- Joined
- Jul 18, 2008
- Messages
- 1,109
We started our outdoor pen upgrades quite a while ago (first of April). We were tempted to post pictures earlier, but were waiting until things were more finished. There are still a few odds and ends that need to be finished but you can get the idea I think.
Basically, everyone got quite a large expansion in their pen. Also more pens have been added to accomodate the tortoises we've aquired since last year.
Day 1 (not consecutive days, but spanned about a 6 weeks). Last year we had 2 larger pens and 3 smaller pens. This year, we started by digging the grass out to place the cinder blocks for the pens. This was back-breaking, blister-making work! And yep, even the kids helped.
Day 2. We dug all the grass away from the cinders for aesthetic reasons (before it always looked in need of the weed-eater!) Ugh, the digging of the grass seemed to never end!
Day 3. We included a walkway between the pens this year. What a great feature! No more stepping inside the pens to get to all the tortoises.
Day 4. Stepping stones in the walkway now. Beginning to landscape the pens.
Day 5.Finished (for the most part). Realize this took more than 5 days. But some days, there was such little progress, it wasn't really visible in photos so they weren't included here. However, rain (and that darn thing called a job) prevented us from working everyday. So the work spanned close to 6 weeks.
We used 5 gallon buckets, cut in half, and dug into the dirt as a hide. We also fixed a rain-gutter overhang on the top of the cinders to prevent the climbers from getting out.
All the dark dirt areas were planted with tortoise-friendly seeds from Carolina Pet Supply and the plants are finally sprouting as you can see in the Egyptian pen.
Here are the Pyxis pens with happy little torties everywhere!
Drainage pipe we found at Home Depot made a great tunnel for the Hermanns.
Pancakes have a deluxe, multi-story mansion/hide.
Basically, everyone got quite a large expansion in their pen. Also more pens have been added to accomodate the tortoises we've aquired since last year.
Day 1 (not consecutive days, but spanned about a 6 weeks). Last year we had 2 larger pens and 3 smaller pens. This year, we started by digging the grass out to place the cinder blocks for the pens. This was back-breaking, blister-making work! And yep, even the kids helped.
Day 2. We dug all the grass away from the cinders for aesthetic reasons (before it always looked in need of the weed-eater!) Ugh, the digging of the grass seemed to never end!
Day 3. We included a walkway between the pens this year. What a great feature! No more stepping inside the pens to get to all the tortoises.
Day 4. Stepping stones in the walkway now. Beginning to landscape the pens.
Day 5.Finished (for the most part). Realize this took more than 5 days. But some days, there was such little progress, it wasn't really visible in photos so they weren't included here. However, rain (and that darn thing called a job) prevented us from working everyday. So the work spanned close to 6 weeks.
We used 5 gallon buckets, cut in half, and dug into the dirt as a hide. We also fixed a rain-gutter overhang on the top of the cinders to prevent the climbers from getting out.
All the dark dirt areas were planted with tortoise-friendly seeds from Carolina Pet Supply and the plants are finally sprouting as you can see in the Egyptian pen.
Here are the Pyxis pens with happy little torties everywhere!
Drainage pipe we found at Home Depot made a great tunnel for the Hermanns.
Pancakes have a deluxe, multi-story mansion/hide.
