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March 8th



The weather has put a stop to the project for this weekend with more rain and gales forecast for the next few days the cement mixer is staying dry in the shed for now! Tom and I went out today to buy the concrete blocks and sand needed to finish the base off, it’s frustrating when we have everything in ready and cannot carry on, the early nights are still with us so there is not enough time after work to do the footings, so there will be no updates until next weekend.
 
March 9th

Well we got up today and the sun was cracking the
paving stones how wrong where the weather men, we
had a quick breakfast and got started.

My wife is the photographer catching the action as it happens!

Here is Tom filling the cement mixer with the fourth load, I am on my hands and knees at the back of the cement mixer, next to Tom are the concrete blocks we got yesterday.
At this point we had to speed up, if you look at the sky on the top right corner on the photo you can just see the sky turning black with rain clouds building, boy was it looking heavy, if it was not for Tom helping out I would not have finished these footings. Tom will be showing me what to do soon as he is at collage one day a week studying construction and building, he also has every Friday with a local building company as part of his two day release from school.
On my hands and knees again leveling off the concrete, what a team Tom mixing as I poor and level.
We managed to get the last bit done before the heavens opened there is polythene covering the freshly laid
concrete now, when that shower past we went back
out to clean the mixer and wheel barrow, 20 minuets
later the rain started again, well at the end of the day
we have now got the footings done, hopefully next weekend we can do the block work.
         
March 15th


We are blessed with the weather again more rain! after
last week end with all the high winds and heavy rain the
ground has not had chance to dry out much, however we
have removed all the polythene which was covering the
footings, the footings have set-off hard now, we need a
break in the weather to carry on, all the materials
are here waiting!

 

March 16th
Well it's like a carbon copy of last week, rain Saturday
and fine on Sunday, again we made the most of the
weather, as you can see from the photos we started
and finished the outer block work off, we are not out
of the ground yet! Hopefully Easter bank holiday
weekend next week will see it finished!!
Here is Tom getting the feel of his new bird room, you can also see the small area of new concrete we laid, so we
have a hard stand in between the two bird rooms, all we need to do now to finish off the ground work, is build some supports in the middle of the block work to keep the under bearers from bending
March 22nd
We had all the weather today, strong cold winds,
sunshine, and snow! as you can see we are moving on
with the project now, today we started on the supports
for the under bearers to sit on, we had to make two wooden boxes to come out of the ground to get the
correct height of concrete needed to lay two concrete blocks on tomorrow, the earth is low here because we
took all the old greenhouse soil out until we met the
firmer ground, we also left the old path in knowing we
could use this as part of the base for the supports to go
on, we only needed to lay 4" house bricks here to get
the same height as the surrounding wall, we need to
take the boxes off in the morning and move them to
the other two holes we have dug on the opposite
side of the path
The ground other side of the project is not as deep, so we don't have to use the wooden boxes here, we only
need to dig down to the correct depth we need for the concrete base and one block to lay on. When all the
supports are in we can back fill the earth we dug out when doing the footings, this will tidy the garden up a bit!
(keeps the wife happy!!)
March 24th
We had a fantastic day, the sun was out no RAIN! and warm-ish! Tom and I started building the block work off the
concrete slabs we made the day before, well I have to admit Tom is putting his dad to shame with his block laying.
The first photo is Tom showing me how it's done, sadly the second photo is my doing!
As Tom was having a
good time I left him to it!
joke! it has now turned
into a competition
to see who can build
the best stack, he won!
Unfortunately we run out of building materials and were
unable to finish the last four blocks, but the holes are dug
ready, as you can see on the photo we have back filled the
project with soil left over from the footings, also we have
leveled off the waist ground where the tree stump is, the
garden is starting to look tidy again.
I am hoping to finish this ground work off in the week as
it is not getting dark now until 7.00pm plus the clocks go
forward on the 30th this will give me more time at night to work on the project Yippee!!
March 29th

Well it was raining when I got up today and it has not stopped all day long in fact it is still raining hard as
I am up-dating this page, maybe it might stop tomorrow!!. I did not get time in the week to do anything on the
project, but yesterday I got the rest of the building materials needed to finish. The day was not wasted,
both of us spent more time with the birds, doing the cage cleaning and drinkers.
March 30th

We had sun today and we got on with the last four footings, all the concrete is in now ready for Tom to set the
last four blocks on, he will be doing this in the week as I will be ordering the wood we need to make
the floor of the bird room, sorry there is no photos but they would only look like the one's above, I will take one
of the finished base when Tom finishes it off.
April 10th

Panic stations!! Tom and Sue went out in the week to
interview a club member for the members profile page on the
Torbay BFBS website, they where gone for some time,
when they did get back home, they told me about the
entire stud of budgies they had just brought off a champion
breeder who is giving up the hobby, it was a chance of
a life time for Tom to get some good birds, he get's them
this Sunday, so here I am making a holding flight to
house them until the bird room is ready, this flight will go
inside an out building we have, it's to hold over 50
budgies. I have got a week off work as from Fri 11th and
all the wood is here to build the floor of the new bird room,
so pop back in the week for more up-dates

April 12th
Well between us we have got the holding flight finished and into the out building ready for tomorrow when the
budgies arrive, the flight is so light we can lift and move it for cleaning, the flight is nine foot long by three foot wide and
six foot tall.
As this page is starting to get a bit long the project continues on page three now!
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