Gingerbread House Team Effort

Given the circumstances of not being able to get together in person with co-workers, HWNSNBP's work team (one of them) had a virtual "holiday party".  We first found out about this shortly before Thanksgiving when an Amazon box was delivered that wasn't on our radar. It contained a gingerbread house kit.  He recognized the sender's name so we put it aside for a few days until it came to light what was going to transpire.  

Everyone on the team received one and they were to put them together, with whatever items they wished to add, and they could have helpers.  HWNSNBP, who is not one to sit back in any perceived "competition" told me to "start thinking about what we could do".  The kit came with some colorful candy bits, but I knew that we would have to add to that to make something a little more spectacular.  Not wanting to have a lot of extra candy around the house as a temptation, I thought about what we did have on hand that we could use when I came up with the idea of making this for the birds.  

We had seeds, crackers, peanut butter, unpopped popsorn, and crisco.  I thought we could add to that with pretzels - a snack that he will enjoy.  He was in charge of cutting the base out of a piece of wood and doing the pretzel shopping.  He tried project managing (hanging over my shoulder and watching what I was doing) but was reassigned to "shop clean-up".  

As we buy our bird seed in a mix, I first had to sort it out.  It wasn't as tedious as it sounds.  I poured about a cup of seed into a bowl and gently shook the bowl.  The larger seeds came to the top and were pretty easy to pick out.  I wanted to use peanut butter to "adhere" them to the sides so I spread each piece, one at a time with the pb and first added the windows/door and the seeds that defined them.  Then I sprinkled the small seed over the rest of the panel.  I did this for all four sides and we let them sit over night so the pb would dry out a little (I was afraid that it might be too soft and would slide off.)  I also added the pretzels to the roof panels and sprinkle bread crumbs over them and let them sit overnight with the rest.

Erecting this little house, with all the sides decorated proved to be a little challenging.  I did use a glue gun to help, but I first made a box out of a cracker box that was the inside dimensions of the house (sans roof) to help with the construction process.  A little dab of peanut butter on each side helped to keep them upright while I used the glue gun to set the seams.  The only problem with the roof was the amount of hot glue that was needed to get around the whole piece before it solidified.  I knew this wasn't going to last forever so I didn't worry about it.  

I put the shortening in a decorating bag and squeezed it onto the roof ridgeline.  That's were I added the corn kernels and seed.  I opted not to pipe the shortening on all the house seams.  I smeared the base with shortening and added the saltines around the house, leaving a path that was covered with thistle seed.  The fence was made frome the pretzels.  

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The last touches were a bit of greenery at the doorstep, with some raspberry segments as deocrations, and the pinecone tree.

He had to submit pictures the day before the "party" which he did, and then at the party, he had to explain how he had made it.  He was honest and said that he only made the base and did the shopping.  There were about eight different categories they could vote for and "we" won the "Most Creative" bragging rights out of the 53 houses that were completed.

We've been putting it outside on the picnic table on nice days and bringing it in at night.  A couple of juncos have shown a little interest, but so far, the squirrels haven't noticed it.  I'm pretty sure that if we did leave it out overnight the neighborhood raccoon would enjoy it, but we really don't want to entice it to hang out here which is why it comes in at night.  And it stays inside on rainy days. 

We're expecting snow later this week so I'm looking forward to having it sit upon some snow and we will scatter more seed around it to encourage more pecking.  

All in all it was a nice little diversion.