In the short period of one month, I have become – at best – someone who belongs on a new TLC show “Flip this Loft.” At worst, I am trapped in a season of “Survivor –Pigeon Edition.”
June 1st – We were able to maneuver the trailer to a position just 3’ adjacent to the larger loft. Moving this monstrosity a mere 3’ was a task reminiscent of a twelve hour period in July, 1989 when I was faced with the equally daunting task of moving a 10# bouncing baby boy a few inches from my uterus to the wide-wide world. The loft endeavor had the advantage of three adults actually pushing. On the other hand, the Logan endeavor, had the advantage of an epidural.
The Redding fancier from was quite convincing that the larger loft could be moved using 2’ x 4’s as levers. A couple of boards were used to pry the loft from its base of concrete blocks, the blocks were moved over a couple of inches, and the building was repositioned on them. The process was repeated (repeatedly). Gradually we were able to get the loft lined up with the trailer. At that point, we used jacks to raise it to the level of the trailer deck, and then we all pushed it (inch by inch) until it was fully loaded. I was so proud of Paul and the girls as we strained and struggled, knee deep in dust, in a debris-filled livestock pen, prodding the behemoth onto the ark.
After just 4 hours, the loft was loaded up and ready for the drive to its new home. Our bodies were coated with a mixture of sweat, feathers, and other pigeon by-products. We drove down the road and stopped at Applebees where we spent quite a bit of time (and paper towels) freshening up before eating. As we savored our meals and gulped ice-cold beverages, my husband gazed across the table into my eyes and whispered, “Sweetheart, you’re getting overalls for your birthday.”
Later that evening, I made my first trip to Home Depot. I’ve made 5 subsequent trips since. Add to that at least two trips to OSH, 5 to Lowes, and 6 visits to ACE. Basically, I go to the hardware store almost every day.
June 2nd – The larger loft sat in front of our house in the trailer. The smaller loft lay in the bed of the truck. I rose at the crack of dawn and began preparations to remove the loft from the trailer and move it into our backyard. The distance we had to cover was 50’ or more. Paul recruited three friends from church who would be over at 4:00 to help us. That gave us just 10 hours to get the loft off of the trailer, take down the fence, level 6 concrete pilings for the base, move all of the pieces into the backyard out of the way, and shop-vac the loft. There was barely enough time.
Victoria brought a friend home from church to spend the night and the three girls started right away at moving stuff and getting the loft cleaned out. They filled the shop-vac several times over with pigeon by-products, feathers, and debris. I leveled the loft’s base, and then we began the process of removing the loft from the trailer adding an Egyptian twist to the 2’x4’ method. The most effective Egyptian twist would have been the exploitation of Hebrew slaves, but our resources limited us to using rollers instead. More prying ensued, and steel pipes were inserted under the loft. Then we pushed it a few inches until it rolled off of the pipes at which point we re-positioned and repeated the process. After an hour or so, the loft sat in the street in front of the house.
Next, we attempted to attach 2’x4’ carrying bars across the width of the loft and were still engaged in that process when the recruited moving crew arrived. Fortunately for us, they were able to finish installing the carry bars more effectively than we were doing and then they, along with Paul and Logan, carried this small building into our backyard a few feet at a time. At one point it required taking out an additional fence post and tying tree branches out of the way. Within an hour after their arrival the loft sat in the backyard.
June 3rd to present– It has been just over three weeks since acquiring the loft. In that time we’ve completed the following:
• Pressure washed both lofts
• Tore all the breeding boxes out of one side of the loft (one side will be a “fly” loft and the other will be a breeding loft)
• Tore up and replaced 2/3 of the floor and 1/6 of the subfloor.
• Built a new stand for the small loft
• Painted (4.5 gallons so far)
• Installed interior doors in the large loft
• Installed a new roof on the large loft
• Installed front lower ventilation in one side of the small loft.
I still have to install traps, perches, aviaries, and roof trim on the large loft. The small loft needs another coat of exterior paint as well as a full interior painting. The large loft needs paint touch ups. Both lofts need some caulk other minor fixes.
That’s the full update and here are some pics of the lofts as they stand right now.
The front of the small loft.
The large loft from the far right. The section on the left will be the fly section. An outside aviary (2' x 2' x 4') will be placed in front of the open window.
The center section of the loft has shelves for storage. On either side there is a sliding door that leads to the pigeon's home. I can enter the loft, shut the door behind me, then open up the inside slider and reach the birds.
