In early 2010 we bought a single Purr…fect fence unit. If you don’t remember, I wrote about my experience installing it. Well, we decided it would be a good idea to expand the fence by ordering another single unit. It was a lot more work than I anticipated, I ran into a few problems that required some ingenuity but in the end it was well worth it. The cats are much happier with the added space and we feel much more comfortable. Here are the details of the upgrade.

Learn from my mistakes!

Here are some “before” pictures…

This turned out to be about a 40′ x 28′ area for the cats, we wanted to make it larger so they could see around the house and be able to run more. We ordered a single unit while they were having a sale that included a free gate.

Step 1.

I needed to take down the old fence and preserve it to my best ability (I was planning on using it again). This was going really well at first, until I go to the post sleeves. It was an especially dry time of the year when I was trying to pull these out of the ground. I was able to get a few of them out, but it became almost impossible for me to remove them (without digging them out. I tried everything and some of the posts sleeves just wouldn’t come out.

This left me in a bit of a predicament. I had already taken down the fence and didn’t have enough post sleeves to put it back up. So, I took one of the post sleeves to Lowe’s to see what I could find. As it turns out the post sleeves are pretty much the same material as aluminum conduit pipe. I bought some aluminum blades for my jigsaw and two 12′ conduit pipes (I believe they were 2 1/4″ width).

I got home, measured the actual post sleeves and started cutting the pipe to length. I needed to make the point at the end of the sleeve (to help drive it into the ground). So I took my 8 lbs. Maul and hit the end of the new sleeves until they were as pointed as possible. They weren’t pretty, but they’d do the job. I ended up burning out the motor on my crappy little Black & Decker jig saw. I ended up cutting about 6 new sleeves to replace the ones buried in the ground.

Left: My attempt to make a point with the Maul; Right: The standard pole sleeve from Purrfect Fence

Both sleeves are about the same size, you'll notice the one from Purrfect fence is a little messed up on the end (you'll find out why later)

The only thing I couldn't replicate was these little dimples, it's not necessary, but it is used to keep the poles at a standard height (I just had to manually screw them to the correct height).

Step 2.

Time to put up the new fence! Again, easier said than done. Remember that dry time of year I told you about? Well, the dry Georgia clay just got harder and dryer about 1 foot into the ground. I destroyed some of the post sleeves trying to smash them into the ground.

It was A LOT harder getting those things into the ground than it was with my first installation. NEVER EVER install one of these things during the dry season in Georgia! As much as I love this fence, it will make you cry. Luckily I had a few extra post sleeves (that I made myself) and was eventually able to get all the sleeves into the ground.

Here are some pictures of the homemade post sleeves and some of the damage done to the sleeves from trying to hit them into the ground.

Force + Resistance = Busted

The drive cap for each sleeve actually started to go INSIDE the sleeve...

Step 3.

Next I had to install the poles. This was pretty straight forward. The only extra bit I had to worry about was with my new homemade post sleeves. The Purrfect Fence sleeves have little dimples that hold the poles above the bottom of the sleeve (about 8 inches). In order to make the poles even in height, I had to make sure I drilled the poles into the sleeves at the right height. This was easiest with two people, I had my wife hold the pole and I used a tape measure to put it in the proper height. Then I drilled the pole into the sleeve (which is part of the installation process anyway). This way all the poles in the home made sleeves were the same height as the regular sleeves.

Step 4.

Once I got all the sleeves and poles in, the rest was pretty much exactly like the original installation process. The only difference was that I had a large slope on one side of the house (which is explained in the DVDs that come with the fence). I also had to make sure I had enough fence to cover the area (since my old fence was cut in some spots). I tried to lean towards having a little too much and ended up with the perfect amount left over. I had a spot in between two posts that I had to zip tie together. It is not a big deal and it is hardly noticeable. I basically worked around from one side of the house until I got to the end of the fencing, then the other side of the house. Once the fencing was installed on the poles, nice and taught, I zip tied the two separate fences together. I tried to make them as tight as possible without causing any extra bowing.

I also have a hill in the backyard to content with, so I needed to angle the outside corners of the fence. This wasn’t a huge problem, it’s just like a normal 90 degree corner (just a little easier).

Step 5.

After you’ve installed the fencing material and put down the chew guard, you have to do the dreaded stakes. By the way, the chew guard that came with this fence was a little different than the chew guard I had with the old fence. This was a little more malleable and seemed like a smaller gauge.  I did ended up pinching a nerve in my hand trying to push down the chew guard with my fist. Just happened to pinch right between my pinky and ring finger nuckles and BAM a throbbing pain in my hand. It hurt for a couple weeks, kind of a numb feeling. I almost went to the doctor, but eventually it worked itself out.

So, the staking… oh how I hate the staking. Staking is even worse when you are already dealing with dry ground and have spent too many hours bashing in 3′ sleeves. Now I had to deal with these stakes! It was even more miserable than it was last time. I wish there was a stake gun! I spaced the stakes out a little more than I did last time. Everything seems to have held up so far. It took me as long as I expected, but it was still too long to be happy about it.

Step 6.

Now that everything is staked in and my arms are gel, it’s time to zip tie the guard to the fencing. This was not so bad, last time I zip tied about ever 2″, this time I did it every 3″-4″ (which is what they recommend). I also discovered a better method for zip tying. Previously, I would pull the fencing and try to force the fence bottom to be “straight”. I realized that this was actually causing extra bowing in the fence because of how the fencing naturally forms to the fence poles and level of the ground. So, instead of trying to force the fence “line” to be straight, I just zip tied every 3″-4″ where the fence naturally met with the chew guard. The fence has a lot less bowing in it now and looks much nicer.

And then the fence is done! Well, almost…

Step 7.

One of the reasons we bought the additional fence was because it came with a free gate! I didn’t install it until a few weekends after installing the fence, but it was very simple to add. Their instructions are pretty straight forward. Just zip tie the whole thing onto the fence and then cut between the lines.

Here are some “after” pics… I actually just took these last weekend, so the grass and back hill might look a bit different :).

It has been several months since I actually upgraded the fence and I have to say the cats LOVE the extra room… we all do. The fence is a lot less noticeable, we have more room to do stuff with them and we were even able to add a swing to the back yard (as you can see). The cats also get to see around the house, although, if there is anything good to look at, they usually freak out and run back inside. They’ve even brought in a couple mice for mommy!

So my advice, install the fence when you know the ground is soft, otherwise you are going to be in some serious pain. But even if you have to do it in the middle of a drought, it’s worth it.

The cats like to go in and out of the house, and they do it very often throughout the day. We decided it would be wise to invest into a pet door that would let them go in and out at their leisure. We had a few options…

1. A storm door with a built-in pet door. Larson’s makes this, however the 32″ version is special order at Lowe’s and costs 300$.
2. A storm door with a DIY pet door. This would be much cheaper than the pre-built one (about 150$).
3. A screen door with a DIY pet door. This would be much cheaper too, but we wouldn’t be able to keep the main door open because the screen would let all the A/C out.
4. The Cat Windoor by Pet Safe. This is actually a viable option it’s 115$ which is significantly cheaper than the first option but we weren’t really sure how well it would work.

We decided to go with option 2. Here is what we did…

First we went to Lowe’s to look at the storm door options. We actually happened to be there during a 10% off all doors sale, so we got a 100$ storm door for 90%. We also bought the Pet Safe Plastic Pet Door – Large for ~50$ at Lowe’s. I also needed some aluminum jig saw bits for my hand held jig saw. Overall, we spent about 150$ after taxes. Since we did everything ourselves, we also saved 100$ off installation. It took me about 3 or 4 hours total to get everything the way I wanted it.

I first started by laying the door down on a few pieces of wood (to raise it up) and unboxed it:

I figured out where I wanted to put the pet door. I pretty much followed the pet door instructions, give or take an inch :). Then I tried to saw a straight line with my jig saw. I used a large piece of straight cardboard as a buffer between my jig saw and the door. This way I didn’t scratch up the door, it was also a nice guide to follow (at least it was suppose to be).

After I cut the hole out, I started prepping to put the storm door up. I just followed the directions that came with the door. It was pretty easy to do, I did require my lovely assistant from time to time :).

Once I had the door up and mounted, I moved onto finishing the pet door.

And here is Archie trying to figure out what this new door is all about :)

Apart from a few blood blisters from pinching my fingers, it was a relatively easy task. I am pretty sure this project increased my manliness by at least 15 points.

It is about that time again… I need new socks! As I was sitting on my couch pondering my sock situation, it occurred to me that I could use some of my old unusable socks as catnip toys for the cats.

What You Need

• Old Socks
• Needle and Thread
• Cotton Balls
• Scissors
• Dried Catnip

Instructions

I started with the toe part of the sock. For my first attempt at the catnip toy, I only cut about 2 inches from the toe. I think 3-4 inches would have been better. If you are not using the toe part, you will have to sew more. After cutting the buttom of the sock off, I filled it with cotton balls. Then I sprinkled some catnip into the sock. I shook it around a bit to make sure the catnip went all around the inside of the toy. Then it is just a matter of sewing the sock shut. I am no master at sewing, so basically I just folded the fabric over itself and sewed it shut. You do not have to be extremely precise… just good enough to keep the inside from getting out.

I was able to get three usable catnip toys from one crew cut sock. I probably could have made four or five, but I did not want to use the heel or the very top of the sock. For the non-toe parts of the sock, I turned the sock inside-out, sewed one end, then turned it inside-in. It is not necessary, but it makes one less ugly seem on the outside when you are finished.

Here was my first attempt:

And the cats seem to be enjoying their new catnip toys :).

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We’ve lived in our house for a little over a year now and the back yard was a complete mess. There was hardly any grass, although the developers did “seed” it, most of the seed did not take. We basically had a mud pit for the past year. Mud pits are all fine and good, if you don’t have 9 animals tracking it in all the time. So, we spent some time doing some research and figuring out what our best options where. We decided to sod our back yard with 419 Bermuda. It’s the same type of sod in our front yard and we wanted it to match.

We talked to some people and I decided to sod it myself. We needed 16 pallets of sod, which was a pretty hefty goal – I just didn’t know it yet. We also have a hill that leads up into a clearing in the woods. This too was a big mud pit, which we decided to plant a shady mix of Fescue. Here is what our backyard looked like before we did any work:

One of my neighbors knows a guy who does some landscape work on the side, so we paid him to come and grade the backyard and the clearing. It took him about two hours total to grade everything, he did a really good job. We had a lot of issue with washout when it was just mud, but luckily he was able to fill it in and level it off a lot. Here’s what it looked like right after being graded:

Almost immediately after he finished grading the first sod truck came to deliver 10 pallets of sod. We had 16 coming, but they said each pallet weighs so much that they’d be breaking some laws to transport all 16 in one haul. I asked them to scatter the pallets in the back yard. This was a big help in the sodding process. For the most part I only had to walk 10 or so feet from the pallet to where I was dropping the sod. When you order your sod, you can usually choose it to be delivered in two forms — rolls or slabs. Rolls are basically three slabs in a roll, so three times as much weight. The sod vendor recommended that I get slabs, because “after a day of laying it, you’ll appreciate only having to lift one slab.” I took a picture of a single pallet of sod and what the yard looked like after 10, then 16 pallets were delivered:

It was around noon on Saturday when all the sod was delivered. I did some research before laying the sod to find proper methods. The only real thing that I found was that you should lay the sod in a brickwork pattern. Although laying sod is relatively easy, it is an extremely tedious task. You do a lot of walking, bending, lifting, kicking, stomping. I also noticed that I had these weird reoccurring patterns when trying to keep the “brickwork” pattern. Eventually it would become more and more uneven and I’d have to cut a piece in half to start the brickwork pattern over again.

The only real tool I used was a machete for cutting the pieces in half, or for cutting pieces to fill in any gaps that propped up. It worked really well for my purposes and I found that I could use the blunt side of the blade to whack things into place. I also wore some knee pads (which I saw someone online doing) but those became a nuisance. I ended up getting dirt between the knee pad and my knee and it just started to get uncomfortable. So I stopped wearing them and decided if I needed to kneel down, I’d just kneel on some sod. Lastly, I purchased some gloves to protect my hands. I was pretty happy with that purchase, the gloves I got gave me some extra grip and really helped my hands from being stained red by Georgia mud. Other than that, the only thing you’ll be doing is lifting, walking, dropping, kicking, stomping; lifting, walking, dropping, kicking, stomping.

It took me 3 days to do all 16 pallets by myself. After the sod was delivered at noon on Saturday, I worked until 6PM and had finished 5 pallets. Sunday, I was able to do 7 more pallets. I probably could have done more, but I spent some time filling in gaps and stuff which probably should have waited until the end. Monday, I finished off the last 4 pallets and spent the rest of the day filling in the rest of the gaps and setting up a watering system. Here are some pictures of my progress during these three days:

Technically you’re suppose to “roll” the sod when you’re done. They have a tool called a “sod rollers” that you use to roll over the sod with. Basically it’s nothing more than an empty barrel with a handle to pull/push it. You fill the barrel with water and just roll over the sod. The reason you do this is to press the roots into the existing soil to help the sod take. I was advised to get the sod nice and wet before rolling it. That way it sticks in the existing soil better. Hurricane Ida was on her way, so I let her soak the sod real good for me. Then I rented a sod roller from Sunbelt, the rental place at Lowe’s. It was 14$ to rent the roller for the day and took me about an hour to do the whole yard.

All things considered, I feel like it was a good experience and I saved over 1500$ by doing it myself. Plus because I bought the sod during an off season I got a really good price per pallet. The only labor I paid for was the guy who graded my yard. Kati helped by spreading the seed in the clearing. She did a great job, basically she needed to spread the seed with our seed spreader, lightly rake it, and throw some hay on top. The hay is to help prevent birds from eating the seed. I bought four bails of hay to cover 2,000 sq. ft. because the guy at Lowe’s said one bail covered 300-400 sq. ft. As it turns out, one bail covers about 2,000 sq. ft. So now I have three bails of hay just sitting there. Oh and I’m now accepting donations for a riding lawn mower :). Anyways, here are the pictures of the final results: