Toys to Birdhouses

Birdfeeders Birdhouses Bob Murphy traveled the world doing heavy construction. Although retired he's still building but on a very different scale.

by Jere Hough

Published: Tue, August 26, 2008 - 3:31 pm CST Last Updated: Fri, August 29, 2008 - 11:27 am CST

His garage looks like a toy store! Stacks of EZ Bake ovens, plastic cars and trucks and planes. But look closely and you notice a roofed entry cut into most of them. A lot of toys converted into a lot of bird houses.
Bob Murphy sighs when asked how many bird houses he's made. "Whew," he says, "I couldn't say, but I have probably over a hundred in this shop that aren't done yet."
He puts two or more separate apartments in the bigger toys. He also can use a pair of plastic bowls, but coolers are the high end bird real estate.
Murphy explains, "The best bird houses are made out of thermos bottles or lunch boxes because they're fully insulated."
Cups and glasses don't make suitable houses so they become bird feeders.
Murphy's back yard in Helena, Mississippi, is full of the arbors and poles he makes from PVC...places to hang his houses and feeders.
He says, birds like his unusual houses. "I have a man that raises horses and I have sold him five bird houses and he says they're full all the time in his barn."
Now if the birds don't happen to show up in your yard...Murphy has just the thing: PVC egrets. There are even two versions!
Meteorlogist Jere Hough declares, "Bob Murphy may be the ultimate recycler. Could you look at this lunch box and see a bird house?" He picks up a cocktail glass. "A bird feeder?" The he picks up a toy dog, "Another bird house?"

(TAG) MURPHY SAYS HE BUYS A LOT OF THOSE TOYS AT THRIFT SHOPS, BUT ALSO PEOPLE BRING HIM THEIR USED TOYS AS WELL. IF YOU'D LIKE TO CONTACT HIM ABOUT HIS BIRD HOUSES AND ARBORS, HE'S AVAILABLE AT (228) 623-5924.

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