Heading in a northeasterly direction toward Lewiston, travelers on County Road 29 might do a double-take at the huge bird cage and four parrots seen on the property of Jim and Jie Schloegel. But unlike most pets and cages, nothing is spent in food and little clean-up - although some maintenance is required.
In reality, the cage is a wire corn crib and the "birds" are made out of plywood and painted in the colorful manner that parrots warrant.
The brainchild of Jim and his brother Ron, the birds have been roosting since December 2005. Jim bought the wire corn crib from a neighbor. Ron made the first two big birds which represent Jim and Jie. Ron found a pattern he liked in a magazine and he took it to the shop at Lewiston High School and put it on the overhead - enlarging to scale. At the same time, using rubber from 11 conditioning rods, Jim made both a frame and rollers for underneath the cage to make it moveable.
His brother moved to Seattle and Jim wanted to add to the parrot family, for his children Barbara and Justineanne, but didn't quite know how to proceed. "When Ron came back last July, I told him 'I'm glad you're here'," he said. They took one of the two big birds down and Ron pretty much "free-handed" a pattern until it got to an acceptable size.
The colors of the additional parrots became kind of a coin toss - Jim just wanted to differ the colors from the "parents." Jim also repainted the roof in green and orange which came about accidentally because he didn't have enough paint of one particular color. One year Jim tried Christmas lights for the cage but it didn't turn out the way he liked.
The birds and their home have became somewhat of a curiosity to motorists so Jim made sure the project rests at a 90 degree angle from the road. It is kind of a local landmark and has been used to give directions. ("Drive past the parrot cage and ...")
Jim is currently working on an 8-foot-tall snipe in his shop - its 6-foot-diameter stomach will hold strawberry plants. He has another project up his sleeve, but it is still early in the idea stage, and he declined to give details.
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Back Roads: Two miles past the parrots ...
Originally published in the June 11, 2010, print edition.
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