Shelter complete!

The shelter is now done! :-) Here's some pictures of it, and also of various bits of wildlife, including a mouse.

First, Tracy cut the ropes on the old shelter and I dragged the tarpaulin off:
Then I set about making pegs to fasten the tarpaulin down on the new shelter, while Tracy began moving stuff over.
Before long we had the cover staked down, and all the stuff organised into it:
The old shelter is just waiting for dismantling now. The bolts are all stainless steel, so hopefully I'll be able to reuse them, and the poles are birch so after a year standing up should be nice and dry for firewood!
The shelter doesn't seem to be too obtrusive, looking from either end of the coup we cut last winter, and certainly can't be seen from any public footpath:
The guys had been busy processing the oak offcuts into firewood:
There's only one oak log left to be converted now:
While we were out in the wayleave we heard a snapping sound every 20 seconds or so. A dim and distant memory from the garden of a house I lived in many years ago led me to the nearby Broom bush:
So what was making the noise? Here's a seed pod with the seeds still in it:
and here's a seed pod after the heat of the sun has made it go "snap", flinging the seeds away from the plant to start a new life somewhere nearby:
Also out in the wayleave were a Gatekeeper and a dragonfly:
Finally we went over to the pond for Tracy to dump some willow in it to soak, so she can try making a basket in a couple of weeks:
One the way back to the car, something small ran across the ride in front of us. It was a mouse! It hid between some logs and pretended we couldn't see it:
But then it did a runner:
after which it was kind enough to sit still while I took a couple more pictures:

We're hoping to go badger watching again tonight, depending on the weather.

Mike

UPDATE: links to posts on building the shelter:
http://peplers.blogspot.com/2008/07/shelter-building-and-nuthatch.html
http://peplers.blogspot.com/2008/07/more-shelter-building.html
http://peplers.blogspot.com/2008/07/shelter-frame-finished.html