SWLEcage - By Douglas Whitbread<br /><br />An animal lover has built an amazing miniature wildlife village in his back garden - complete with an infinity pool and a Christmas cabin for SQUIRRELS.<br /><br />Paul Everitt, 38, has spent 18 months painstakingly creating the incredible climbing frame which has 1.5m high platforms and is connected with a series of bridges.<br /><br />The self-styled solo adventurer couldn't go abroad during lockdown so he built his “squirrel superstructure” so he could be more in touch with the wildlife at his home.<br /><br />Paul used scrap bits of wood to make an infinity pool and a Christmas log cabin for the squirrels and a landing pad for pigeons, complete with a letter 'P' to land on.<br /><br />It even has a tower, which Paul dubbed “The Swingers Club”, with an infinity pool made of Perspex, and a “Corn Tosser” feeding station that spins the squirrels around.<br /><br />As well as the ten squirrels that visit daily, Paul has seen eight foxes and a badger, as well as numerous birds on his animal-friendly structure.<br /><br />He said: “Prior to covid, I would travel a lot – I tended to do long journeys, kayaking in Alaska, Finland and Sweden, or cycling across continents.<br /><br />“I lived in Canada for a bit, and I miss that wilderness as I’m used to bears and wolves coming up to me.<br /><br />“With Covid hitting, I needed a project to take my mind off not being able to do that.<br /><br />“It relaxes me as I don’t have a TV, so I just sit and watch the wildlife – it’s just a nice little hub."<br /><br />Paul said work started on the raised structure after he bought a three-bedroom bungalow in Grimsby, Lincs., and began to clear its overgrown garden.<br /><br />He said: “A house popped up in Grimsby, it was a bit of a steal, and I thought I’d work on that, with my background in plumbing and plastering.<br /><br />“But I couldn’t help but notice there was an abundance of squirrels around in the back garden.<br /><br />“The back garden was over run as it had been left to ruin and nature had taken it back.<br /><br />Paul said he started making his rope-bridged animal kingdom by creating a “squirrel superstructure”.<br /><br />He said: “I built the super structure – it’s a long platform about a meter and half off the ground.<br /><br />“I then built a slide that went down to a Perspex box, which was full of nuts and a rope swing for them to go on.<br /><br />“Then I build the tower, which is the “Swingers Club”, because it has two swings on it, and I thought something else that would be appropriate for the club would be an infinity pool. <br /><br />“So I built them a pespex swimming pool, which they do use in the summertime, and in winter, they do drink from it. <br /><br />Paul also built them a feeding station, which he has called the “corn tosser”, as it spins the little critters around when they go to eat. <br /><br />He said: “it’s a stick on a pivot and swings around, and when they over balance it, it spins them around.<br /><br />He added: “It’s harmless fun, no squirrels were ever harmed. <br /><br />“I built them that log cabin and made it Christmas themed for it – a bit of festive joy.”<br /><br />Paul said that the manual work required for the project allowed him to express his creativity during Lockdown.<br /><br />He said: “I’m very hands on – I always built my own modes of transport – and I feel like it’s an important part of my life, building and creating.<br /><br />“All the materials I built the squirrel sanctuary from are scraps."<br /><br /> ENDS.
