When I started building birdhouses, I honestly didn't think I'd end up writing much of anything. I figured I'd write a handful of articles about birdhouses, post them on the website, and that would pretty much be it.

I was making the houses from cedar fence pickets, so The Picket Board seemed like a natural name. It fit what I was doing, and I really didn't give it much more thought than that.

Then something funny happened.

The birdhouses started leading me to other things. One story reminded me of an old memory. Another made me notice something I'd walked past for years without really seeing. Before long, I was writing about birds on a wire, music in the shop, mowing the grass, old tools, bees, brushes, weather, and all sorts of things that had very little to do with birdhouses.

The birdhouses were still where a lot of it started. Building them gave me time to think. One thing would lead to another, and every now and then an old memory would show up that I hadn't thought about in years.

Somewhere along the way, The Picket Board became more than a place to write about birdhouses. It became a place for the things I noticed, remembered, or just got to thinking about while I was doing something else.

I guess the name still fits. It started with picket boards.

The stories just followed.

— JT