Zoom w a View: Birdhouses born from piles of rescued lumber

A year or two ago I found a photo of a JR birdhouse made from teak, with a quarter-inch thick aluminum plate roof.

It would last 100 years, in my opinion, in normal conditions, i.e., hanging in a tree and not used as a target by reckless - or avid - hunters with large calibre rifles.


["Eight pieces of wood, a roof and floor equals one GH birdhouse. Brilliant."]

I had piles of cedar at my disposal at the time so I modified the JR birdhouse design (circa 1946) to accommodate my needs and skill level (slightly above Ollie’s, my 4-year-old grandson).


["Remember this duplex? I felt something was missing": photos GH]

Since then I’ve made 4 - 5 dozen GH birdhouses from scrap and feel they’ll last any proud owner 20 - 30 years under normal circumstances. (No large rifles allowed. Slapshot practice? I don’t think so).


["The duplex needed a side apartment. The new triplex looks better."]

JRs and GHs are cubes, easy to build and require only 4, 8, or 12 pieces of wood (cut to equal size), a roof and floor. Simple. Ingenious. Thank you, JR, where ever you may be now that Dallas is just limited to reruns all over the free world.


["The duplex (soon to be a triplex) gets a minor adjustment to the floor"]

In that spirit, I hope that when my weekly column runs its course and I retire from motorcycling and discovering Canada in one pair of pants, someone (young and handsome, like I was at one time) will take a GH duplex apart, see it’s intrinsic worth and say, “I’m going to build a million of them and send the proceeds to Gord because he didn’t have an old TV show, or anything else, go into syndication and he likely needs extra cash just for trips to The Roaster, or health care.”

Bless you.

***

My long motorcycle trip has affected my brain.

You can see that, can’t you?

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