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I do not remember how this birdhouse craze began, but once it did it became a fun project. Our driveway is about 2000 feet long and on one side of our property is about that much fence between our property and my brother’s property. The drive is about 800 feet or so before it hits our first main building and I started to put up a few of bird houses on the fence posts a couple of years ago and it did not take long for these birdhouses to become part of our own unique type of landscaping.
As an artist I am always looking for some little winter projects to quickly do to take my mind away from my bigger projects of fusing glass or painting so it became a daily thing last winter to create some birdhouses.
Some of them I would build, some of them I would buy unpainted and then jazz them up, some of them I bought at flea markets and recycled and even one of our daughters decided to create about seven or eight of them until we had about 84 posts each with a birdhouse on top.
Soon the pergola got some and the high trellises out back. The arbor got a couple and some flea market finds became birdhouses or birdhouse decorations. Carl got into the act and even made a stained glass birdhouse that looks great and compliments our stained glass school here in KY, but the birds do not use it. However, the Birds and Bloom magazine took great delight in it and featured it in their 2008 Birds and Bloom Extra.
The birds like the plain wooden ones or the Audubon or National Geographic ones best. Yet we have several painted ones that the birds have used for years.
We like the colors that the bird houses give once the bleakness of winter has stripped the gardens and the trees. Plus the birds are great additions to our organic gardens and many species dine on our “bad” bugs and they also get to dine on our big plum trees and grapes since we no longer make jams and jellies. I think by letting them have those treats they leave the rest of our orchard and berry bushes alone.
As wine drinkers I even found a use for all those old corks and now I am always trying to get creative with new artistic birdhouses.
The birdhouses are fun for our students drive up to Avalon Stained Glass School and they usually can spot a new one when added and for those who have never been here before the birdhouses are always a good conversation starter.
So the last count is 104 bird houses not counting the hummingbird feeders and who knows what number it will go to.
“Tread the Earth Lightly” and in the meantime… May your day be filled with…Peace, Light and Love,
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Author Bio Box: Arlene Wright Correll
 For more gardening or cooking information click http://www.learn-america.com/
To see Arlene’s Gardens and to read her gardening diaries and to take a walk through her pictorial garden or click on Arlene’s Books where you can download or buy her gardening & cook books, including her new book, “The ABC’s of Wine and Beer Making”. Many of her articles written for Greenthumbarticles have paintings she has created of the subject and they can be seen at her “How to Do It” site. Remember to check out her artwork, especially of her fruits and vegetables. Many of her paintings are sold internationally and many of her works of art have been reproduced on note cards, post cards and other functional items and you can get Giclee prints of her artwork starting as low as $11.89 Arlene says, “All my royalties from the sale of my books, art, etc. go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and I thank you for visiting my sites.”
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