The Holiday Season

     Vacation is over;  the trucking season is complete;  and there is once again a little extra change in the DAG savings account for those "spur of the moment" tool shopping addictions that seem to come out of nowhere and take over my body.    I know I left the shop last September in the middle of a cabinet project and that project is still on the "To Do" list, but in the past week I've been back in the bird feeder business.   

    I belong to a wood workers club call "The Chips off the old Block" and every year prior to the holiday season all the club members work on an individual  project that gets displayed around the community and those projects are auctioned off by use of a silent auction process.   The proceeds from this auction are used to help support various community groups.    That support goes from purchasing hams for the Christmas holiday to be given  to families in and around Kossuth county that use the food pantry, supporting various organizations where youth work on projects - such as 4H, and some funds are given to the local schools shop classes for the purchase of power tools or for safety equipment.    In the past this silent auction of members projects brings in as much as $3,000 to $4,000.  

     All members work at building a little something and most (the smart ones anyway) start working on their project during the summer months.    New members (like me and I think I am the only new member this year) tend to wait till the last minute to do their project.   So, for the lack of time (and a fresh idea) I decided to build another log cabin bid feeder (my fourth one). 

      The last time I built this I used pressure treated wood.   This time I had a little pile of cedar pieces that were left over from the deck project that I helped Chad and family with this summer.    Once again, it was a process of making up several 3/4 inch by 3/4 inch logs and assembling them in a certain order.   In the back of the table you can see the pieces that were glued together to be used as the roof, base, and the slide that goes in the inside.   I've got to admit that I like working with cedar.   The aroma left in the garage shop was nice.  (That is all I am going to say about the aroma that I create in the shop.)

  To the right is the first log cabin bird feeder that I built.   It is now over 15 years old and still in use.   I would love to have the dollars back that has been spent in bird feed that has slid down the tray on this one.  (Oh well, still cheaper than cat food.)  This cedar bird feeder is starting to show wear.    Squirrels have attacked it, even to the point that they have gnawed on the plastic window in the front.   You can see that they have started to chew at the wood lately too (hungry little buggers.)   I guess it is okay.   Squirrels have to eat too, but I do my best to make it difficult for them.     It is such an attractive feeder that even raccoons have stopped in once in awhile for a meal.    It is on my list to build another on of these for myself this winter.  (Maybe my "Chips" project won't get a bid and I will have to bid on it myself.)

Well, here is the end result.    The plan calls for a ridge cap to be made across the hinged part of the roof, but with this one I fixed it so that part could be left off.   In the past it seemed like that ridge cap would break off easily anyway.   You can note that it was missing on my old feeder.    I put a little bird seed in behind the front window and added a little stuffed blue jay (ugly looking thing) in the feeder part.   It went on display Monday night along with all the other "Chips" projects.   There are over 50 items up for bid.  So far it has a fifty dollar bid on it.    (Darn, It looks like I may have to build another one for myself this winter.)    The auction ends at noon on December 17th.  

     Not all our visitors are squirrels or racoons.    The picture to the left is not very clear, but if you look on the ground you can see a cardinal looking for spilled seed.   If you look behind the feeder on a branch of a tree we had a rare visitor.   He showed up Saturday morning and hung around for some time.   It was kind of a raining/drizzely morning.   If you know what kind of owl he may be, let us know.    We think he may be a "Barred Owl".   I wonder if he was waiting for the cat to come out and play.   Hmmmm.    That would have been interesting.                  Next week we will be back to the cabinet - part II.