There may be more than one way to build a bird house but for me this is the only way.   Let me start with how these birds houses came to be.  My granddaughter, Elizabeth, was in need of a new guitar so she could jam with her dad, Michael.  The story goes like this, Elizabeth’s  seven year old hands could not handle dad’s  full size guitar and her piggy bank was a little short of the $70.00 needed to buy the one that they had found on the internet.

Lizzy (as we call her) happened to be spending the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa and she asked if there was a chore or two that she could do to earn the money needed to order that shinny new Hannah Montana electric guitar.  Grandpa could have paid the balance and confirmed the rumor  that this little girl has him wrapped around her  finger but that would be to easy.  I have a few chores around the house that need some attention.  We could re-shingle the garage, hummm…. I don’t think grandma would go for that.  The chimney needs a few bricks replaced.  No, I think we better keep our feet on the ground.  Maybe we could build something in the shop?  I think we could find enough scrap lumber to build a bird house or two.

The plan goes like this…we spend a few hours building houses that any Bluebird would love to call home and paint a big sign telling everyone who passes by that they could put one of these masterpieces in their yard for just $8.00

Getting started, I cut out the pieces and Lizzy gets ready with the hammer, nails and a bottle of glue.  After a few hours, the houses are assembled and ready for their new home.  We load our freshly painted sign and the new bird houses into the back of the truck and head out to the end of the driveway.

We sit on the tailgate of the truck, munching on celery sticks (yea right) and waving at each car as it passes by but it seems that the bird house market is also in a state of decline.  After a few hours of watching cars zip by, we decide that we are going to save the bird houses until the next time Lizzy visits.  Then we can paint them and find a place in Grandpa’s back yard to put them up.

A few weeks go by and we get the news that Lizzy had saved enough allowance for that  Hannah  Montana electric  guitar and it had just arrived.  I think I will give her a few months to practice and then post a video of our new rock star.

Keith