True-Life Adventures on the Rock V

Life Will Find a Way

One of the first things I did when we moved into The Cabin On the Rock was to clean the deck and patio. After three years of rental use, it needed to be cleaned of old birds' nests in the rafters. The nests were from barn swallows--agressive little dive-bombers who would just miss your head when swooping home. Plus, they left bird-poop everywhere. Nasty. So, for awhile, we would "discourage" their setting up shop, though I suppose they were pre-disposed to seek us out for accomodations. Swinging brooms at them did some good--our Birding Average was abysmal. But the most effective thing were the spikes.

You can get 'em at Ace Hardware, or any hardwre store, for that. Plastic spikes that you can nail or glue to the rafters to discourage the alighting on. But they did try. My, how they did try, swooping up and grabbing one of those vertical spikes in their talons, and just kind of...hanging there, sideways. Maybe they were doing it out of spite ("I'll show ya!"). Maybe they were testing their endurance ("If I can hang here for five minutes, maybe we could tolerate living like this awhile..."). After awhile they would get bored, or the blood rushing to their heads would get to them and they'd depart. Eventually they stopped trying and found another neighborhood. The broom went back into the shed. The spikes did an effective job...and looked lovely in the winter with white Christmas lights glowing on them.

Well, this summer, a robin family built a nest up there this Summer. That's their place in the picture. I was a bit upset; I thought I'd put spikes on the outside rafters. Then, a closer look told me I had. The robins had just been tenacious enough to build there despite the peculiarities of the location, something they have in common with our neighbors' houses on stilts.

"Life will find a way" was the lesson of "Jurassic Park." One need only look out our window to see it proved in the real.

And any remorse I might feel about them living around those spikes is chased away at night as I'm poked by the feathers in our mattress. I say we're about even.

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K.'s away again for two weeks helping Mom. She's going to miss her birthday, the Wilson Family Reunion (always a hoot), a visit from the Sister-in-Law and some dog-training (the dog's jumping on the counters, and this evening, coming back from a 2 day trip to Portland reconoitering, he was so excited to see his frisbee he jumped onto the table with all four feet!!! Bad dog! Dexterous, but bad!) Well, my next few days are filled with work, and an honest-to-b'gosh interview, so things are jumping...uh, besides the dog I mean.

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Today's bumper sticker: "If it's called 'Tourist Season,' why can't we shoot 'em?"