Birdhouse building 101...

All winter long Pam and I sat in our pentagon room watching the birds come and go, and then watched them build nests this spring.  There were some who built them in trees, some who found a spot on the pergola to nest, and some who were fortunate enough to build in one of the bird houses we have back along the fence and the wood pile.  Other than an intrusion by one of the farm cats or a raiding starling, things go along pretty routinely as far as the spring reproduction cycle goes.

So, then we were getting ready to go visit the grandkids in NY and wondered how all of this happens there.  After all, this is the Big Apple...things have to be more hectic, grander and maybe a bit more dangerous there, don't they? 

They have a small back yard, and it is constantly patrolled by cats and squirrels.  I expect it is quite a struggle for some of them to have a successful hatch.  So -- I thought, why not do something to change some of that and give the kids a little project.

I went to the local hardware store and bought lumber, screws, nails and painting equipment and decided to make some bird houses. 

Of course, I had to make each one of them unique and different for each of the kids, so I chose the ones shown above.  The top one is the "Q" house (for Quinn), the middle one is the "H" house (for Heath) and the bottom one, naturally, is the "V" house (for Vivian).  I cut them all out one day prior to the trip, pre-drilled them and got them all ready.  All they had to do was finish nailing or screwing them together and paint them, and they would then be ready to hang up in the trees in their back yard.

Assembly went pretty smoothly, but painting was the best part.  All of the kids got to paint their own house.  Quinn was all business -- paint it and move on to something else.  Heath was pretty particular and spent a good bit of time squatting over his, getting into the cracks and making sure it was all covered.  Vivian, on the other hand, was bound and determined to do it her own way.  She, too, was very particular and made it clear that she needed no help from anyone.  She was going to paint  that house no matter how long it took.  She had a tendency to do one spot for quite a while and when Grandpa tried to help or move her to another spot that needed paint, she let me know that she was in charge.

One funny thing that came up was when Vivian finally got to a point where she was "done" with her work, I took the brush from her and she started to cry.  I think she wanted to keep painting, and painting, and painting. 

Well, when she was still crying, I used my best Tom Hanks voice and said: "Vivian, there's no crying in painting."  Well, she found that pretty funny, and broke out in a laugh.  I adapted that line to a couple of other situations over the weekend, and each time she went from crying to immediate laughter.  Tom Hanks -- eat your heart out. 

 So, when all the houses were dry, we "hung" them in the trees.  

We added the appropriate identifier to each house so the bird housing authority could keep them straight.  The latest report is that they have not been occupied yet, but we missed the nesting season so they may get to weather for this year and will be ready for occupancy next spring.  We'll get periodic updates.


If you do not do enough fun, silly things while you are young, you'll have nothing to talk about when you are old.
Hooah