The Workshop: "Throw something out? What?"

Before new cedar siding was applied to my house a few years ago, twenty-year old board and batten siding had to be removed. The pine boards were used for several other projects but the batten, or 2 inch wide wood strips, were piled onto my back deck and covered with a tarp for future use. Only now am I making use of them.

["The green stain shows up but the house looks fine and dandy to me."]

Several times I thought of burning them all but couldn't bring myself to burn more than two or three cracked ones. I tried using a few for birdhouses but the green stain required at least two coats of primer and coloured paint. Then, about 6 weeks ago, a worthy idea finally came to mind... log cabin style birdhouses.

["Old barn board looks great in log cabins."]

["The perch is unique. It's off the end of a broom stick."]

Slowly but surely the pile of battens under the tarp is shrinking. It would shrink faster if I hadn't also found fine old barn board under the same tarp ("Oh, this will look just dandy too!") and if I hadn't purchased five new sheets of barn board recently to see how the new wood would compare with the old. But it's shrinking nonetheless.

["New barn board is easy to use."]

By spring I should have the deck cleared - no more tarp - and a basement full of log cabins. And so it goes.

Photos by GH

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