Hottentot and Ringed Teal Ducks

[HottentotTeal]

Time for another update:

I finally got the 3t netting!

Tomorrow, I plan to go to Lowes and buy all of the wood.

Then on Saturday, I will head out to Tractor supply and pick up the mesh. I need to double-check my notes, but 1/4" hardware cloth or 1 inch welded wire mesh was recommended on the forum, so i will look at both at the store and figure out which one to get. I was leaning more towards the welded wire. Price isn't a big deal. I'm just not sure if there is a big difference between the two as far as pros and cons. If anyone has anything to add about both, let me know. I'll try to reread what i copied from several threads i read over the past 2 weeks, though.

After we pick up the wood, I plan to paint it and then once all that is finished, I will call the guy to come out and put it all together for me.

I am still planning to have him just build the frame and walls/wire and then i will later hang the netting on top from the inside which will be a cinch. I'll also later dig out the floor and put in the rocks and dirt and then after that figure out about any plants or grass.

I have a place picked out for the pebbles and dirt, so the question will only be how little/much do i have to buy from them.

Anyways, that is the plan so far.

 

[sianara]

Sounds like a good plan. Personally, I use 1/2" HW cloth not l/4". The l/4" is too small and is harder to see through.

 

[HottentotTeal]

I just went to Lowes and Home Depot and picked up half of the wood.

I got 4x4 for posts and then a ton of 2x4s and 2x6 i think.

I still need to get all the wood for the sight barrier. They had some really awful pieces and i was originally going with 2x6 but i may go with 1x6 for the barrier. 1 store didnt have either size. The other had just enough, but the wood was all cracked and i couldnt use it. Wasn't even properly cut or milled.

I went to go look at the hardware cloth that Home Depot had and when i was looking at some of it I got cut by some wire.

Bled all over my pants as i kept wiping my finger on it. Fortunately they were black.

I think i will go with the 1/2" cloth as you suggested because i can't see through 1/4, or the 1 inch welded wire. I planned to go to TSC tomorrow for that, since they have a lot more to choose from.

Also, I noticed that they had some of the hardware cloth or wire PVC (green) coated. Anyone recommend that stuff?

 

[jsvand5]

Quote:
The coated stuff is great if they have the right size and you don't mind paying the extra $$.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

yep it last a lot longer and isnt sharp like you were talking about on the other, well not as bad at least

 

[HottentotTeal]

Ok, I will get that.

I just came back from Tractor Supply.

Welp, I found 2 food bowls and I picked up what looks like a pet (dog) self waterer. It uses an ozarka-like water jug to keep it filled, although it's about half the size as an Ozarka bottle. (3-5 gallons maybe)

I just filled it with water and it's PERFECT! It fills up about 3 inches deep into the watering bowl.

I also picked up ANOTHER pond liner. It's actually a 40 gallon rubbermaid water tub, i think. The one i got from Lowes is plastic but very thin and i worried about it cracking.

This Rubbermaid tub is really thick, so i got it and will take back the pond liner to Lowes today.



Also, I was a little disappointed at TSC for not having my wire. All they had was chicken wire, and some mesh, but they only had small rolls, like 25ft.

They also didn't have as much as Lowes or Home Depot, so i am going to just go back and get several of the 25 foot 4 foot wide PVC coated welded wire. I just hope they have enough when i go. I may need to buy it from both stores if they both carry it.

They did have some PVC welded wire, but it was 2x1" and i needed 1x1 or smaller, so it was rectangular instead of square and i think the square dimensions for wire look better.

 

[HottentotTeal]

Ok, an update on my supplies:

You will be able to see i switched out the old tub for a much more durable tub. Also, all the wood and a sample of rocks for the pond and the water feeder is in view

I flagged where each main post will be and to provide me some perspective on the size. There are 2 rows of flags against the house and the one closest to the house was from my old measurement which is no longer being used.

Also, one pot of Muhly (spelling?) grass and a stone toadstool is in view, which will be put in the area.

The flight netting is inside my house and it's kinda heavy to lug in the picture so i just left it out, especially since it is all tucked into the box it shipped in.

I ordered some 19 gauge, 1/2" x 1/2" Welded PVC coated wire 4' x 100' yesterday. Not sure if it has shipped yet, but hopefully that will arrive soon.

I also picked up paint to match the posts of the house outside.


I'm drying the wood today and tomorrow and then will paint it all on Sunday.

Hopefully, I will be able to get it all worked on by next weekend.

Since i had to plan out nearly everything, me and my father-in-law will be constructing it.

After it's done, I will work on the floor covering , rocks and some dirt i guess. I was thinking of growing some plants or something, maybe some safe grass for them to eat, but i will tackle that later.

 

[lcwilson2010]

that looks like a good design so far. nice. anything else hapen with it.?

 

[HottentotTeal]

The area looks the same right now.

The next step we have done so far was buy all of the wood. It took us about 2 weeks, because the stores didn't have all the sizes we needed.

We got the wood, a bucket of paint that matches our driveway walkway beam supports and I also got in the 100' x4' (1/2"x"1/2) black pvc cage welded wire mesh. I may have already mentioned that in one of my posts above, but i forget.

After we got the wood, we painted all of the pieces over a 3 day period. I meant to take a pic when i had them all laid out, but I didn't realize it until i had put in 80% of the wood back in the garage. I will take a pic of it all stacked up this weekend though. I need to post that as well as a pic of the pebbles we bought last weekend.

We just barely managed to get all the wood painted before a heavy storm rolled in about a week ago. We are waiting for the now muddy area to dry and if it doesn't rain any or much by this weekend, we might try to dig the posts and cement them in and get started.

As i said a few sentences ago, we went to a little dirt and rock quarry and I bought 4 bags of pebbles. 2 bags of Jade pebbles 1" and 2 bags of smaller polished moon gravel, which is probably pea sized.

I'll update pics of both before we get started on the construction.

Also, my uncle is bringing a truckload of screened topsoil to level out the area we prepared tomorrow or Saturday. If i have any left over dirt, I am thinking of making a little garden bed in the back behind my garage where i already have a tiny 2x4' garden setup. I would set it up to harvest snails and some more plants i guess.


I need to dry the bag of rocks we bought because it was raining when we bought them. They were sold by the pound and sadly the water added to the weight. I don't know by how much, but it wasn't a big deal. We filled each bag halfway, so there is about 50 pounds of jade pebbles in each bag and then 75 pounds in each moon gravel bag. That was a fun excursion, because they had wire mesh bins filled with the rocks and the guy gave us some rice bags and a mini shovel and said to just fill up the bags about halfway and bring them back to weigh and then that's it.

They had some really small moon gravel, like something the size you would put in an aquarium. Grit-sized i think, but definitely larger than beach sand. I thought about using that to coat the floor, but I will post more ideas and questions on that once i get the place constructed and then ask later. I want to have a nice pic of what the place will look like before fully tackling the floor. Although the pebbles are reserved for the pond area and water area for now.


We have a folder of all the expenses, which are pretty high. I think we are close to $2000.

If anyone wants a list of what I bought and how much it all costs, I'll post it later. It would take a while to go through all of the supplies i bought.

If we can start on the construction, i still need to go buy some tools. Not sure if i mentioned it but my father-in-law is going to help me build it, so whatever tools he doesn't have I am going to buy for the project. Not a whole lot is needed, maybe another shovel, wheelbarrow, and of course some stuff to secure the fencing.



Which brings up my first question in a while:

What would be good to secure 1/2"x1/2" pvc coated hardware cloth to the wood posts? Will staples be ok from a $20-30 staple gun? I have seen a few different sizes of staples (3/8 to 1 inch), so I figured the longest one would be best.

Or would it be better to use those hook "U" fence nails? I'm not sure how those fence nails are applied. Would those just be hammered in or is there a special nail gun for that?

 

[Natermotor]

I find that the "U" shaped nails are best for securing fencing, as staples fall out rather easily. To apply, all you have to do is hammer it in.