Archive for the ‘Construction’ Category

Posts for climbing structures

Saturday, November 20th, 2010

Keith came out for the day and he and J.B. spent a snowy afternoon preparing fir logs donated by Dan Sherman (thanks, Dan!) to be used as the posts for climbing structures on Young’s Hill.

Here are the logs and a view of a couple of the old buildings on the property.

logs

And here are some of them “planted” in the ground on Young’s Hill. They’re about 10-feet tall. We probably won’t be able to work on the climbing structures until spring, but it’s pretty cool to see the start of things going up on the hill. Thanks to Karen and Don Young, Euan and Bethany Menzies and all who donated toward the 2-acre habitat-to-come!

posts for climbing structures

Greenhouse time

Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010

The chimpanzees were closed out of their outdoor area for most of the morning while J.B. and volunteers Dakotta and Jonathan put the greenhouse panels on for the winter.

First side:

Second side:

Third side:

The weather has been a little chilly lately, so the chimps haven’t been spending as much time outside as usual. It was nice to see everybody flood out of the building as soon as they were given the opportunity. As I write this, most of the chimps are out in the greenhouse, lying on the top platform of the climbing structure in a big grooming huddle.

The first bamboo

Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

Here are some photos of the first planted bamboo grove on Young’s Hill.

The view looking down the hill toward the chimp house:

The view looking up the hill away from the chimp house:

The bamboo will allow the chimps to hide pretty well. Here’s the perspective of a hypothetical chimp who may want to spy on the chimp house without being seen:

The Mural

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

Here are some shots of the new mural. Thank you all for donating to this project. Though it was several months ago, you remain permanently appreciated!

Artist Kim in front of the mural, just after completing it.

new mural

Missy checking it out:

Old projects and new projects

Monday, October 4th, 2010

Life with chimpanzees is wonderful, but it is far from predictable. Sometimes things don’t happen when you plan (and vice versa). Awhile back, we did a fundraising drive to raise money for a new door in the chimps’ enclosure. In exchange for donations, we promised to paint donors’ names on a new mural in the outdoor area. Well, we may be slow, but we do keep our promises! Today, volunteer Kim McAndrews (who is our volunteer graphic designer from Peach Design who designed the Out of the Box auction logo, among many other things) is working hard on that mural. Here are a couple of shots of a work in progress:

As if that isn’t enough excitement for one day, David Binczewski (of Booshoot Gardens fame) and volunteer Ken Mikkelsen are here helping J.B. plant the first round of bamboo on Young’s Hill.

We’ll be sure to share more photos when the projects are completed!

Young’s Hill and Out of the Box

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

We just sent out an e-news announcement with a link to the video below.

Sign up for our e-newsletter if you didn’t receive the announcement, and
check out the video below to learn about our new dream!

(view in full screen mode for full effect – click on the brackets below the video image)

Share this video! Just direct people to this blog post or this link: http://chimpsanctuarynw.org/events/auction2010/video.php

More benefits of the new windows

Saturday, August 7th, 2010

Thanks to Karen and Don Young, LUSH Cosmetics, Anna Kircher and the blog readers, and everyone who donated during our 2nd Anniversary fundraising drive, we’ve been able to replace seven caged windows in the play room with clear, chimp-proof glass. In addition to flooding the playroom with light, there are some other benefits to these new windows:

Windows!

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

Great news! Today we installed the last of the cageless playroom windows.

Here is a before shot of the garden side of the playroom:

And here is the after shot, with four caged windows replaced with chimp-proof glass:

Here is a before shot of the wall facing the chimpanzees’ outdoor area (these are the windows you’ll see in the video below, from the other side):

And here is the after shot, with three upstairs and one downstairs window replaced with chimp-proof glass:

This video was taken yesterday when the chimps were first given access to the outdoor area after the installation of the two upper left picture windows. The upper right window wasn’t quite finished, but it was the first time the chimps could sit in that windowsill because it was previously covered by a large polycarbonate panel on the outdoor area side. Everyone was visibly excited about the new additions and spent the remainder of the afternoon climbing in and out (and in and out) of the new windowsills.

To everyone who has given funds, time and energy, or kind words: We can’t thank you enough. You have given the chimps a brighter view!

Window installation day

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

Window installation day was last Friday, so the chimps had to be locked out of the playroom for the entire day. I did all I could to keep them busy so they wouldn’t get too bored or anxious during the construction, though they really didn’t seem to mind and were pretty interested to see what was happening. I put out tons of raisin boards, prepared by volunteers Jennifer & Larry the day before, which kept them busy for a while.

Burrito seemed pretty sure there was no better place to be that day than sitting in the window in the outdoor area looking into the playroom.

He even spied on the workers by looking at them in a mirror.

He doesn’t have a lot of guy friends, after all…

Missy checking out the construction: (Doesn’t she look young in this picture?!)

And the next day, the chimps finally got to take a look out their new clear picture window.

Burrito:

And of course, Negra:

What an awesome birthday gift!

Happy Birthday, Negra!

Sunday, June 13th, 2010

You may have noticed in the video posted previously that we’ve been keeping a secret from you.

On Friday,  we replaced three caged windows with clear chimp-proof glass. Thanks to a generous donation from LUSH for two of the windows:

LUSH 2 new windows

And Anna Kircher and fellow blog readers for the third window (view of the garden!)

New lower window

If you received the e-newsletter sent out earlier today, you saw photos of Negra’s view and her sitting in one of the windows upstairs.

Here’s a photo of Jody taking a peak out the blog reader’s window downstairs:

Jody peaking out window

and Jamie cleaning the window (apparently we forgot to complete the installation with a wipe-down using a sock):

Jamie wiping window with sock

We’ll be installing four more new windows soon thanks to everyone who donated between March 17th and today for our 2nd Anniversary Fundraising.

We’ll share the final fundraising amount and who raised the most early this week. Thanks, everyone for helping us exceed our goal!!