the stripe specialist

Welcome to Fort Tort!

February 12, 2010

Fort Tort is what I call the wondrous creation I have constructed in my backyard.  It all started when I made a 16 x 16 outdoor enclosure for my tortoises, Koko and Buttercup.  The tortoise pen, Fort Tort, is a self-sustaining environment for the torts, where they can live, eat and brumate with very little assistance from me.  If the temps in the winter get below 40F I turn on supplemental heat.  I provide water.  They graze on grass and other plants and the lowest growing leaves of their weeping mulberry tree.  For a treat I will give them hibiscus flowers.  They have cuttlebones for calcium.  That’s it.  They have above-ground burrows for shelter.  When the weather is warm, they dig scuffs under the tall grass for shady napping.  This is their third winter brumating outside, and everything is going well, except for the weather!

Traditionally, Koko and Butters emerge from brumation sometime around Valentine’s Day.  This winter has been colder than normal, longer than normal.  They still require heat, because the temps at night are still hovering around freezing.  In fact, snow is predicted for tomorrow night!  I don’t believe that will happen, but you can bet if it does, there will be pictures!

So as I was saying, it all began with Fort Tort in 2007.  Then I built a little patio that August, complete with an arbor covered in Confederate Jasmine, with a little bench and table.  I was hooked!  I spent many a summer evening out at The Fort, my feet up on the wall, a glass of wine on my little table, relaxing with the latest gardening magazine.  I had a perfect view of the crows, rabbits and squirrels, and on rare occasions would even see a red fox searching for wild plums way out back.  Weekend mornings would find me in the same place, Isabel on my lap, soaking up the sunshine.  I was so sad to see winter come, the torts vanish into their burrow for brumation, the plants wither and die.

In the early spring of 2008 I decided to build an outdoor enclosure for box turtles.  This was to include a deep pond with a false bottom, so the turtles couldn’t fall in and drown, as well as a pick-your-own strawberry garden!  I documented this undertaking in its entirety at cornsnakes dot com.   Who’d have thought my backyard adventures would generate nearly 20,000 views!

One thing led to another.  I ordered two pond liners by accident, and decided that rather than returning the extra liner I would build an above-ground water garden.  To enjoy the water garden, I would need a deck.  The deck was so simple to build, I decided to add a larger deck to join Inez’s Patio with Terra Pen.  Of course, Inez’s Patio had to be expanded to tie it all in together.

The Water Garden is one of my favorite places in the world, right in my backyard.  As soon as I filled it up, critters started arriving.  Dragonflies were everywhere.  Tadpoles appeared as if by magic!  Tadpoles turned into frogs, and my yard was filled at night with frog song, something that never happened until I built my pond.  Toads made the journey over the patio, onto the deck, up over the wall and into the Water Garden, where they bred prolifically.  Soon I had hundreds of toadpoles.  I bought Sarassa Comet fish to live in the pond and trained them to come to the edge for feeding.  The toadpoles learned to come for feeding too!  I’d sit out there every evening, reading Reptiles, watching the Anole Wars.  Another winter came, and the torts brumated again.

I didn’t do as much hard construction in 2009 but I did put in another patio to the east of Terra Pen, joining it to the water garden.  Along the edges I planted a collection of salvias to attract hummingbirds and butterflies.  I loved the water garden so much I wanted water everywhere and so I added a couple free-standing small water gardens planted with water lettuce and other aquatic plants.  A pretty black wrought iron fence encloses one end.  And I’m not done yet!

My plans for this blog are to write a diary of the continuing adventures at Fort Tort:  the amazing life cycles of the animal residents, the exciting new creatures that stop by, continued construction, and of course my favorite activity of all- photographing snakes and flowers.  Stay tuned for the next installment!

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