The Smokehouse Birdhouse

Proof that three-year-olds can be unpredictable: Since January I have had the News & Observer's annual Birdhouse Contest marked on the calendar. I figured for sure that we would be making a princess birdhouse (check) and a rocketship birdhouse. But about a week ago, as we were on the way home from the craft store with silver spray paint, Vincent announced he wanted to do a smokehouse birdhouse instead.

His fascination with smokehouses is nothing new. About a year ago we visited the historic Page-Walker Hotel in downtown Cary near our house, which has a smokehouse from the 1860s. Once Vincent learned that a smokehouse is used to dry and smoke meats, he had to know more. We researched smokehouses, looked up youtube videos,visited one in Colonial Williamsburg and made a smokehouse out of popsicle sticks. Trust me, there's not a lot out there about smokehouses. Strange.

So back to the Smokehouse Birdhouse -- we took a bluebird box that was waiting to go up (and house chickadees, no doubt) and Vincent glued balsa wood all around. Then he painted it. Luckily, the natural brush strokes of a three-year-old have a very "rustic" quality to them so his smokehouse birdhouse looked quite old and decrepit. Then we broke balsa wood for roof shingles and he painted it red.

The final touch: Since we couldn't exactly hang smoked carcasses, we hung the next best thing... mealworms, a bluebird's favorite food. I am quite happy to report that he insisted on doing the mealworm work himself.

The result was a fine birdhouse that he entered in the competition alongside his sister's beaded Turkish harem-like bird palace, officially titled "Princess Bird Gazebo." And Vincent took second place in his age category, which can only mean one thing: The judges must not be mealworm fans.