On December 14, WRN Teens got a chance to try their hand at woodworking! Mike and Anita Smith welcomed us (again!) into their home — actually into their garage! — for this project, building bird nesting boxes. Mike does lots of woodworking and has donated his talent previously to WRN. This time, he was woodworker and teacher in the garage-classroom, helping 6 Teens figure out how to follow a written plan, measure lengths and right angles precisely, and make exact markings on wood
Teens worked in pairs to mark the pieces of three nesting boxes, one designed for wrens, one for flickers, and one for bluebirds.
After using all our math skills (including re-thinking a process!), we were happy to leave the cold garage’s upper level to head down to Mike’s workshop — and the woodstove! — where Mike did all the cutting and drilled the holes. Every part of this job was much trickier than we had imagined! Even getting the long boards down the stairs was a geometrical challenge!
We just had time to see how the pieces would go together but had to leave the assembly for another project day. Eventually, we plan to install the nesting boxes and hope to see them inhabitated!
Huge thanks to Mike Smith for being an awesome and patient woodworking teacher and sharing his cool space! Thanks to both Mike and Anita for letting us hold another project at your house. We love your location! And a great job on a steep learning curve by the Teens!
Marg Paré
WRN coordinator
