Bird watching has always been a favorite pastime for me. It's relaxing, fun, and I love seeing the variety of birds God created, love listening to their songs, love watching them flutter busily building nests or gathering food. And with all the food we have in our yard, they always seem happy and busy.
We put up some bird feeders, and then some bird houses. We had looked around, and we found there were so many different types of birdhouses out there. Some pretty simple ones, some more elaborate, some like gingerbread houses, others like flower beds and all. Some were like great big (for a bird) princess castles! How I dreamed about being a princess when I saw those!
But they were all really pricey, and the more elaborate, the bigger the chunk of change needed to get them. We bought some pretty standard avian domiciles (bird houses), and put them up. We let our dreams soar to the sky, and waited for our first new tenants.
As we waited, I got to thinking. If they can build fairy-tale castles and huge mimicked flower beds, why couldn't I build a log cabin? Growing up, I'd always loved log cabins. I guess you could say it was the Lincoln Logs I had as a kid which lit this particular fire. The great cabin I built was sooooo cool! Except... well it was way too small, even for small me. And then my brother came by and... well, that's a story for a different day.
Anyway, I fell in love with the idea of log cabins. I started dreaming about owning one, or getting one, or finding an old, abandoned log cabin, fixing it up and living there. Better yet, how about buying some land in the mountains (remember I'm from the west, so I mean the Rockies, but the Adirondacks would work too), and then build a log cabin there? Failing that, how about a log-cabin style barn here on BirdHaven Ranch? The possibilities were and are endless. And then, in a flash-bang or something, I thought: why not a log cabin-style birdhouse?
By this time in my mental musings (over weeks and months by the way), I had meandered into the house and was doing dishes, and still waiting for our first avian tenants to show up (the "vacancy" sign on the store bought bird houses doesn't seem to work for a week or two or three, although eventually the newly installed avian domiciles are occupied). There I was, washing dishes, thinking about the log cabin style bird house. It wouldn't have to be fancy, not a palace. Heck, it could be a box of sticks glued together. The birds don't need a toilet or a kitchen, and they certainly don't need a sink to wash dishes in like I had my hands buried in. Heck, the birds would even bring their own furniture.
As I finished washing the dishes, I considered what supplies I would need. The birdhouse would need a floor and a roof, and walls. I could use glue, it would look like caulking (in log cabin parlance this is called chincking)! That would make it look way more realistic, not to mention super cool! My floor and roof could be any flat board. I looked at the trees and bushes I could see from the window over the kitchen sink. Lots of pruning to be done-which meant there was a lot of potential supplies out there for these bird houses.
So, when I finally finished slaving over the dishes, I invited my kids to go for a walk around the property. They didn't know I was making plans. But everywhere we went, I saw the right sized sticks and envisioned the birdhouse I could build.
As we finished the walk, I enlisted my kids to help me prune some plants near the house. We took the sticks and cut them to four or five inch lengths. We also found an old scrap piece of lumber which we could use as the floor.
We got started with building our birdhouse. It was great fun and even more fun to think how gigantic we were compared to these birdie sized log cabins! We glued the sticks and stacked them up neatly. We cut a couple sticks a little shorter for a doorway for the birds. In only a short time we had a small box perfectly sized and suited for our hoped for tenants. Add another piece of scrap lumber for a roof, and viola! A super cool looking log cabin styled bird house. It looked so neat!
We put it up on the front of the barn and walked away.
We fully expected that our little log cabin birdhouse would be vacant for a few weeks, as the previous new birdhouses had been. But lo and behold! While I was standing at the kitchen sink an hour later, we saw two birds fluttering around our little doorway in the cabin! They appeared to be fighting over the birdhouse! A third bird soon darted into the birdhouse with a piece of grass hay in its beak. Hey, even in the bird world, you snooze, you loose!
We watched and were excited to see the fighting stop. One of the birds who had been practicing for gladiator school finally got it through his thick skull his mate needed help, and so off he went and began helping bring in grass, sticks, feathers, and more. The other one... well, obviously we'll need to build another log cabin style bird house. Boy! but wasn't this so exciting?
Well, we built a few more birdhouses. Then I began building condos and apartment complex style birdhouses, too. They were all occupied so quickly! It is such fun to see. And these birdhouses have lasted nicely too.
We reason that the birds manage their own pest control and so the birdhouses have few if any bugs. Occasionally through the years we have found a pile of discarded sticks and grass under a birdhouse and realized that that house had a new resident. We have a great number of birds in our yard and such fun when we build a new birdhouse.
As we have begun to build BirdHaven Ranch to provide services and support to special needs, disabled, and veterans in our community, we are wondering how these birdhouses could help. We have decided to make kits which we will sell from the website.
We are selling these kits because we want to share this joy with you! This would be a great project for you to do with your kids, grandkids, parents, grandparents, friends, or even just for yourself. We've collected the supplies. Now, all you need is to arm yourself with a hot glue gun or a bottle of glue. And then go to town!
After you put our kit together, and hang your bird house, have a seat and watch the curious birds.
We hope this will bring you joys and delights as it has done for us.
You can order your own kit here: https://www.birdhavenranch.org/product-page/log-cabin-birdhouse-kit
After you have built and hung your newly created birdhouse, we'd love to hear how you enjoy it.
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