Birdhouse beauty

Mike Gedler's acreage in central Iowa has many appealing features: a beautiful house, a large deck, a comfortable workshop, and a scenic set of trails through hilly timber. What further sets off his place is a plethora of unique birdhouses that are decorative and functional. They give the acreage a distinctive sense of place that feels welcoming to both human and wild visitors.

For Mike, building birdhouses began with birdwatching

"My brother got me interested in birdwatching, and everything followed from that," he says. Then one day, Mike's wife, Gina, came home with a purchased birdhouse. "An expensive one," Mike points out. "I took a look at it and thought, "I can do that.'"

Mike set up his shop for birdhouse construction, and a passion for the hobby was born. "With each one, I think I got a little better," he says.

Interior decorating items
Gina began using Mike's creations to decorate the house. "They just started disappearing from my shop, so I began making two of them at a time," he says. "It was just as easy to make two as one, once I had the saws all set up."

Demand for the birdhouses grew. "The next thing was that others in my family wanted them," he says. Eventually, Mike began to enjoy the hobby so much that he started making birdhouses for sale at a local farmer's market. He sold as many as 15 or 20 a week.

"After a while, I couldn't keep up with the demand and just decided it was getting to be too much work," he says. Now he builds them strictly for pleasure.

What are the tools he uses? Not so many really. "A table saw, a miter saw, and a little creativity," Mike says.