Saturday, November 7, 2009

A Note About The Birdhouses

All of the birdhouses have shipped.

They went out in batches, along with a number of bowls and other artwork.

Some of you have yours already, thank you for the notes.

Some of you will get them today.

Some of you will get them this coming week.

God only knows when you Canadians will get yours.

There’s no rhyme or reason to it. It just depends on which packages make it onto which truck and if the truck gets to Anchorage before the plane leaves. Some packages arrive in three days, some in ten. I don’t know why. When the post office guy says, “four to ten days for Priority Mail,” he’s speaking literally. Occasionally, packages arrive smashed and smelling of seafood – which would indicate that they rode down to the lower 48 under several hundred pounds of King Crab or other such bounty of the North Pacific. Should that happen, let me know and I’ll ship you a replacement immediately.


I will be making more. 


  1. Thanks Jim. I order early because - as you say - who knows what customs will feel like. Did you do tracking numbers? Just in case someone ELSE needs a christmas present and thinks mine would do the trick?

  2. Cass,

    Some packages I do, some I don't, depending on things like cost and destination.

    Yours and the other Canadian packages I mailed first and have tracking numbers for. Shows yours clearing customs two days ago. I would expect you'll have it shortly.

  3. ::nervous glance::

    I'll be bringing small, unmarked bills and some illicit maple bits...

  4. I've got yours set aside, Karl. No need to look nervous.

    Also, if you're bringing maple you can keep the bills - and in fact, I'll probably end up owing you. hmmmm, will you take a birch heartwood turning blank in trade?

  5. Mine arrived yesterday! Thank you! It's gorgeous and smells wonderful. I think I'll hang it in my studio... far enough away from my work table that I don't splatter paint on it. :-)

  6. Swap? hmm... I got damn near a whole dumpster load of the stuff for free - hardly seems fair. And I'm only bringing 150# or so.

    Lemme see what else I can scrounge - besides moldy 'green' spruce...

  7. Deal - I'll throw in a 5' piece of cedar from the building I work in - it's 43 year old double tongue and groove decking :) If you ever feel like making a cigar box or some such...

  8. Whoot!

    It's a deal. Now I gotta go pick you out a good blank. Whoohoo.

  9. I'm looking forward to getting the package, now I just have to remember to give it away:)Kind of wish I was Karl though.

  10. LOL - nah, Cass - you don't want that - really. ;)

    Jim - I also have the privy door off an old tuna schooner - figured you could sniff out a project to make out of that... I'll strap it to the roof...

  11. I'm glad you're making more. A friend saw mine and fell into birdhouse lust. (Sort of like puppy love, but with wooden bits.)

    I'll be pulling down a 70 year old lemon tree soon. Do you think the US Mail would let me mail you bits of that? Is lemon wood good for anything?

    I also have some very big lavender bushes. I'll have to save one of the really woody bits to see what happens if I let them age and then peel off the bark.

    There must be some wood here in So Cal that would be as cool as Karl's maple!

  12. Lauren, to be fair - the maple I'm bringing over came off a gymnasium floor and has been sweatsocked and sneakered and drooled and sweated and danced on for the last 37 years... That's it's cool factor - you've had a tree growing there with some shady memories, maybe - a different cool factor... Personally, I'd take the lemon. hehheh

    SoCal has sycamore, box elder, black walnut, couple of maples, 6 or 7 different oaks, buckeye, elderberry, ash, paloverde, madrone!, not to mention all the fruit bearing trees - and that's just some of the deciduous ones - all as cool as the gymfloor tree, easily.

    But I'm guessing that lemon tree cut and dried properly would get quite a few turners/cabinetmakers drooling - me included ;) I'd have to try being veeeery patient having slabs of that laying about for 8 or 10 years while it cured into furniture grade material, bowl blanks can be green-turned right away and then stored until dry for finish turning, but even that could be 4 to 14 months.

    I don't think the US Mail would have objections - just wrap it to keep the package dry.

    My address i

    ::Address removed for 'security' reasons::

    or just send it to Jim.

  13. My concern is my inability to actually let them out of my hands. Perhaps I should plan on collecting the whole set.....

  14. I got my second one, still waiting on the third. I only paid for one shipping for #2 and #3, though - do I owe you an additional $10.00?

    Also, the book and the apple butter I promised is on its way. Same USPS disclaimers going the other direction...

  15. Nope, you're good.

    Especially if there's apple butter involved. ;)

  16. Great bird houses Jim! Jan gave me one for my birthday, as you know, I think. Now I just need to find the right spot to hang it.

    Great work!


  17. You take scrap wood in trade? Uhh, I have an old cutting board that has split in half (the glue between those planks shriveled up or something). Would you want that? :)

  18. I be jealous of the wood trading folks that can drive it around. Not that I have any to trade, though I look lustfully at my cousin's dying old barn.

    But we be under a wood quarantine for the Emerald Ash Borer, and can't even transport generic firewood around here. Bummerissimo.

  19. Happy Happy Joy Joy!

    The bird house's in and smells fantastic - my dad'll appreciate it. He worked at his stepfather's sawmill before joining the Army, and they processed a lot of cedar.

  20. Mine just arrived today and is even more beautiful in person.

    If you want any woods from WA, let me know. Lots of maple, alder, birch, etc grow here.

  21. Received today! Is beautiful and does not smell like fish (bonus) although it appears to have developed a crack running right down the front of it. I expect the local small birds won't mind much.

  22. Mine are here and gorgeous- I'm having trouble telling which one is supposed to be the ugly duckling.

    Dark or milk chocolate?

  23. Hello Jim,

    Just got the birdhouse, it's fantastic! Now I have to wrestle with my selfless urge to give it to a friend as a Christmas gift, and the other more dominant desire to say - screw you Mr. Selfless! :)

  24. My birdhouse came. It's beautiful.

