I’m Lee, and I build every Woodland NestWorks feeder and birdhouse by hand in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina.

I’ve loved nature and the outdoors for as long as I can remember. Hiking, birding, caving, cooking, fitness, and working with wood are some of my favorite activities. I studied carpentry and woodworking when I was younger, and I started a small nest box business back in the very early days of the internet. It earned an endorsement from the North American Bluebird Society — they no longer offer that endorsement, but I’m still proud of it. It never really got rolling, though: I went to culinary school and spent most of my working life as a chef, including time as a country club chef and as a restaurant owner. That’s what brought me from Northwestern Pennsylvania to North Carolina in 2002. These days I work as a paramedic for a county 911 service.

Somewhere in all of that, I came back to where I started — birdhouses, built properly.

Every piece I sell is solid cedar or paintable pine, built one at a time and made to actually work for the birds — proper entrance sizes, ventilation and drainage, and easy cleaning access. And I stand behind it: if it arrives damaged or develops a workmanship issue, I’ll make it right.

When I’m not in the shop or on shift, I’m usually outside with my family and our dog Ranger, who considers watching the squirrels eat from our feeder his full-time job.

— Lee