Please can I share with you the sorry state of my garden at the moment. It froze over this morning and poor Buddy had to go out this morning and was slipping and sliding everywhere!
Anyway... exciting news ... Last week I visited a junk yard and purchased a 16ft length of reclaimed floor board. The nice man in the yard sawed it up for me into 4ft lengths. All this wonderful, solid pitch pine board cost me just £5. One side is painted blue but my tits won't mind that. This is the time of year when tits are prospecting for new accommodation and may leave a deposit on a new home!
In the January 2008 edition of BBC Gardeners World magazine there was a recipe for making your own titbox. I have held on to that issue since then. Just a matter of getting to grips with a ruler, a pencil and a power saw!
I had to make a few alterations to the published dimensions in the magazine. It is obvious that the person writing the magazine had never actually made a box from his own measurements. The front panel and the back panel need to be longer by the amount of the thickness of the wood (in my case 15mm). Just a matter of nailing and glueing the pieces together.
For as long as I could remember as a child, my Dad used to make titboxes with enormous skill and enthusiasm. His domain was his toy shed, full of power saws, hammer drills, boxes of screws and drill bits. I am really a girly girl and prefer to stay in the kitchen!!
So today, I fumbled my way round a Black & Decker jigsaw and a Bosch power drill to make the necessary cuts and holes. By the way... tits must have a hole of no more than one inch and one quarter. For robins and wagtails you can just make the front panel about 2" shorter and they prefer a rectangular opening at the front of the box.
The hinge for the lid is just a piece of roofing felt which I have glued and nailed to the lid. I am happy with the result and feeling proud that I managed to keep on an ancient family tradition.
I hope Pa would be proud of me too!
Anyway... exciting news ... Last week I visited a junk yard and purchased a 16ft length of reclaimed floor board. The nice man in the yard sawed it up for me into 4ft lengths. All this wonderful, solid pitch pine board cost me just £5. One side is painted blue but my tits won't mind that. This is the time of year when tits are prospecting for new accommodation and may leave a deposit on a new home!
In the January 2008 edition of BBC Gardeners World magazine there was a recipe for making your own titbox. I have held on to that issue since then. Just a matter of getting to grips with a ruler, a pencil and a power saw!
I had to make a few alterations to the published dimensions in the magazine. It is obvious that the person writing the magazine had never actually made a box from his own measurements. The front panel and the back panel need to be longer by the amount of the thickness of the wood (in my case 15mm). Just a matter of nailing and glueing the pieces together.
For as long as I could remember as a child, my Dad used to make titboxes with enormous skill and enthusiasm. His domain was his toy shed, full of power saws, hammer drills, boxes of screws and drill bits. I am really a girly girl and prefer to stay in the kitchen!!
So today, I fumbled my way round a Black & Decker jigsaw and a Bosch power drill to make the necessary cuts and holes. By the way... tits must have a hole of no more than one inch and one quarter. For robins and wagtails you can just make the front panel about 2" shorter and they prefer a rectangular opening at the front of the box.
The hinge for the lid is just a piece of roofing felt which I have glued and nailed to the lid. I am happy with the result and feeling proud that I managed to keep on an ancient family tradition.
I hope Pa would be proud of me too!