Horseshoe said:Hah! I keep thinking one of ya'll are now going to have a tutorial on "how to char a birdhouse"!

Shoe

vic said:I do have a butterfly house. My cousin made it for me and I've never seen a butterfly in or near it, so yeah, I think they are for decoration.

Instead of roasting marshmellows by the campfire, you could put the birdhouse on a stick and roast it

I've been lurking and enjoying. I finally got around to taking a picture of a "birdhouse" we have:

I know...it just ain't right Never really seemed to work as an actual birdhouse anyway, and now we don't have any tree branches low enough to hang it from.

I think it's adorable.

Yep Maridell, it just ain't right.
Cute though!!

Great to see you here.

it is cute though. I like it and welcome.

I thought I would never collect anything but seems we are becoming those crazy cat people on the block...even though we only have two cats.

Now we see some cute cat thing and we are inclined to buy it...sometimes I later wonder what we were thinking

Thank you for the welcome.

Oh. Remind me tomorrow to take a picture of my wonderful cat in my garden.
Me too about collecting cat thingies.

Please do share a picture!

I'm so happy this thread was bumped up. I had to go back to see all of the beauties.

I was going to comment on them all, but there are far too many! I will just say, Keep them coming, I love them all. Great inspiration.

Sheila, I love your porch and all the birdhouses hanging. (especially the red one). And I see the purple one too. I want a purple birdhouse.

Sandi, your red, white and blue bed and the birdhouses in it, is just fabulous. What plants are those? And your last photo of your newest one would make an awesome top for a totem.

Shoe, only you would be barbquing birdhouses. With my luck, I would end up with just ashes. I love the look.

Chris, I love that you build your own birdhouses. And reading your details gives me a lot of good tips. I love love love the one with three on the post. Do you mind if I use that idea for mounting some of mine? What did you use for the pole?

Ok now, all you folks with fabulous ideas.
First,
what can I use for poles for my birdhouses? I am clueless.
Second
Can anyone come up with an idea that I can use to put the poles in my garden. Our clay soil and these wonderful trees with a root system that would boggle your mind, doesn't allow for me to dig holes very easily.

Hi Maridell . Welcome to nutville. I'm still pondering your cat birdhouse.

Debbie, I used a 4 x 4 for the post for the triple house. Then on the bottom I put 2 x 2s that stick out about a foot in each direction so it just stands on the ground, it's not buried. Feel free to use any ideas you get here - that's why we share!

Debbie, I've got the same problem with our clay soil. When it's dry it's hard as brick but when it's wet anything "standing" in the gardens starts looking like the Leaning Tower of Pisa! I try to use the rule of thumb when installing any posts, bury 1/3, leaving 2/3 exposed, but digging a hole that deep in heavy red clay sometimes just doesn't work!

I've got a birdhouse that needs to be "posted" soon and have plans to use PVC pipe which I'll slide down over rebar. Usually I can easily drive the rebar into the soil but I still might have to pour fast setting concrete to ensure it stays vertical. I used this method when I put up posts for my solar lanterns earlier this year and made the "forms" with foam board and duct tape! If you're interested in my 'technique' I'll get a photo for you. One of the posts still has the "form" in place - I got sidetracked this spring and never went back to remove it! I'll also try to remember to get a photo of the birdhouse I'll be attaching - I used a PVC fitting and glued it to the bottom so I can slip it on the pipe and (hopefully) easily remove it to bring the birdhouse in for the winter.

Welcome Maridell! How could any bird resist your cute kitty?

Shoe, I think your "preserved" birdhouse is going to last a lot longer than any of ours! I really like the charred look and I'll be waiting with marshmallows for our campfire tutorial!

WELCOME Maridell and I love your birdhouse

Sharon, can't wait to see your cat picture.

Debbie, except for our blue bird houses, our bird houses and bird feeder are mounted on metal fence posts but they too would be difficult to pound into the ground unless you have a pounder although we used it when we lived in OH and up there we have very clay soil.

Those hand-held augers work well for pole holes too. They are like bulb augers only bigger. They make some that fit on the ends of drills.

Hi Maridell, good to see ya.

Us, nutty?? Well, nutty is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose.

I'm always envious of those who can use "hand-held" tools in their gardens. When we were adding trees to the landscape years ago it was almost impossible to dig the large holes by hand. We hooked up our cone-shaped auger to the John Deere and even THAT had a hard time digging the holes - it kept bouncing off the hard packed clay! We ended up having to punch 4-5 holes around the diameter with the auger and then it was almost loose enough to dig the center of the hole by hand.

I hear that. We are known for clay soil here too and what's called "rocky top". Some spots in my yard are a dream to dig in and others are next to impossible.

You certainly are a fun group of folks....nuttty ? Ha, ha I just had to do that to use the new icon.

We have that type of hard packed clay here too, mixed with lots of rock and shale. Very hard to dig by hand, especially with the rock. When we bought the house, the first thing we needed to do was fence the yard for the dogs so we rented an auger. Didn't even touch it, so we took it back and got our money back I cheat and use water to soften the holes and dirt, and dig all mine by hand. But, being a ranch girl, I'm used to it. And I have a huge heavy breaking bar that I have to use to break up the shale and rocks and dirt. Weighs about 30 lbs and is about 8 ft long with a chisel type point on one end and a heavy round inch thick circle for tamping dirt on the other end. I hate using a shovel so usually use the hand post hole auger for the holes. Takes forever and is definitely not easy! I'm sure the neighbors all think I'm nuts but I really don't think that there's an easy way to do it here with our dirt and rocks. I like the idea of a tripod type stand, but afraid with our wind, it would blow over every day or so