More about my open-air aviary

Larry, my sparrow, is no longer around, so I assume he's dead. Sparrows don't live very long, but I have a whole batch of new birds, mostly finches. I miss Larry - we had sort of a kinship going. He'd sit on the ledge on my deck, all hunkered down and just sit, and I'd sit on the couch, all hunkered down and just sit. It would finally get dark as night came on, and he must have gone to bed someplace - I know I did. He left me just like Larry, my pigeon did several years ago. I miss them.

When I put the bird feeder on the floor of my deck in a big pot, all the new birds came and even brought their kids whom they would feed. The young ones would chirp and chirp and finally the dad would stuff food down their open mouths or beaks or whatever you call them. It was fun to watch and I spent a lot of time doing just that. But that didn't last too long as Charley, the squirrel, came and got right in the pot with the food! I tried all sorts of things to scare him away, but nothing worked. So I ended up throwing empty, plastic gallon milk bottles at him but that was no good either. I think I put a couple pictures on my blog of the bird feeder and birds and even one of Charley. But it got worse from there. The other day I noticed a big rat slithering into the feed pot! He came back several times, so our bug guy put a black box under my deck to catch him. There must be all kinds of black boxes, but up until now the only time I've heard mention of a black box is when a plane goes down. Do you suppose when, and if, they ever find those black boxes there are rats in them? So I was thinking maybe I'd seen the last of my rat, but yesterday another one slithered onto the deck, but he was smaller. I live by a river so there are rats around all the time.

This morning I went to my hardware store and bought some rat poison! I hated to do that, but I didn't want to trap it which they suggested at the store. So now I have to set it out someplace on the deck where the birds can't crawl into it. Hope it works. I used to have mice rummaging around in my kitchen drawers! I had no clue until I found mouse poop all over. I tried a mouse trap with cheese, peanut butter and other goodies but they always took the goodies without snapping the trap. Finally, one night I heard a loud snap! When I got enough courage to look, I found a dead mouse caught in the trap. I threw the whole thing away and got some other kind of mouse killer that I put under the sink. That works fine. Now the mice just take the food home and eat it and die right there, just like any normal person would, in their own home. That makes me feel better. You're probably thinking I live in a slum with all the rats and mice . . . that could be except for the fact that I pay a huge condo fee and I don't think they do that in the slums. I may look into that.

I bought a hanging bird feeder and had our handy man hang it from the center of my deck where nothing could reach it except birds. Now sometimes during the day it's covered with birds! They love it and are eating a ton of food. I bought some more yesterday, and it had gone up a dollar. Everything is going up. I don't know what's going on now with the debt crisis. I imagine the Tea Party idiots are in the chapel, praying again like they did yesterday. It's getting to the point it's almost an embarrassment to say I live in this country - a place where people can't get together enough to solve anything!

The picture is of my new bird feeder with just one bird. I stood in front of my window and the birds just wouldn't stay on it. I finally got tired of standing there. But one brave little bird did stay for the picture - the others flew back as soon as I stepped away.