design from a straight door (cfr the Photoshopped door in a former blog) to this slightly tilted door and a much more complicated frame. But at the end this design turned out to fit well on that place. Especially as I used the tipical Swedish "Falu rödfärg"

Now we have to start cleaning and renovating the basement. And find a function... Our 5,5 bottles of wine will only fill a little corner. 

And o yes. From Belgium a good ladybird friend gave us the reason there was a concrete like container in the back. His parents had the same kind of container in their basement. Most probably it was something from before the fridges. This was used to keep the salted pork in. Thanks for the hint!

The worker

Look who was doing the hard work for making the rabbit cage.

Att bygga en kaninbur i trädgården - To build a rabbit cage in the garden

Our fantastic little rabbit Candy needs a more permanent outdoor space, where she can spend spring, summer and early autumn. So here is what we did to create a nice outdoor cage for her.

1. Placement of the cage. We wanted her to be close to us, so that it is easy to see her, and to take care of her. Our idea was to place a cage next to our outdoor sitting area, and outside the kitchen. It was also the place which have most natural shade by our nice bushes during quite some time during the day, which is good for rabbits. They do not want to be overheated. The minus-side of having a cage close to the outdoor sitting area is that it may smell from the cage if it s not cleaned out regularly. We will see how that goes.

The cage should be close to the house so we could enjoy the company of Candy, and it was placed in the shadow of the big bushes.

2. Size of the cage. Our decision was to make a cage of 2 x 5 meters. It is not huge, but big enough to provide some fun for the rabbit, and  for our daughter with friends who want to spend time with the rabbit.  And yet small enough to be possible to build for us. The thought is to still use the normal "grass-eating cage" and move that around as usual so that she can have grass on different places. Realistically the grass in this bigger cage will be eaten after a while. 

3. Type of cage. Rabbits are lush food for quite some predators, so the best is always to have a cage which has a roof made of net, as well as net on the side. But that was not possible for us to build this time. Our intension is to move Candys sleeping quaters (a regular outdoorcage that she has inside the box in the stables) and every night she will be locked into this sleeping cage, so that she is protected from stray foxes or big birds or other hunting animals.

It took some time to plan, draw and calculate the price of all that was needed for the cage. The material ended up costing us just under 1000 Skr.

4. Planning the cage. This took some time - drawings, googleing on internet, new drawings, estimating costs etc.  I spent one day one preparing and bying the stuff. There are some nice blogposts on building rabbitcages where we got some inspiration - and this one was very useful: http://www.tigerharen.org/material/tips/kaninhagn

This is what we came up with:

A rectangular cage, with 8 poles (45 x45 mm x 1800 mm). The net we used is called "putsnät" and it was available in 25 m of 1 m height (the net being 19 x 19 mm). The net needed to be digged down ca 30 cm, and since we wanted a high net (our jumpy rabbit is not shy to try height jumping) we settled for net up until 120 cm.  At the joint seam (where the net that we used would overlap)  we put a wooden rim ( 25 x 45 mm läkt)  A gate of ca 1 m to enter the cage was also planned. Further, we bought scruws for the wood, staples to attach the net to the wood, and hinges for the gate.

5. Building the cage.

Digging 30 cm deep around the fence was quite hard work, and took longer than I thought, The grass I saved in big lumps, so that we could cover the trench afterwards. In the bottom of the trench we filled up with some gravel, to hopefully discourage Candy from digging herself out.

The poles were 180 cm long, and untreated. We deliberately did not want impregnated wood. The life expectancy is of course shorter if the wood is untreated, but we hope it will stand for at least 5 years. The poles were hammered down until 120 to130 cm was above ground.

New tool friend
- worked very well to clip the net. 

The net was lowered down to 30 cm in the ground.
A bit tricky, but Johan helped me to get it right.
The net was attached to the outer side of the poles,
to (maybe) prevent a predator to get in too easily. 

Finally - after 6 days it was ready! Now next step is landscaping before we introduce Candy
- and maybe soon get a friend to her!

The basement

The basement is again on the agenda. After having some fun with visiting friends it was time to go on with this formerly hidden old part of the house. The last image you saw from the entrance was this:

Now it is this:

From the other side you can better see what I have done. 

The blocks of Siporex where already gone. The straight beam of concrete, made on top of a big clump of concrete, is gone. And I have drilled some kind of step in the clump. 

I suppose the concrete beam was for making it nicely even, as the big block is totally uneven. I used a week point to break the beam and once broken it was easy to take it away in its whole. More difficult was the block of concrete under it. It took me quite some time to make it more or less horizontal and drilling out the first step of a little stair I will make at the backside. With my bore hammer it was quite a big work.  

Clearing up the outside part I found out that the old staircase is still under the concrete. I hesitated but in the end I decided to not take away al the concrete as breaking it away is a hell of a job. And I'm not sure the staircase will be in good shape. And also nothing holds me later to take it away. 

Briks are partialy visible through the dark mud under the concrete clumb.

And take also al look to the nice floor inside when taken away some of the mud. 

In next episode I will make some base in concrete to build a wooden frame and a door on it.