MILL CREEK, N.S. -- Bob Audette may be retired, but he's carved out a pretty good hobby for his golden years.
He has created what amounts to a little wooden village in his workshop in the backyard of his home in Mill Creek, N.S.
When he's there, he says he feels like a little kid again.
"I decided to start with some birdhouses this year, and people were so enamoured with them, I decided to make a few more," Audette said. "I guess I got carried away."
He's made about four dozen over the past few months.
Each model is made out of white cedar he had trucked in by a friend from Quebec.
Audette says his interest in woodworking started as a young boy growing up in northern Ontario.
"Since I was a little kid, my dad had a shop, and I was in the shop all the time," Audette said. "I always had Band-Aids on every finger!"
He managed to keep all those fingers, and now, it's a passion he's rekindled in his retirement.
His career in construction took him all over the world to places like Ecuador and St. Lucia. He's adopted styles from those places into his woodwork, but lately he gets his inspiration from different sources.
"Pinterest, the internet," Audette says. "Guess what? Everybody else is on Pinterest. I'm not much for the imagination, but I can copy pretty well anything there is."
With spring hopefully around the corner, some might be wondering where they can get their hands on a bird house or a lawn ornament.
Some of his work will be for sale in a couple of months' time and he's sold about 10 works already.
Audette figures he has enough wood to get another 30 or 40 pieces done by the May long weekend.
In the end though, he says he's not doing this for any money.
Instead, he's doing it for the peace and quiet enjoyed during countless hundreds of hours whittled away in his self-made sanctuary.
"It just keeps your mind going," Audette said. "I could come in here in the morning, and be in here for 12 hours."
Proof, Audette says, that time flies when you're having fun.
