Dudley's Rebuild

Yvonne G

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I have a guy that comes to take care of spiders, roaches, ants, etc. and he has sulcatas of his own, so he understands about not poisoning my animals. He called my attention to what he referred to as "salt and pepper" around Dudley's night house. He said it was termite 'leavings.'

termite leavings.jpg

Since Dudley's night house is in the front yard and smack up against my house, I knew I had to get rid of this structure as quickly as possible.

Dudley's old shelter next to my front door:

Dudley's rebuild 10-4-13 a.jpg


So I started building him a shed in the back yard.

I'm an old lady, and I'm quite lazy. My recliner and my Kindle call to me constantly and it's quite a struggle to ignore their call. So even though I started this project way back in October of last year, I wasn't able to wrap it up until today. I started by digging the ground level. I had a bunch of old asphalt shingles that the garbage company won't take, so I put them down on the level ground, then sand then I started laying down cement stepping stones and covering them with termite mesh:



Dudley's rebuild 10-4-14 b.jpg

Dudley's rebuild 10-07-14.jpg




This is the other side of the fence, in Dudley's yard:



Dudley's Rebuild 10-4-14 c.jpg

I started framing, then after the first of the year I had a little extra help. Steven (Bouaboua) and his wife came and spent the day with me:

Dudley's rebuild 11-5-14.jpg

Dudley's rebuild 11-29-14.jpg Dudley's rebuild 01-02-15 a.jpg Dudley's rebuild 01-02-15 b.jpg Dudley's rebuild 01-02-15 c.jpg Dudley's rebuild 01-03-15.jpg

Not much left to do now, getting there slowly but surely:

Dudley's Rebuild 01-31-15 a.jpg Dudley's Rebuild 01-31-15 b.jpg

When I put on the shingles, I didn't realize I was supposed to butt the pieces up against each other, and not overlap them, so I ended up with a bump down the middle:

Dudley's rebuild 01-31-15 c.jpg Dudley's Rebuild 01-31-15 d.jpg Dudley's Rebuild 01-31-15 e.jpg Dudley's Rebuild 2-1-15 a.jpg Dudley's rebuild 2-1-15 b.jpg

And the final test, it's occupant coming to try it out:

Dudley's rebuild 2-1-15 d.jpg

Dudley's rebuild 2-1-15 c.jpg Dudley's rebuild 2-1-15 e.jpg

I think he gave it his seal of approval. He's in there digging at the wall.

I'm so very glad to have this project finished. Now I can get rid of the old one and get back into taking care of the day-to-day chores.
 

mike taylor

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Glad to see it finished . Good job!
 

Dizisdalife

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Looks like a fun project. Dudley is going to be so happy. And you too, of course.
 

Yvonne G

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I opted for mounting the pig blanket on the wall because Dudley digs before he goes to sleep. In the old shelter I screwed the pig blanket down into the floor. I didn't want to make holes in the rubber mat on the floor and give termites an entry, so wall mount it is. If it gets too cold in there I could add an electric oil filled radiator, I have a couple extras, but there's a 250 watt bird brooder light hanging from the ceiling and I think that will keep it warm enough in there at night.
 

wellington

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Yvonne, you are as young as you feel and do and by all the things you do, believe me, you are very young. Don't go by the number, only by how much you can still do. You should be very proud of what you accomplish on your own. I know many truely "old" people and you my friend are not one of them. I bet Dudley does love it, why wouldn't he, it's built with love. Great job.

@bouaboua what can I say. You and your wife are great people for helping out. If I lived near by, I would be giving you a big hug myself. Just too nice.
 

bouaboua

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Yvonne, you are as young as you feel and do and by all the things you do, believe me, you are very young. Don't go by the number, only by how much you can still do. You should be very proud of what you accomplish on your own. I know many truely "old" people and you my friend are not one of them. I bet Dudley does love it, why wouldn't he, it's built with love. Great job.

@bouaboua what can I say. You and your wife are great people for helping out. If I lived near by, I would be giving you a big hug myself. Just too nice.
You are too kind Barb. I just a regular people doing the thing regular people will do.

I wish one day, when I get to the age of Yvonne. I still can have the drive and strength to build a night house for my torts.
 

wellington

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You are too kind Barb. I just a regular people doing the thing regular people will do.

I wish one day, when I get to the age of Yvonne. I still can have the drive and strength to build a night house for my torts.

In the way the world is going and has been, always bad in the news, it's just a very nice refreshing thing to hear about. Not everyone would do something like that. You are food people.
 

Len B

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Great Job,, Darn termites, if you ever want to put the mat on the floor, you can mount it on a piece of plywood and then secure the plywood to the wall with angle brackets to keep it in place. This way you have no screw holes in the floor. Walkers mat is done this way and he is about the same size as Dudley and digs in the corner also, His mat has been in place for several years now, he tries to move it around but those 3/4 inch screws hold it in place.
 

Yellow Turtle01

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Yep. You'll get the official tortoise seal of approval when poops in there for the first time :D
Looks so nice! I think the roof looks great. Good idea for the floor.
You guys did a great job :D
 
M

Maggie Cummings

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Great Job,, Darn termites, if you ever want to put the mat on the floor, you can mount it on a piece of plywood and then secure the plywood to the wall with angle brackets to keep it in place. This way you have no screw holes in the floor. Walkers mat is done this way and he is about the same size as Dudley and digs in the corner also, His mat has been in place for several years now, he tries to move it around but those 3/4 inch screws hold it in place.
Bob too. He digs at it every night, but I also have it screwed in place so it doesn't move.
I am so looking forward to meeting Steven and his wife....
 

Tom

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I am so looking forward to meeting Steven and his wife....

Are you coming to town Miss Maggie? Might I be getting a visit soon? You can see the ranch when its all green and I can show you my new ranch too!

Funny thing, the elephantes moved up to Oregon.
 

Yvonne G

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Nice job. Does he go in on his own yet?

I had that portion of the yard blocked off this whole time to keep him out of my way, so when I opened it, he was in there in a flash. As soon as he saw the open door to the shed, he went right in. I had nailed a board across the door to his old shelter, but he never even went back to it. In the evening he went into the new shed as if he had always been using it.

The 250 watt brooder bulb keeps the temperature nice and toasty, but at night, from the outside, I can see all the spaces where I'm going to have to add some insulation strips around the edges of the doors. I checked in on him several time through the night, and he never stirred the whole night. The red bulb makes it pretty bright in there, but it didn't seem to bother him.
 

Yvonne G

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Great Job,, Darn termites, if you ever want to put the mat on the floor, you can mount it on a piece of plywood and then secure the plywood to the wall with angle brackets to keep it in place. This way you have no screw holes in the floor. Walkers mat is done this way and he is about the same size as Dudley and digs in the corner also, His mat has been in place for several years now, he tries to move it around but those 3/4 inch screws hold it in place.

Thanks. I like this idea. I'm not real fond of having it on the wall. The wall mount works for the Manouria because they do pretty well in a cooler environment, but the wall mount just heats up the space right in front of it and really doesn't give a big tortoise much heat.
 
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