If You Build It, Will They Come?

One thing we like so much about volunteering at this hatchery is that there are a variety of projects for us to do.

There are fish projects: feed fish, clean tanks, etc.

There are people projects:  hiking trails, tours, etc.

There are maintenance projects: mowing, painting, lots of motors for tune ups and oil changes, etc.

There are critter projects: pollinator gardens, etc.

A very fun project for us is building bluebird houses.  We’ve built many bluebird houses during our volunteer time and always enjoy it.

The hatchery has some old, rough-sawed, lumber stacked up and we were asked to use it to build bluebird houses.

Normally old wood is hard to use because it’s uneven, warped, rotted, etc.  BUT - we had a wonderful machine at our disposal.  A planer.  I’m not sure why the hatchery has a planer but we made good use of it!

This lumber is 12 feet long.  Much too long to work with.

We cut off the bad ends leaving us with a 7-foot piece to work with.

This wood is rough.

In addition to the planer that is probably 40+ years old, the hatchery just purchased a fabulous new saw.

Mark got the saw all set up. 

In addition to the boards being too long, they were too wide.  Both edges were ripped and straightened.

Then the fun began:  It’s planer time!

The finished product looks great.

Here is a comparison.  Finished on the left, the end that was cut off before we started on the right.

Lots of cleanup.

Cutting out one back, one front, one bottom, one top, and two sides.

Our bluebird house plans called for a new design for the entry hole, an oval.  How do you cut an oval hole?

Two round holes:

And, a little sanding:

With all the pieces ready, it’s time to put everything together.

One house complete.

We’ve completed 3 houses so far and will probably make 3 more.  They will be attached to 4x4 posts.  Even though it’s too late this Spring for the bluebirds to use them, we’ll go ahead and put the boxes out so they will be ready next year.

This is a very fun project!