I rebuilt some of my enclosures this past winter, and now that the plants have matured a little, here's how it looks.
For the most part, our back yard is a normal one. Being at the end of a court, we have a triangular lot, giving us a wrap-around backyard. Two sides are yard and patio, with the usual trappings of suburban life. None of the people we know really understand why I like turtles and tortoises. I'm not exactly sure myself. But I do.
Here is our "normal" yard.
Sandbox and my daughter's "Pole Bean Farm".
Now, here are where the pens and dog kennel are.
Near the wood fence is an underground wire fence that keeps Nation (the Alaskan Malamute) from crossing. The boards on the left slide out in case I need to go in with a wheelbarrow.
Roof view of the pens. The Golden Greek pen wraps around the back of the dog kennel, and is more of a natural style pen. It is planted with California native plants and rocks, logs and other things I've collected from all over Northern California while hiking. Several underground drip lines water portions of it twice a week during the dry season.
I installed two time-lapse game cameras that run off solar panels, in an effort to catch egg laying events. It has been somewhat successful, and has led me to a few nests I wouldn't have otherwise discovered, and it also records what tortoise laid the nest, and the time of nesting.
They seem to lay all over the pen, though. I was hoping they would lay in a general area, like my box turtles do. They seem to lay all day, 11:00 to 2:00 in the spring, and earlier on hotter days. One laid in late afternoon on a cold rainy day.
The Eastern Box Turtle pen was re-designed this past December. It contains 5 pens - 4 long pens and one triangular pen. Each pen has a pond, that drain into each other. At the bottom, it is filtered, and pumped back to the top. The black shade cloth covers the first four ponds during the summer, and rolls up during the winter.
In the front of the pens are the hides, and the food bowls.
The food dishes are double nested, and as long as the bottom one is filled with water, does a pretty good job so far of keeping the ants out.
In the back just after the strawberry patches and stone walking path are the open areas for nesting.
If you want to see the current residents of the pens, check out the links below.
Thanks for looking,
Steve
For the most part, our back yard is a normal one. Being at the end of a court, we have a triangular lot, giving us a wrap-around backyard. Two sides are yard and patio, with the usual trappings of suburban life. None of the people we know really understand why I like turtles and tortoises. I'm not exactly sure myself. But I do.
Here is our "normal" yard.
Sandbox and my daughter's "Pole Bean Farm".
Now, here are where the pens and dog kennel are.
Near the wood fence is an underground wire fence that keeps Nation (the Alaskan Malamute) from crossing. The boards on the left slide out in case I need to go in with a wheelbarrow.
Roof view of the pens. The Golden Greek pen wraps around the back of the dog kennel, and is more of a natural style pen. It is planted with California native plants and rocks, logs and other things I've collected from all over Northern California while hiking. Several underground drip lines water portions of it twice a week during the dry season.
I installed two time-lapse game cameras that run off solar panels, in an effort to catch egg laying events. It has been somewhat successful, and has led me to a few nests I wouldn't have otherwise discovered, and it also records what tortoise laid the nest, and the time of nesting.
They seem to lay all over the pen, though. I was hoping they would lay in a general area, like my box turtles do. They seem to lay all day, 11:00 to 2:00 in the spring, and earlier on hotter days. One laid in late afternoon on a cold rainy day.
The Eastern Box Turtle pen was re-designed this past December. It contains 5 pens - 4 long pens and one triangular pen. Each pen has a pond, that drain into each other. At the bottom, it is filtered, and pumped back to the top. The black shade cloth covers the first four ponds during the summer, and rolls up during the winter.
In the front of the pens are the hides, and the food bowls.
The food dishes are double nested, and as long as the bottom one is filled with water, does a pretty good job so far of keeping the ants out.
In the back just after the strawberry patches and stone walking path are the open areas for nesting.
If you want to see the current residents of the pens, check out the links below.
Thanks for looking,
Steve