GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

12-05-2004, 05:03 PM

writes:

Hee! I have been putting in more cat furniture.
I need to hit some construction sites for scraps.

There is a local govt. contract recycler, and we got some burlap covered
room dividers from him for $5.00 each. Giant scratching posts and
climbers. Those are out on the sun porch and the cats are slowly
destroying them, but it's well worth it for that price. :-)

What a great idea! Somewhere in the garage, there is some fiberboard
(don't know what else to call it, used it for room dividers in a frame
covered with burlap-type fabric. It is much lighter than wood so worked
well. I've considered tossing it since it likely won't be needed for a
room divider again since my business has been closed for many years. Seems
like every time I toss something unusual like that, a need for it arises.
g We had a carpet tube in our basement for about five years, kept
moving it around and finally tossed it. Two weeks later, we bought our
little boys Bert and Ernie puppets which would have fit perfectly on a
piece of that silly tube for safe and attractive storage. Fastened to a
piece of board and painted by the boys, the pieces would have worked very
well as well as given them another "satisfaction project."

My cats absolutely loved the pipe for playing. Fabric fastened to the
inside so they could climb up the verticals was a plus and gave it more
usability. I also had fabric (carpet scraps) on the top so they could
easily lay on it without slipping and on parts of the inside also. I
made it mostly because we lived in a relatively small house and they were
not allowed outside. With no climbing stuff, they were at odds a bit, cats
love high places so much. It's one way to have a lot of "tunnels" in a
small area. I found their favorite thing was to hide in one end of the
pipe while waiting for the other one to either walk by and sneak up from
the other end of the pipe, either inside or outside. That this was
assembled when they were still kittens helped a lot as they became
accustomed to playing in it while they still had excess room.

By the time all the tees were purchased for the free pipe, it became more
expensive than the cat tower I bought for them later, but they really had
a great time with it (as did we watching them). On the positive side, if
I ever need to put in a main water line, I have several 8-inch tees. g
Another thing I was able to acquire from my boss' job sites was the bell
end of 10-inch pipe which I use to surround some plants to protect them
from the weed trimmer. While black is better because it blends in better,
the green works well. Many times I've wished I'd thought of it in earlier
years so I'd have more of them (he died in 2000), but cutting the bottoms
out of flower pots also works though not as permanent as that pipe.

Scraps of corrugated drain pipe (18-inch) work well around bigger plants,
the black blends in better as our eye "goes past" the black. I hope to
some day be able to get more of that to make tomato plant rings, should
work as well as wall-of-water type things. Right now, I have it around my
kiwi plants and two rose bushes along the edge of the grass for protection
from the mower and trimmer as well as allowing me to concentrate the water
during the drier weather (they are in the ground about two inches).
Again, bottomless planter pots would do the same thing but are not as
permanent.

My main bird feeder is a gazebo feeder mounted on a 6-foot tall piece of
4-inch PVC (black) pipe which sets over two 6-foot-metal fence posts (for
moving later if desired, two for stability). When I bought the gazeobo,
the friend with me said he had just the thing to attach it to the pipe.
It was a PVC toilet flange! It works wonderfully and allows me to easily
take the feeder down for cleaning, etc. The black does blend in and
doesn't stand out garishly in the garden. Because the PVC is so slippery,
it keeps the squirrels out of the feeder as long as there is nothing near
it for them to use as a jumping point (and *not* under a tree!).

The same type of thing might be used for a rat trap as was discussed in
other posts. A larger piece of pipe with an end cap glued on one end,
partly filled with water; something appealing on the top of the inside
might attract them to their death. Because the PVC is slippery, they
can't get traction to get out. It would have to be vertical and not at a
slant. Smaller stuff would likely work for mice as well.

Love your "scratching post" application!

Glenna