‘arry haas settled in quite nicely.
At first he was living under our summerhouse at the bottom of our garden. There’s about nine inches of clearance under it and it has skirts around the sides so there’s just enough room for a hedgehog to get under but nothing bigger. We did buy him a nice house and put it under the azaleas up near the house, but for the first few weeks he ignored it.
I like to play music in the garden when I’m working in it. Just one of my hobbies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQaXsWwUW2w
I guess he eventually got fed up with his rest being disturbed so he moved out and into his house!
As he’s got bigger in the last three months and seems to be very healthy, we decided that we ought to allow him to roam. At the moment there’s no way he can get out of our garden. So I decided to put a hole in one of the concrete base panels of the side fence. This took some doing, llying full length under rhodo and stitch drilling a hole in the panel. Not easy when you’re 81.
Anyway it’s done, I made good the sides with mortar so there’s no rough edges.
But we’re not letting him out yet. the house next door is unoccupied and up for sale. The “lawn” is about two feet high, so he could get lost in there. We’ll wait til the house is sold and the garden restored. I’ll tell the new occupants about ‘arry so he doesn’t get “mowed.” I put a slate up against the hole to stop him going through.
I did all this on Saturday.
On Sunday, my wife and I had a conversation.
She wasn’t happy with the slate coverring the hole.
“A cat could knock that over and he could get through. What we need is a little door.”
“A……little……door?”
“Yes, a little door…with a lock on it.”
“A ….little…door…with a lock on it…..you’re joking?”
“No I’m not, so when it’s safe for him to be able to wander next door you can unlock it.”
Now I blame myself, for having the ability to usually “knock something up,” or successfuly engage in a bigger project, which usually starts with my wife saying “What I thought was…”
Anyway.. On my way home from golf yesterday afternoon and before I did some shopping, I called into the local woodyard to see if I could get an offcut length of decking board. I must have been speaking to the manager and because I was vague about how long it needed to be, I explained to him what it was for. We went into the yard and he found me a piece six foot by 4.5″ which was ideal. He wouldn’t take any money for it. All he said was “I like hedgehogs”
So with a bit of “fettling.”
That afternoon I made this.
anything for a quiet life.
