I knew it
I figured that we would have some freak storms roll through within 48 hours of the bat house going up; it turned out I was wrong.
The freak storm showed up 72 hours after it went up….
We’ve experienced more storm and wind damage in this area in the last 11 months than the collective 11 years prior. Last spring was horrible but it didn’t stop there- a tornado touched down a couple miles northwest of my house the week before Christmas, then last night a small but violent storm cell got legs about the time it crossed over town and we had another tornado touch down a couple miles to the east.
Enough suspense:
I know you all will be relieved to know that the nifty new bat house remained in one piece up on its stilts. It swayed a bit but seems no worse for the wear.
Tonight the boom structure thing was dismantled without injury or much cursing and the house now stands alone (please disregard the black garbage cans in the picture, they are full of compost and were too heavy to move without a lot of huffing and puffing) :
Several people have asked how the bats get in and out and the answer is really pretty simple.
The house has no floor:
The picture is from directly below it. You can count the 9 slim rooms or chambers in the box and see the screening on the lower extensions in the middle (aka the landing pads); the metal roof distorts things a bit since I made it with so much overhang but you get the idea.
Oh, and I have some onions to plant this weekend.
That’s all….
Behind cohutt's fence 
What better way to answer my question about strong winds than real environmental testing. Glad to know it stood up to the storm.
Yes, but the storm season hasn’t really even started yet. Hopefully it holds, we will know soon enough
It will be fun to watch and see when the bats decide to reside in their new place. Great idea!
I was wondering, do you have a schedule laid out for when you will be planting various things in your garden. We live in the South, too, and I’m just getting started, and would enjoy seeing your schedule.
Thanks for the informative and inspiring site – and much luck with the bats!
Thanks NCN…
If I recall you are south of me?
I use a couple of references. The New Square Foot Gardening” book by Mel Bartholomew has some great reference tables and charts in the back appendix.
Online, this site is pretty good: http://www.chestnut-sw.com/seeds/vegseed.htm
It has specifics for several plant varieties but the cool thing is the “Grow Guide” linked in the top paragraph. You enter your last (and first) frost dates then it tells you what you should be doing week by week.
Oh yeah… you built it right!
Right so far anyway…
Glad to see it made it through the trial run. To the person asking about when to plant seeds here is a neat online free resource from the Old Farmers Almanac. Type in your zip code and you will get a customized planting plan.
http://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-dates/NH/Dublin
Much Success Everyone!
Jeff
Thanks that is a good one.
Hey, thanks! Those resources were just what I needed.
-NCN
Dude, that’s a crazy engineering feat. I hope that small brown mammals come and provide much poop for your back yard garden! We still have a couple of winter bats living in the eaves of our attic if you want to relocate them to start your colony.
I hear there are plenty to go around……
My company would like to lease billboard space on the alley side of your bat box. We will pay you 12% of all revenue we generate
LED or the traditional wallpaper kind?
we could make more $$$$ with LED, but the ambient light might disturb your bats. Or maybe it would attact mosquitoes, which would attract more bats, which would enhance the guano levels in your yard.
Regardless it would never match the guano levels of these comments