Off The Beaten Path: Barnwood for the Birds | Video

Cliff Naylor | 5/6/2012

Recycling aluminum cans, glass and newspapers is commonplace these days, but finding a new use for old abandoned barns is much more of a challenge. One environmentally sensitive North Dakota craftsman has found a way to salvage the wood and hardware from old farm buildings and turn them into new homes.

All the work and long hours Jerry Freier puts into recycling barn wood is for the birds.

"I like giving new life to old stuff, I enjoy that," he said.

Jerry cobbles together wood and hardware from abandoned barns and farm buildings to create rustic birdhouses.

"They`re all different, completely different, same shapes but different stuff."

Jerry decorates the houses he builds for his feathered friend with recycled door knobs, hinges or just about any metal object that`s been discarded.

"I just had a lady call and say she wants ten of them from her farm over by Belfield."

That customer plans on giving one of the birdhouses to each of the ten children who grew up on the farm.

Over the past eight years, Jerry estimates he`s built close to 2,000 birdhouses in hundreds of different shapes and sizes.

"I sell a lot of churches, this one I made to look like a country church, churches are very popular."

Birds move into the recycled barns as soon as they`re attached to a tree.

"I`ve had a lot of emails where people cay they put it out and a couple of weeks later they say they had a bird in it."

COMMENT ON THIS STORY