I had some trouble with rodents in my garden towards the end of the season. Now that winter is here and the garden has been cleared, I realized my problem was significant and I needed to act.
After seeing Nancy’s post
https://permies.com/t/237769/Keeping-pole-upright-shallow-soil I wanted to do something similar, while stacking functions and attempting a bb.
I found that owls like to perch ~10+ feet off the ground, so I went out to the elm trees I had felled a while back to find something suitable.
From the pile, I also gathered multiple logs for the bracing, as well as the platform.
Then began the tasks of trimming, measuring, creating saddle joints, dry fitting, assembling, then moving and stacking rock on the platform.
I used green wood which was both a blessing and a curse, a blursing if you will.
Green logs were easier and quicker to cut and shape, especially the saddle joints, but they sure were heavy.
Thankfully I moved the superstructure prior to completing the platform - there was no way I could have done it otherwise, without multiple people to help.
As it was, I could only lift it an inch or so off the ground, and moving while carrying it wasn’t really an option, so I ended up tilting it on one leg or the main post and “walking” the jack into place with most of the weight on the ground as I pivoted.
Big shout out to JR and the Root Cellar crew for teaching me how to notch the wood; I’ll be practicing so we can finish putting on those roof logs.
As you’ll see below, the final location is almost touching my hugel bed and the main post has a section of log horizontally near the top to extend the perch a bit.
Fingers crossed this helps out!
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