Oliverland (Part 2)

The tour of Oliverland continues in this second installment of an exciting three part series. (Be sure to check out Oliverland Part 1, if you missed it.) In todays tour, I'll show you Oliver's 24-hour feeder and lounge space.

Before I get to far into the tour, let me detour into history and take you back in time to the very first Oliverland structure. This was back before I knew anything about anything.  And it was before Oliver trusted me at all, back then he was too scared to share the yard with me and would run away when I came out.

August 2011

The very first building, was a combined dining space and living quarters. 

August 2011

The outside entrance opened into the dining space and from there another doorway opened into the living area, featuring soft towel bedding. What in the world was I thinking?! How did I expect Oliver to live in such spartan conditions? no windows, no insulation, and no heat! Yikes! But that wasn't the only thing that needed to change.

August 2011

My TNR mentor at the time quickly set me straight. When building a cat shelter, you never want to put the food right near the living space as the food will draw predators and other potentially unfriendly visitors. I also learned that a feral cat shelter should always have two doors, that way a predator can't corner the cat inside the shelter, it can escape out the backdoor.

With this new knowledge in mind, I got busy constructing a standalone Dining Hall.

The Grand Opening of the Dining Hall was a big to-do!        Sept 2011

The state-of-the-art Dining Hall featured two real-glass windows, a large picture window looking out back and a smaller window facing East. Inside, Oliver could eat and drink while staying dry from the rain!

With the Dining Hall completed, I went to work on remodeling the living quarters. The old dark, cold living space was deconstructed and replaced with Oliver's Guest House, a modest sized insulated and heated home (which you saw on Part 1 of the Oliverland tour.) With Oliver immediately taking to his new digs, it became clear he needed a larger, more grande home for his greatness, and thus, Oliver's House was commissioned (again seen in Part 1 of the tour).

   Oliver's House being constructed.                           Sept 2011

When these renovations were completed, Oliverland consisted of the Dining Hall, Guest House, and Oliver's House - each of the living spaces were now upgraded with full insulation, heat, web-cams, and two doors. Oliver and his family were happy, and a happy Oliver meant happy Oliverland Management.

But then the slugs came and swarmed the food bowls, grossifying everything. And not to mention the raccoons and opossums, which I was not interested in feeding.

I had learned about raccoon-proof feral feeders and wanted to build something. I did some research and found the basic 4x4, platform design. But then I realized I could build something into the side of my detached garage. After a little work, Oliver had a new raccoon-proof (and slug-proof) feral feeder!

October 2015

It's built on the simple idea that raccoons can't jump (they climb) but cats love to jump! The metal flashing keeps raccoons from climbing up and the table gives the cats something to jump from, up to the feeder ledge. 

I've seen raccoons standing up on their hind legs on the table, looking into the feeder, not able to figure out how to get to the food! Success!! And no nasty slugs - I'm not really sure why the slugs haven't found it, but I'm not going to ask them.

The feeder is basically a plywood cabinet built inside the garage, which I can access from inside, but the cats access from the outside. Back when I first built it, there was two corner shelves that had food and water bowls. Now, I use a fancy gravity feeder with a stainless steel feeding bowl. It's the perfect size and is dishwasher safe! You'll notice what looks like a recent change on the wall to the right of the feeder (unpainted). That was a recent modification, that lets me attach a trap on a temporary shelf inside the garage, so if I want to trap cats who come to the feeder, I easily can.

There are two windows in the feeder space, so the cats can look into my dark garage. Under the feeder is storage space for cat food. There's also a webcam in the feeder, so I can watch who's eating.

This is the live view from the feeder-cam:

(sorry - feeder cam currently offline)

Note: There is a limit to how many can watch the cam at the same time, so if everyone's tuning in at the same time, it may say it's unavailable. Also, newer internet browsers, like Edge, don't support the old software technology, so you may be out of luck.

The feral-feeder provides Oliver, his family, and distinguished guests access to fresh food 24-hours per day, 365-days per year. They love the food, but are less keen about the water being so near the food in the feeder, so after years of the water going untouched, the controversial decision was made to remove it from the feeder and built a separate temporary watering station.

As you can see, this temporary watering station is extremely crude and is not up to the high standards of Oliverland. Oliver, and family have filed many complaints with Oliverland management about having to drink water in the open air (at risk of getting drenched in bone chilling rain and wind), not to mention the dangerous condition of the platform (a kitty could hurt a leg if they stepped into one of those holes in the dark of night.) Due to the ongoing contentious negotiations and threats of bitey action from the kitty council, Oliverland management is unable to comment further on this matter at this time. Both management and the kitty council are all hoping a settlement will be reached soon and this matter will be behind us.

Meanwhile, when Oliver's feral-feeder came into service, the old Dining Hall was fully renovated into a Lounge Hall - a place for Oliver and his guests to hangout away from the rain or blazing sun.

In the remodel, the large picture window was removed so access could be from either side.

The Lounge Hall is a popular spot for enjoying a visit with friends and family or having a go with the kickeroo. 

In the upcoming Part 3 of the Oliverland tour, you'll get an in-depth look at Oliver's back porch palace, his kitty castle, and loft - and maybe if we're lucky, the tense watering hole situation will be resolved with a new weather-proof watering hole arrangement (I've been hearing rumors about a possible kitty-gazebo!)  Stay tuned!!

Oliverland (Part 1)

Most cat people who visit my home want a tour of Oliverland (Oliver's Yard). In particular they want to see the structures I've built for him and his family. With this in mind, when I did my annual Oliverland cleaning on Labor Day, I took along my camera so I can give you a close-up tour.

Oliver has two independent, fully insulated and heated houses available to him. There is Oliver's House which is tucked behind a bunch of trees near the northeast edge of the property and there is Oliver's Guest House, which is closer to the southwest edge of out lot.

The tour starts with Oliver's House, which is nicely hidden in this greenery. I ran underground electrical service and network cable to this location to power the electric heating pad and network camera.

You can see the greenery needs some trimming.

There is a secret treasure hiding in the greenery that most people never get to see, but Oliver gets to enjoy - there is an old red wagon with some old plant boxes in it. You can tell it's wicked old because it's in black and white.

Oliverland yearly maintenance involves trimming greeneries, clearing off the roof, and completely emptying the contents of his home and using a giant outdoor suck monster to clean out any bugs or miscellaneous debris.

There are several layers of wood in each house with a layer of rigid insulation between each layer. I've seen people just use the insulation, but I didn't want Oliver or his guests scratching up the insulation, so I built a thin wooden box to cover all the insulation.

With all the extra wood and insulation removed you can see the outer wood layer. The red fleece fabric parts in the middle and attempts to cut down on the drafts coming in the doorways.

I had plenty of help with the work, Pierre is so curious about everything he had to see what I was up to!

Pierre tries to sneak up on me through the greenery.

Oliver's House features a large single picture window made of real glass. It's amazing how dirty it gets in a year. This is the view from inside his house with the dirt still in place:

And the view after cleaning. Now that it's clean again, Oliver will get to enjoy the beauty of the old wagon every time he visits his house.

Once everything is clean, I sprinkle in a bunch of diatomaceous earth between the layers to keep the bugs under control. I've heard it naturally kills fleas, but is not harmful to the cats. Replacing all the innards is basically the reverse of taking it apart, first the insulation goes in followed by the wooden sides. 

With everything cleaned, it's time to add the heating pad and soft clean fleece blankets, but before the roof panel can be added and the house closed back up, my handiwork must pass rigorous quality control standards.

It's much the same process for the Guest House, which is smaller than Oliver's House. Because each were custom built, the general principle is the same with some slight differences.

All the layers are removed and it's sucked out. The wires go to the net camera, which has already been removed. Each house has it's own camera so I can watch the cats. 

Now that everything is out and cleaned, I add the diatomaceous earth.

And then start piecing back the layers. Each board and piece of insulation is marked to help put it all back together.

All the panels are made to be a snug fit, so friction holds everything in place. The bottom board is the second to last piece to be installed with the insulated ceiling being the last. With everything put back (heating pad goes under the fleece blankets), it's time for quality control inspections.

The roof cannot be re-installed until Oliver has personally inspected the work and gives his approval. The beige thing on the right side of the back wall is a wireless temperature and humidity sensor. Each house, and the lounge hall has one, that way I can monitor the temperature inside the heated homes compared to the outside temperature. I rest well knowing the kitties are quite toasty warm in their houses even when it's crazy cold outside.

Safety First! You'll notice each house has two doors. Emergency egress is critical. If a predator or strange cat comes along the last thing I want is Oliver to be trapped. With two doors, he can always escape.

The window on the Guest House is noticeably smaller than the luxurious picture window of Oliver's House. Oliver wants his guests to be comfortable but also wants them to always remember that he's topcat.

It looks like the Guest House passes inspection, now off to inspect Oliver's House...

Oliver's House gets the same thorough examination. You can see the net camera on the bottom right, it's attached to the ceiling panel. 

And thankfully, Oliver's House also passes inspection. I'm nearly done.

The insulated ceiling panel is snugly put in place, the hinged roof is closed, and the camera is adjusted by reaching through the kitty entry door while watching on the iPad.

And we're good for another year!

In similar fashion, the Guest House is closed back up.

The next day, when I checked the net cameras, this is what I found from Oliver's House: 

Oliver is on the left and Pierre on the right. They seem to like the fresh, clean bedding! The heaters in the houses are not on right now as it's not quite cold enough (although the heaters on the back porch where they sleep the night are already going!) Seeing these guys enjoy the space sure makes all the work worthwhile. Back when MK was still around, he loved cuddling up with Pierre or Oliver on cold winter days. Every time I tune into the cameras and see them snuggling my heart gets all mushy!

The Guest House hasn't had any visitors yet since the cleaning. But it looks inviting and comfy!

In Part 2, I'll show you the raccoon-proof feeder, Lounge Hall, and all the enclosed back porch amenities including Kitty Castle and Loft.

Oliver sitting on the ledge of his raccoon-proof feeder snoopervising the cleaning work.