Yesterday I posted a vacancy sign in my backyard. It was in the form of a cute little bed & breakfast hut I had purchased online many months ago. I hung the birdhouse by hanging the top loop over a branch about 6 feet up. I used a bungee cord to attach the base of the birdhouse around the trunk of the tree. This was to provide stability without damaging the host.

  
Now I wait for our first tenants. It’s only been on the market for one full day, but there has been some interest already. Mostly just gawkers who fly by and chirp on nearby bushes. I think it’s creating buzz though. I am pretty sure they’ve been discussing the new house on the block. I bet it’s been getting good reviews too. Okay, maybe mixed reviews. It’s so cute it almost looks like a decoration, but a slip of paper inside the package did claim that it was not a toy. Pretty sure it’s for real.

No bird has scheduled a viewing yet, but I know it won’t be long…

(Fast forward one week)

No offers as of yet. Recent real estate research suggests that birds do not like houses with big holes. Unless the birds are big, but then the house should be bigger as well. Rookie mistake. I’ve since ordered a specific wren house and it arrived earlier in the week. I have identified wren looking birds in our yard so this could work.

Yesterday I spotted the perfect branch to hang the new house from. I grabbed the birdhouse and a ladder and headed down our hill into the lower yard. After locking out the ladder and situating it under the tree, I tested the ladder to be sure it was placed securely. It was and I climbed up with the house in hand. However, I couldn’t reach my target. It was the broken vertical branch about 15 feet up at the top tip. I wasn’t brave (or stupid) enough to stand on the very top step so I climbed back down to develop plan B.

Plan B involved finding a large branch to hang the birdhouse from while I climbed back up. The branch was a no go. The house slid off it and hit the ground.  At least I know it’s sturdy now because it didn’t break.  I needed something longer.

Back down the ladder and back up the hill to the garage for my trusty rusted rake. Almost top the ladder again, with the house dangling from a few of the rake’s metal teeth, I hoisted the house up as far as I could reach.  After a few tries, I hooked my target! Getting the rake free resulted in moss falling from the tree and into my hair. I found bits of moss in it later.

  
More importantly, my second birdhouse was hung and I was feeling a bit like a Monopoly mogul. Now I just need some birds to land on my properties.