Bout 2 years ago, my neighbor, who is a concrete contractor, poured a 5' by 30' sidewalk for me at no charge.
Been trying to figure out how to start paying him back.
He recently built a 10' octogonal aviary for some morning doves that were given to his wife. I think this will be an appropriate start.
No blacksmithing involved, but it is metal. About 4' tip to tail.
They haven't seen it yet, and it still needs paint.
What do you think?

I'm thinking you two make great neighbors! I'm moving to your part o' town.

Fine job on the vane - nice design!!

That's a great design! You two do make great neighbors. What color were you going to paint it?

Lovely! Are you going to black it or color it some? Post a pic installed please!

I grew up with neighbors like you, I just wish they were more frequently found! It's not that I don't like my current neighbors, but some go out further than others, which makes everybody more happy to help.

Phil

He knows what I am doing, she doesn't. He wants it black to silhouette in the sky.

I am in the country. We all have about 6 acres. Everybody has everybody's gate code, and most have keys.
For neighborhood nite out, we have a pizza bash. One neighbor has a outdoor wood fired brick oven. In august we did about 75 pizza till 11:00 pm.
This Saturday we are having a "DOG". Dutch Oven Gathering. EVERYBODY cooks. Usually around 30 different foods. And EVERYBODY gets full.
I let my neighbor run their horses on my front pasture, for free. Looks cool for me, and I don't have any vet or feed bills.

I hope to retire in about 2.5yrs...there any places for sale in that neighborhood?!?
Really nice design on the vane. Looking forward to pics of it installed.

That's a terrific wind vane.

Man you live in one of the "American dream" neighborhoods. They're too darned few and far between.

You lucky dog.

Frosty

Hey your neighbors just put you up to this to raise property values right? Lodi oh Lord isn't that where CCR got stuck? Tell your neighbors this won't work on boomers... we've already heard the song! (JK) (;-)

That's beautiful. The birds really 'move'.

That's kind of pretty. If you had cut out hawk profiles you would have scared the doves to death.lol

Great job...I really like the design

From experience it is wise to balance the vane so what is up wind counter balances down wind . this is a bit of a problem do to needing more area down wind , but if you do the vane will twitch and realign with the smallest wind direction changes . This means thin metal down wind and leads up wind but is worth doing

From experience it is wise to balance the vane so what is up wind counter balances down wind .

I assume you are talking about weight balance.
The birds are cut from 24 gauge sheet. The support rods are 3/16" pencil, slit 1/2", and brazed on the birds.
The nose is a 1/2" sq., 1/8" wall, rail baluster with the basket in the middle that I cannibalized from a display at work.
I cut half the baluster off, attached the pivot and the birds, and made a jig to check it.
I kept adding weld to the nose and shaping the point until the balance was perfect.

Wind test so far have shown very smooth and consistent action.

Well, my neighbors got home Saturday, and the first thing he did was climb up and mount the Weathervane.
I think it came out pretty good!

Looks even nicer in place! Good job
Phil

Great job looks fantastic against the skyline, I am starting to put thought together about constructing my own weather vane, thanks for the inspiration cheers Bully