EVOLUTION

It starts out simple but evolution isn’t satisfied with simple. Last spring, I was killing time just before heading out for Alaska. I decided I wanted a bird house in one of my back yard trees. My mother had wrens every spring in a little bird house, in the apple tree outside her kitchen window. They sang and flitted around outside while she flitted around the kitchen and sometimes talked back. One of the nice things about a wren house is, the hole is too small for other birds so you won’t get any bigger, nuisance birds. A wren house sounded like a good thing for my tulip poplar. I went down into the basement, found some scraps of wood and glued up a box with a hole in it. After the glue set, I painted it and hung it in the tulip poplar. When I got back in August, I had wrens. Fast forward through fall and winter; I’d been in Florida and came home to snow and freeze. My little green wren house did not survive the windy cold. It lay in several pieces in the snow. So much for throwing things together.

I liked having wrens so I started thinking about another bird house. This time I researched plans on the internet but didn’t like what I found. I had an idea, a small box with roof boards like cabins and barns you make with Lincoln Logs. I couldn’t do it all with glue, had to drill pilot holes and nail small brads to make the roof boards overlap. The first one didn’t look too bad, at a distance, but it was full of flaws and bad design. So I gave it away and made another one. It was better. I gave it to my son and daughter in law in Ohio. They had wrens in it right away. Each wren house I made got better. By trial and error, process of elimination, changes begat more change and the “Right” wren house was evolving. One of those evolutionary constructs is home for a wren family right now, in that same tulip poplar. 

I’m happy to announce that the bird house I finished today is “Right.” I’m sure evolution will keep provoking changes but this one is good enough that I burned my storytelling logo onto the side. If someone wanted to buy one, I’d take their money and feel like we both got a good deal. My friends tell me I should make up a batch and take them to a crafts show. Wouldn’t that be something? I will give what I have on hand away in the next few weeks as I will be traveling. Wisdom says to beware of Greeks bearing gifts. But I’m not Greek and my little boxes are too small for soldiers to hide inside.