POULSBO — Fred Mackie said he started to look at God’s earthly creation differently when he was faced with the possibility of not seeing it again.
It was 1997 and he was hospitalized with pancreatitis, or inflammation of the pancreas, a vital part of the digestive system. He said he almost died.
“I was hospitalized and fed through a tube for three months,” he said. After he recovered, “I was so grateful to be able to do something. But I didn’t know I had this talent.”
A little more about that newfound talent later. Let’s go back in time a bit, to Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
Mackie was born there in 1936, a twin — one of two sets his mother brought into the world. He followed his father and grandfather into the business of looking after Shorthorn cattle. And he was good at it. In fact, he was hired to accompany 75 head of cattle — “and 31 sheep and a pony,” he said — to Nova Scotia by boat, and he stayed. He looked after cattle in Ohio and, then, Illinois where he met and married Karen, his wife of 54 years.
He looked after Shorthorns on a farm in Sequim, then moved to Poulsbo in 1963 when his boss bought a farm at what is now Northwest College of Art and Design. They raised champion Shorthorns there, showing from Vancouver, B.C. to San Francisco’s Cow Palace. One of their Shorthorn bulls fetched $10,000 at auction — that’s $75,000 in 2015 dollars.
Over the years, he successfully fought the battle of the bottle and found faith. After retiring from cattle farming, he worked as custodian at Christ the King School (now Gateway School), where his wife worked. “I cleaned up after kids instead of cows,” he quipped. “The difference — the cows didn’t talk back.”
Now, we’re in the 2000s, Mackie is healthy by the grace of God and eyeing that bramble-covered forested lot across the street from his home in the Sea Bird Mobile Home Park in Poulsbo. Sure, he kept up his own yard, but he had never been interested in gardening. That was for his mother and twin brother, who became a professional gardener.
But now, a guy who couldn’t tell a heath from heather sees something beautiful there — the forest from the thorns, so to speak. So, he cut those blackberries back and planted dahlias (a flower he knew nothing about; he keeps a book on dahlia care next to his living room recliner). It looked nice, so he kept on going.
The mobile home park owner told him she would dispose of any blackberry vines he removed. “I don’t think she knew I was going to go so far back,” he said.
He removed more invasive vines and in their place planted a strip of geraniums and primroses. And then, azaleas and ferns and grasses.
Over time, the domain of prickly brambles was transformed into a pretty forest garden. The farmer had become a gardener.
Then, he and Karen vacationed in Arizona and he saw a birdhouse someone had made. That gave him an idea.
We’ll cut to the chase on this one. Since he removed his first blackberry vine eight years ago, Mackie’s created a birder’s dream — a forest of “70 or something” birdhouses of many architectural styles. There are rustic, unfinished birdhouses; birdhouses that resemble log cabins; a birdhouse that looks like a church; birdhouses that resemble buildings he’s photographed on his travels so he could replicate them. One house is painted in Seahawks colors, created during the team’s last run for the Super Bowl title.
Mackie said he can build a birdhouse in one to three days. As of this writing, three of the birdhouses are occupied, he said.
The forest garden also features wildlife statuary that he’s been given or that he’s picked up at second-hand stores. Sometimes, the wildlife you see is real: Mackie has seen deer, a fox, a coyote, possums and raccoons in the garden forest. Human visitors frequently visit the forest garden as well. The other day, he chatted with some visitors from Colorado.
Maintaining the garden requires some diligence. For example, Mackie said he takes the geraniums up in winter and shelters them in his workspace to protect them from the harsh cold, then replants them in spring.
At 79, the father of three and grandfather of five doesn’t mind the work. “I’ve always worked hard all day,” he said. And he appreciates the beauty of God’s creation — and the opportunity he has to be a caretaker of it.
“It was faith and love of God’s creation,” he said of his motivation for creating this neighborhood patch of paradise. After he recovered from pancreatitis, “I started noticing all these things that I never noticed before.”
Neighbors appreciate what he’s done. “I just think it’s wonderful,” Norma Hanson said. “I moved here in 2006 and he was just starting. He had planted a bit of flowers, the rest was brush and blackberries. He cleaned it out and made it what it is today, And all those birdhouses — isn’t that something?”
She added, “I think it must lift people’s spirits. It sure gives them something very pretty to look at. And I’m sure it made the landlady happy too.”
Mackie Facts: The Mackies were avid cyclists and once biked the Oregon Coast … Fred Mackie is one of six children — an older sister, two sets of male twins, and a younger sister … a brother, Andy, settled in Chimacum and became a well-known music educator and founded the Andy Mackie Music Foundation.
