The slow builder

This last week I've been preparing the area for my 'dog run'. My plan is to cover the netted pet enclosure with ClimaSafe cloth on the sides and top and use it as a tunnel house for growing vegetables in. I purchased the kitset enclosure last year from Outpost Buildings, and, seeing how the elves were busy on other things, I decided to have a stab at it myself.

After much trial and error, I worked out a way to sort out the levels with pegs and string and spent a couple of afternoons skimming, digging and redistributing the claggy clay. In Taranaki I would have just dug it over and then raked it but it's not that easy here. The dimensions of the enclosure are 3.9m x 2.2m making it a very tight fit between the water tank and the raised bed. The whole project almost became a white elephant when I assembled the base and found that the actual measurements were 3.95m x 2.3m - I'll just have to breathe in when I walk down the raised bed path!

Base down - a tighter fit than I had planned

Base from northern side

The base rails  (4 with corners and 2 straight ones) slot together which means they also pull apart easily. The 6 uprights weren't hard to install but putting the top rail on would have been amusing to watch! The instructions said to make the top rail the same configuration as the base so I worked my way round assembling and bolting as I went and ended up with this...

Frame with door still to be fitted

I carefully checked horizontal and vertical levels and tightened the fittings, only to discover that because the top rail layout was the same as the bottom one, the whole structure easily parted at the joins. Hmmm. I was tempted to take the top rail down again and rebuild it so that the joins were staggered - but that would make it impossible to install the doorway (has to go by an upright and can't be put over a join). In the end I decided to run some PVC-covered wire around the top rail, threading it between the fittings so that it kept the frame from coming apart. I've also run the wire diagonally across the top. A good plan, methinks, but then I ran out of wire to complete the second diagonal and a quick check on The Warehouse website showed that they've discontinued that item. I'll have another think about what to do next!

The completed frame with fitted door and hard to see wire bracing

The netting stage is next BUT if I cover the frame now then I won't be able to put the containers inside as the door is only 500mm wide and the mussel buoy containers around 750mm. Additionally, the ClimaSafe instructions state that the cloth will degrade faster if placed against metal due to the metal heating up. It would be good to have a removable panel but I'm not sure if this will compromise the strength of the structure. It's just as well I'll have plenty of thinking time whilst I'm track trimming at Dancing Star for the rest of today!

It's probably the slowest-ever assembly of a simple enclosure but an achievement nevertheless. I have another small plastic-covered greenhouse (like the one that was fatally damaged in the gale) and plan to put this inside the finished enclosure for starting off seedlings in the cooler weather.

We had a kiwi release on the island last Friday - will get that blog up when I get back :)