Turtle Town Image Gallery (Separate Page)

Day Three And Four: One Half Done

The first day we didn't really hit the ground running...
First we estimated how many cement blocks we should buy (we later found out we need about 1/3 more than we thought), then after removing the blocks that were in the way, we spent the rest of the day trying to figure out where everything should go.

Look at the 3rd picture; that's my dad in his thinking pose, he is stumped again the next day (see Day Two). Doesn't it perfectly capture what the friends and family of turtle owners have to go through?

We eventually built the general shape of the first layer, and that was that.

Day Two got a lot more done than Day One, but had more headaches....
As my brother and father dug away the portion of flower bed that was in the way, they discovered that there was a pipe in the worse place it could be, so that needed moved (picture 5-7 is after it was relocated).

With that obstacle overcome, my dad began leveling the ground to create a plum foundation for the bricks. Slowly but surely a sturdy structure was beginning to take shape. After running out of bricks, we called it a day.

As you can see, after the first layer of bricks, the structure isn't aligned, this is for 2 reasons; It prevents turtles from being able to climb the corners and escape, and it also creates a ledge on the inside (see Day Three And Four for more information)

The following week (We only worked on weekends) we bought more supplies.

I bet your wondering why one brick is on it's side, and why we needed a ledge on the inside; a few months before creating this, I had a great idea... Using the bottom layer of bricks as a new "Under Ground Tunnel System" would be a excellent use of space, and all we had to do was buy a few red bricks, and some Cement Board to separate that from the actual turtle pen (held up by the ledge on the inside, and the supporting cement-tops).

The red bricks are only used to make "rooms" so that turtles can tuck in their own warm, leafy corner (enough space for 9-10 turtles to sleep comfortably).

Here you can also see that the bricks are packed with dirt, This insolates the inside of the pen, and also helps to sturdy the bricks- we did not want to cement them together because this is a temporary pen that would only be in use for as many years as we need, we can also take it with us if we ever move.

On Day Four my brother and father added some plastic, and the last layer of bricks, that about sums it up!

(To see how I spent the rest of Day 4, see The Flower Bed)

Although we didn't cement all of the bricks, we decided it was best to patch up a few holes to make sure it was secure inside and out. We also attached the edging that the screen lid would be hinged too.

After the cement dried, I filled up the top cavity half way with soil, and by using 3 left over cement-tops in the middle I made 2 separated rooms.

I added just a few pieces of "furniture" to one side. I also decided to test-drive it by putting WildFlower and Okie in and see how they would do. After some adjusting to make sure they couldn't flip over in an awkward way or manage to climb out, the day was over.

After a lot of debating over how to approach the lid, my brother came up with the idea of using more edging instead of pipes. We already had a long hinge, but it didn't reach the full length of the pen, but after we realized that we also noticed that the cement tops had gaps, no matter how we adjusted it.

In the first picture you can see we clipped and bent the edging to make it into the shape we wanted, and then figured out where we wanted the two supporting rods to go.

After that we attached the hinge. We soon layed out the screen and flattened it by doing the "screen dance" as shown in Image Six. Last we cut the screen to the shape we needed and later screwed it to the frame.

About two weeks later the weather cooled down enough to get back to work. Each little "dorm" got a shrub, a pond, a half log, a rock to eat off of, and few other pieces of wood to hide under.

We finished screwing the hinge down so that the lid is now fully functional. A plastic rod is used to keep the lid open and a brick is used to keep it securely closed.

My dad also installed a watering system so that live plants can be watered automatically all year round, (it also helps cool the occupants down!).

The renovations started in March 2009 and wasn't finished to May 2009. It took a long time with many delays but it turned out great for about 300 bucks

!

Pictures Of Inside The Caves

Pictures Of Inside The Dorms

Now that there's a big gap between where the Flower bed ends and the new turtle pen begins, I had the daunting task of figuring out how to blend them in a way that still looked attractive (Picture 1 is from Day Two, to show you the gap). Since my dad told me he wanted to avoid breaking bricks in half, blending the 2 structures was a very difficult challenge.

So, I sat on the bench in Turtle Town and stared at it for 20 minutes... Then I remembered last year I had removed parts of the tree rings (click here for a picture). A few hours of digging later, with those two pieces turned upside down, I was able to make "steps" up into the flowerbed.

Not only did I solve one problem, I also made it so the turtles can easily access the flower bed on their own!

Later; The Plants Mature!

The first two pictures are when I added the rocks, however the way the rocks were still make it a bumpy ride when the turtles tried to get down, so I moved some plants and rocks around and got it in a way I'm happy with.