One lonely bat came back....

A few weeks ago. the neighbors bat house ( which the bats all LOVED!) fell apart. Maybe it was the weather or the design. but it cracked right in two. So I moved an unoccupied bat House over to that same tree. I'm thinking it was the tree the bats loved with its central location rather than the house itself. Well it took a few weeks for them to warm up to the new house, but last night was the first time I've seen anything in it. One lonely bat was nestled up in there. I'm hoping that he will bring some friends. he looked a little different from the usual lot, so I looked him up and there is a chance he could be a Hoary Bat instead of a little brown bat or a large Brown bat ( the usual residence) It's just a hunch and it is rather difficult to tell them apart. But at least we still have a bug eater in the area!

The Bats are BACK! Along with some flowers and frogs..

The last couple of days have been well into the 70's! And three days ago the bats were out and checking out our boxes. It was very exciting! If you have been following this blog for over a year, then you know that I have put up several bat houses around our yard as well as our neighbors on both sides. I was a little disappointed when the bats chose my neighbors box over mine half way through the summer of last year. But that is still close enough for them to be effective against the bugs that linger in our yards. Well a couple of bats were inspecting both our boxes and for a small time, rested in mine for the night! It was only temporary as they eventually moved back into his later the next day. As for today. It has been raining all day and its a good day to stain inside where it is warm and dry. The frogs are out, which inspired me for my next origami project. The frog still needs work, but I think I can make it look better. As for the flowers. The spring flowers are on track, and with all the Easter candy out there, I have been experimenting with small roses made out of Hersey mini wrappers. I need more colors to make the flowers stand out, but Cheryl likes them. Perhaps I'll have enough to make a small bouquet. Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Bat house and panels! YEAH!

So tonight was "finish all the projects you started earlier" night. I finished carving in the bat on the bat house and painted it. I may touch up a little bit later with paint, but for now, it should be ready to hang. Or at least have it's picture taken. The other project was a panel requested from a customer to match one of the bass panels. She wanted one that would face the other. This weekend was pretty good for me, I sold the peacock panel and one of my boxes! (YEAH!) I was quite fond of the peacock one and I'm glad it is finally getting a good home.

New and improved Bat House

Tonight I built another bat house, hopefully for sale! I guess my crazy bat personality has been getting around and people are asking about purchasing them from me. Well, Ihave never made bird or bat houses professionally, but this might be a new direction. Well, I actually bought new wood for this project instead of just cutting up old bits of scrap I had lying around. We'll see hot it pans out when the glue is dry and it is painted. I may even add a nice carving detail to spice it up a bit.

Happy Mother's Day! Well, for us anyway.

So we went to Grand Rapids to visit Cheryl's family on mothers day to catch up and grab a bite to eat. All in all It was nice seeing everyone again. We got home kinda late and I ,out of the blue, wanted to check my bat houses to see if anyone had moved in. I'm soo happy to announce that there are these two cuties in at lest one of the houses. I'm soo happy! Aren't they adorable! This is going to be a short post but here are some of the Origami beetles I have been working on. Cheryl says I need to add more colors. I'll be working on some gold ones later tonight.

Birdhouse pictures!

As Promised, Here are the pics of the houses. I had to edit a few to show them off, since the bat houses were painted black and did not stand out much against the tree. Obviously I did not take a picture of all the houses, but as you can see in the area shot, I have a lot of them stacked on top of each other. As for tonight, My origami special is a robber fly. Have a great Weekend!

Easy Tuesday

Just finished three seats tonight. They were easy since Cheryl had to paint two out of the three. I worked a little on painting my boxes. I also painted the Bat houses outside tonight. The weather was nice today and I didn't need a coat. It did manage to get dark before I could take a picture, so I had to use the flash.. Hope it turns out ok. Next step is to find a place to put them up! Red ( the shop cat) tried to help me out by showing me a "really good place" in the dark. In adding a little spice to the blog. Here is a great carving in Thailand ( I believe) they have access to the greatest carving wood in the world. Teak! Its is naturally water resistant, hard, and easy to detail... just take a look at the video and see what they can carve!

The Good, the Bad, and the UBER UGLY!

So tonight I worked on some birdhouses and my Bat houses. I was making them out of old carved panels that where destined for the burn pile. As you can see...they are rather colorful. ( check out the Koi!) But it won't matter after they get painted black and put 20 ft up in the trees. The good thing is that I made them tonight. I had enough bracket's for four and that should be enough. I still have a couple of panels and a bunch of scrap wood left. My next project will be an owl house, a woodpecker house and a wood duck house. We have a barred owl that hangs out around here but I think he has a nest down the street. We also have a Piliated woodpecker and I would love to get him to investigate a house in our woods. If you are wondering why I don't buy good wood and make a pretty one....well that is not the point! I have small scraps of lumber I want to use instead of burn. Maybe the bats will find it exciting as well. Oh ! and with keeping the barbershop tradition. Here is a group I think Has a great sound. I don't know if they are champs...yet!