Building Dragonflight
(Motueka)
In the year 2000 the bird garden at 'Dracoweyr' was a collection of knocked together flights & aviaries. Most of them had been built with dirt floors so of course mice quickly moved in and made themselves quite at home. A number of them were second hand as finances didn't stretch far in those days.
The kitset metal aviaries I soon found to be too hard to work in, with the low doorways making some painful impacts to the head! They were also too cold in the winters and sometimes too hot during the summer. None of them included safety cages so these had to be added when they were assembled.
All were far too small, one even being too low for me to stand up in! I dreamt of having aviaries that were nice for the birds to live in as well as being easy for me to work in.
The end of 2004 saw work start on the Birdroom and we seem to have been building every summer since then.
What follows is 'Dragonflight' being built.
The kitset metal aviaries I soon found to be too hard to work in, with the low doorways making some painful impacts to the head! They were also too cold in the winters and sometimes too hot during the summer. None of them included safety cages so these had to be added when they were assembled.
All were far too small, one even being too low for me to stand up in! I dreamt of having aviaries that were nice for the birds to live in as well as being easy for me to work in.
The end of 2004 saw work start on the Birdroom and we seem to have been building every summer since then.
What follows is 'Dragonflight' being built.
December 2004
1. The plan is finally pegged out.
3. The timber arrives.
5. Each wall is built in panels then erected on the concrete pad.
7.
9. The roof is ready to go on.
11.
13. Doors to the planned flights.
15. .... then the walls are lined.
2. Concrete is laid.
4. Building begins.
6.
8. Ready for the roof.
10. 4 walls and a roof, a birdroom!
12. The painting starts.
14. The wiring goes in ......
16.
17. The lights work!
May 2005.
The Birdroom is finished and we stop building before winter.
The Birdroom is finished and we stop building before winter.
December 2005.
Building starts again over summer.
Building starts again over summer.
18. The first flight is measured out.
20. The first wall goes up.....
22. Three walls and a roof =
24. The second flight is started.
19. Concrete for one and a half flights is poured.
21. ....& the second one.
23. a finished flight.
25.
26. And then there were 2!
March 2006
27. One more flight and the porch still to build.
29. The last two flights are started in the new year of 2007.
28. The porch is finished by the end of 2006.
30. These two have a connecting door between them & are half the width of the first two flights.
(Doesn't Dino look extremely well behaved and intelligent? I never realised he was such a good liar!)
(Doesn't Dino look extremely well behaved and intelligent? I never realised he was such a good liar!)
31. Waiting to be painted...... the weather didn't help!
Finally finished!
February 2007
