Outdoor Project #2 Woodchuck Hotel

Re: Outdoor Project #2 Woodchuck Hotel

Jack Guzman from Maine

That doesn't look like timber framing? I can't tell from the pictures but I would remove the black soil from the corner and replace it with gravel. Then it needs a footing of sorts. Concrete block or pour a footer.Then I would replace the corner post or whatever type of framing holds up that corner.

Re: Outdoor Project #2 Woodchuck Hotel

paul in AZ

You didn't say if you used this building. If not how about putting the word out that you will give it away for free [or some nominal fee] if the other guy pays for moving it. Rules on doing anything on an historic house can be restrictive and very expensive. Some are willing to do that.

When I lived in New England a neighbor across the street moved a large 2 floor historic house from New Hampshire to Mass. He simply wanted to live in a 200 year old house and was willing to pay the piper.

Historic Designation= Repairs cost 4 times as much

Re: Outdoor Project #2 Woodchuck Hotel

Dave Bair

I've had success laying galvanized chain-link fencing flat on the ground around the structure. Stake it tight to the ground around the foundation and cover it all with a little top soil. Since it's flexible, it should be easier to install than rigid metal sheeting.

Re: Outdoor Project #2 Woodchuck Hotel

John Foster

My son-in-law has some rental cottages near North Bay , Ontario. They are currently on inadequate block piers. They are nice cottages and worth maintaining. He got a quote of $50,000 CDN to install screw piles and I-beams under eight of them, I am sure the price for doing just one would not be quite as good. I don't know if a similar solution could be found for your shed.

Re: Outdoor Project #2 Woodchuck Hotel

Mark Nowicki

Do nothing and let the structure remove itself.

Re: Outdoor Project #2 Woodchuck Hotel

David Weaver

is there anything governing what you can do with the corner? what about the door? Can it just be rebuilt in the same style with new wood?

As old as the building is, and I gather you don't want to do much with it, I'd make everything done to it entirely cosmetic.

I grew up in Gettysburg. If you live in certain parts of town, you can't do much to modify publicly viewable parts of buildings, and demolition or "demolition by neglect" are not permitted. I think cosmetic patching up and replacement of the door in a similar style wouldn't be a big deal and would take a shot at doing not much other than patching new wood into old (since you're a woodworker, doing something appropriate even if it's not architectural or tradesman standard should be fine).

not sure what "townies" under rule do about groundhogs, but they'd be shot on sight outside of town given the amount of digging they can do to undermine the stability under the center of the building.

Re: Outdoor Project #2 Woodchuck Hotel

Gerry in North Surrey

A couple of Smooth Fox Terriers or Jack Russells would eliminate your critter issue, however, they are not much good at Heritage building restoration.

electric fence

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Inexpensive charger and two strands of fencing wire, string or tape. I like the string because it is easier to handle. Putting up mine around the corn near ready in a few minutes. Too wet to install it yesterday. Works to keep coons out of the peach trees too.

Re: Haven't time to reply to this thread Till Now!

Mark Nowicki

All that effort to save what is essentially a standing piece of garbage?

Come on man...

David Yoho

That's a little extreme, don't you think?

I believe Alan and Bill may be referring to keeping the critters out of the garden box project in Alan's other posting. Either way, I'm guessing Alan doesn't see his out building as garbage no matter how bad it looks.

Trivial fix

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

What I can do.....depending on your farm economy what you can do would differ.

I would go to our Farmers Coop, or Tractor supply. I would buy an inexpensive charger, ground rod, high voltage switch, conductive twine, and plastic posts for every 6-8' of run , maybe metal posts or wood posts for the corners under strain.

If you want to be BRinks safe, back the electric with a physical barrier like a short (12") lattice.

Our farm is fenced electric with a massive charger made in NZ. We have grandchildren and pets visit and never turn it off. There is no danger from touching the fence and they won't do it twice.

Gallagher makes quality stuff.

ratters!!

David Weaver

JRs are popular here, but people often find out they're a hand full after they get them and they also get traded a lot.

The most popular dog where I grew up was whatever dog was independent (could be trusted not to get itself killed, too, getting stuck in a hole) and would come back parading dead ground hogs.

I'm sure we had rats, but never saw much of them unless there was stored corn on the property (corn crib, etc).

won't happen

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

There was a group of these dog owners that would come to the farm to eliminate ground hogs. They would arrive in a truck. The back looked like a post office wall of PO boxes, except inside each door was a small dog. They would select a dog, send it down a hole and the resident hog would be killed and drug out.

There was great risk to the dog. If a skunk was home they were at the ready to dig the dog out before the fumes would kill the dog. They would not put a dog in any hole that could not be dug out, under a building or stump for example.

One of their feisty dogs took on a cow with calf. I warned the dog owner that this would not end well if the dog was not retrieved quickly. The cow lowered her head and rolled the dog for many feet.

attack chihuahua

David Weaver

...going along with your story is something that reminds me of the JRT owners back home. The dogs will go after anything, but their brain program doesn't involve stop or retreat and someone has to bring them back up for air.

A farmer near me (retired engineer) had about 15 head of cattle at any given time and a long haired chihuahua that was a cow chaser. for some reason, someone told him they could be trained to be a gun dog (didn't work). My friend and I would often fish in the ponds on the farm and every couple of times, we'd see the dog chasing cows. I asked the owner about it and he said something along the lines of the dog getting kicked before by a running cow and at this point if he's going to keep doing it, just let him.

Sure enough, one evening, he was chasing cows and we were watching while waiting for fish to bite and a cow was slow to get started, kicked him in the face once the cow started running and the dog went end over end backwards and was out of it for the evening.

The next time we were there, it was chasing cows again. Reminds me of JRTs in that respect - though they would've probably been chasing again 5 minutes later on the first night.

Springer spaniels and some types of pointers were more popular back then because they could be trained for hunting, and you could train them to get ground hogs, but they had a built-in off switch. If they would leave barn cats alone, kill groundhogs and flush rabbits, you could've traded them for a pound of gold.

The show frasier led to a huge explosion in the number of JRTs locally, believe it or not https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcpNl5HLGkY

historic buildings and neglect..

David Weaver

...as mentioned earlier, where I grew up, if you had that building and allowed it to collapse due to neglect, you could end up worse off than you would've been had you fixed it or at least made it cosmetically decent.

If you can't afford to repair a building, you have to apply for a waiver and the board would consider your situation, but you'd have to prove that you couldn't afford to do the fixing.