Hand cut lap joint

John made a light bulb heater for the other bird bath.  He cut the lap joint by hand and he was very pleased with how tight the joint fit.

Assembling the parts...

Tah dah!!

Warming the bird bath... first rinky dink project of 2016

We made our first rinky dink project of 2016.  I do so love a rinky dink project, especially when we collaborate. They say whatever you do on the first day of the year is what you will do for the rest of the year.   So I hope there are LOTS of rinky dink projects in our upcoming year.

When it gets cold like this I know that water is the most important thing to keep available for the birds and squirrels.  The bird bath heaters I've found for sale are clumsy and difficult to install plus expensive.  It occurred to me that our small bird baths have a hollow column they sit on.  So I asked John to make a light bulb warmer for inside the column.

We've used simple light bulb warmers in the past for cold frames and such so we think it will work.  We started with a 40 watt bulb.  I am keeping an eye on the water temperature.

Update next morning: it worked great!  It's been very cold and windy (28 with a wind chill of 16 degrees).  We have two of these bird baths and only one is heated.  It froze within an hour or two and is a solid block of ice this morning.  The heated one is 46 degrees.  Yessssss!!!!!  I think we will be heating the second one, too.

Here you can see what is inside the column.

And here it is installed on the side porch.  I like that you can see it is on.  The upper right corner is the ice I dumped out of it.  It can be hard to get the ice out so I hope this fixes that problem.

Fairies and Flowers and Birds Bathing, Oh My!

Birdhouse

John hung my birdhouse.  I learned it isn't in the ideal spot because it is so close to the bird feeder.  I thought that would be an advantage but apparently birds don't like so much bird activity near their nesting spot.  Nevertheless, I did see a chickadee checking it out.

It does help to take your attention away from the ugliness in the back yard two houses over.  That house looks so good from the front.... not so much over our fence.  We will probably add a decorative top to our fence as well.

The birdhouse

The birdhouse I ordered on Etsy came.  I really like it and enjoyed decorating it a little more.

You can see what it looked like before here

The view over the fence

Our neighbors took down their camelia bushes.  They talked to us first to be sure we were okay with it (we have the best neighbors EVER).  We were in favor of it because it means more light for our teeny tiny back yard.  But the view over the fence to the neighbors next to them is less than ideal.

The fence is ours.  We will remove the horizontal pieces.  I want to put some whimsical birdhouses on top of the fence to give the eye something to focus on.  I don't want to block all the light.  And if some birds move in, all the better.

I found and ordered this from Etsy.  It's got a nice whimsical shape.  I intend to add a shingled roof, a decorative door and maybe some other decorative elements.

We also plan to build a few ourselves and  use this one as a prototype design  starting place (they won't be the same as this one)

You can order one here if you like.

Collecting rocks

My grandma used to collect rocks.  It seemed like a pretty silly thing to do.  But guess what?  Now I'm the one collecting the rocks and it doesn't seem silly at all!

Rocks are links to places I've been.  That doesn't mean that I can tell you where I got each rock.  It means that I take a rock home when I want to keep a piece of some place in my life.

Rocks are nice to look at and useful, too.  We use them in the house for doorstops and for holding books open and to look at.  Outside they are part of the garden.  They look good, are fun to rearrange and nice to touch.

I like how the rocks look in this pot.  They also make a place to water the pot without disturbing the plant or the soil.













               

I made my bird bath with a plastic saucer and some pretty rocks.  It's easy to clean and the birds love it.

                 This is my favorite rock.  I just like to hold it.         

                    

Splish Splash, I was taking a bath

I like watching the birds have a bath in my fountain.  They really go at it.  Dipping down in the water.  Shaking their wings.  Sometimes they bathe for several minutes.

Update:  I saw THREE birds taking a bath at the same time.  It was very exciting!