Affordable Housing

Yesterday Jill and I and the girls ventured-forth to clean-out bird boxes.  You know them - the boxes we've built and distributed for purposes of providing nesting habitat for cavity nesting birds such as bluebirds, tree swallows, house wrens and more. 

Seasonally we clean out the prior year nests and evict any over-wintering mice.  Next weekend we'll complete the process and treat the box interiors with a mild spray of bleach solution to avoid transmission of disease and parasites.

This is also a terrific opportunity to inventory nest boxes in need of repair. 

Box construction has evolved over the decades and steadily improved in terms of design and materials.  Taking a cue from Henry Ford all box generations have been standardized and as a consequence repairs are simplified.  

Here's one from 2005....

And the latest design from 2014...

The oldest box serviced was dated 1997.

In all we cleared out 50 boxes and have a handful left to get after following the melting of deeper snows and flood waters receding along the creek. 

Bring-on the migrating song birds!