Bird Houses

Whoa.
BIRD HOUSES! 

1st -. I'm not that handy thus SO and inviting family to help. 

2nd - . I LOVE Research. Thus prior to bird houses I looked up sooo much info on how to make a good or easy birdhouse!

I think prior to making bird house, you need to decide what bird you are making the house for. Different birds types need different size of houses, entryways, and to be hung at different heights above the ground...

This is the table I used to figure out dimensions:
http://www.wild-bird-watching.com/Building_Bird_Houses.html#sthash.EzjdCUO3.dpbs

I went for a 4x4 bottom size and a 6x6 bottom size for small birds and then a second style for larger ones. We have both here and with nearly 4 acres, I have enough space for multiple houses.

Now 4" boards are actually 3.5" and 6" boards are actually 5.5, so my 6-6 was really 7 by 5.5 and my 4x4 was 4x5.5... So, we'll see if the birds mind.

Now for House designs
Pointed Roof is what I did for the 6x6 style house, only because of the size. - https://teacherweb.com/IL/WoodlandMiddleSchool/MrSpataAPA/Birdhouse--Plan-2010.pdf

Slanted Roof  is what I used for the 4x4 house- http://www.birdwatching-bliss.com/bird-house-plans.html

Wood was cheap from the local menards and scrap around the the house... Nails we already had and we already have a table saw (because my husband loves projects).

Instead of this being just a me thing... I made it a family thing. It was fun event. I still remember making bird houses with my father when I was kid and now I get another memory of making them with him and my mother as an adult.

We went for making all the parts at once then gluing (gorrilla glue) and nailing (nail gun) after that,  once we had the first prototype down.

I highly recommend not making 9 bird houses at once without help of family or friends... Seriously it would have taken me days otherwise.

Also, please note that you don't glue and nail all the sides. On one side you'll use normal nails and make a swing door. The photo to the left shows me making a swing out of the back for the pointed-roof-style, and the photo above shows that I'm going to swing out the side of the slanted-roof-style. Which side you use to for swing / clean-outs, is up to you and how you want to design your bird house. :)

Also we drilled out the holes using drill press which we have. If you don't have a drill press, might need to look into how other people do it because I'm honestly not sure how to pull that off otherwise.

The day of making Bird Houses was a good day and all my houses turned out awesome (a few errors here and there, but that's part of the awesomeness, I swear!).  Honestly, I'm not going to give you step-by-step instructions because figuring it out is part of the fun.

Below is a handful of the houses we finished!

Friend & Family Activities.

So... I don't have a lot of activities near me.

We have a bowling alley, which is a good time, especially with your favorite team planing on the Tvs over head and a fan of the opponent one lane down.

We have a movie theater that shows ONE movie a week. (Small town vs city). There is a movie theater 40 minutes away that shows multiple films but 40 minute drive for a movie? That's a lot of sitting time right there.

We have a couple restaurants.

We have a county fair grounds which in the summer has motorcross and harness racing. They also sometimes have craft shows, the county fair, vendor shows, and other activities...

We have churches that put on events.

Garage sales - I love city wide garage sales, a nice day walking & shopping. You never know what you'll find at garage & yard sales!

And... a few places to walk.

But - No malls, no zoos, no mega-anything, and no hopping bars.   So when family or friends visit - sometimes there's a low beer-fest, sometimes there's a city wide garage sale (we plan for those things)...

But mostly there's house items.

Last time, as you saw, we tore down dry wall and ripped out carpet with Margaritas! (This is Nicole showing just how awesome that was!)

This time - Bird houses (post coming) & Fence  de-construction...

It's fun and our style of entertainment.


We also have board games, fires, smores, grilling, and other such things... but when you have to drive 2 to 5 hours to visit someone, usually you stay for more than just a couple hours! So I highly recommend this style of entertainment - besides who doesn't want house help? And who doesn't like a group activity that you can then do in your own home with an IOU on labor!? :-)

Weekend Weigh In - 185lbs, feeling big.

First. Notice that this weight and my last weigh in weight (where I felt happy) are the SAME.

I either shrunk all my pants, am bloating, or need to get rid of some fat and convert it back into muscle. (lb for lb, fat takes up more space)

I have started doing a small workout in the morning - 10 minutes pilates.

I want to do it 5 days a week, but two weeks ago I did it twice and last week 3 times... The waking up at 4:45am is the hardest part of doing the workout. I actually feel better after doing it and happier so I know I just need to keep it up. 

This program while short and low intensity, is the best for me at the moment. The wind here deters me from a couch-to-5k and with my work hours I'm not excited for any longer programs. (At work I do an average of 15-20 flights of stairs and 8,000-10,000 steps.)  Also I'm not sure about high intensity until I get new work-boots or inserts because I come home with my calves and arches just killing! (Really need to buy new work boots!)

Anyway. Weight is 185. I need to do measurements soon since that is the true tell of size/volume. I am meal planning today looking for healthy options that we can do here at the house. We keep most of our meat in the freezer so we have to plan ahead so it will be thawed by the time we need it.

This week I'll hit working out every day and by saturday's weigh in, I'll feel great even if I don't drop a single pound... :)   At least that's my plan!