Our bathroom reno contractor has instituted a new method of communication in the form of a notebook that they leave in the house for both of us to make notes or ask questions or whatever. Low tech but effective and leaves a bit of a paper trail. I am lost without a paper trail.

So last night, the GG wrote a question about how many bird bones they found in the chimney when they demolished it. (He is welcome to comment and correct / expound / whatever.) Turns out they did find evidence that birds and also squirrels had lived and died in our chimney. This does not surprise me, even though since the early days of our ownership of this loverly landfill, we have secured the chimney somewhat.

Oh boy, back in the day? Birds fairly regularly came down the chimney and into the LIVING AREA OF THE HOUSE! If I was home “alone” (i.e., with a beach urchin or two), I would CALL THE GG IN A PANIC! THERE IS A BIRD IN THE HOUSE! COME HOME AND GET IT OUT! I am not at all afraid of birds in the great outdoors. In the house? Flap-flap-flap yaaaaaahhhhh! Then there was the time the GG and Master W were doing something with whatever water heater was down there at the time. BIRD BONES!!! YEESH!

In recent years, we have not had birds in the house. We had a young squirrel once a couple years ago but I think he came in through an open door (wide open, that is). A bat came in on a long-ago Thanksgiving weekend but we think he was schlepped in via some faaaaarwood. Chipmunk? I’m sorry buddy that you had to die in here, again, door left open. And then there’s always… The mice scurry in, the mice scurry out, the mice play pinochle on my snout…

Last summer, we were at the Moomincabin with Mouse and she kept hearing a bird chirping in the chimney. Eventually we all heard it and the search was on. And we SAW a bird in there. But then it was gone again! Apparently it could come and go as it pleased, which pleased us because we were not sure how to get it outta there. It also (possibly) solved the mystery of how we have twice over the last few years found dead squirrels in the cabin. Most birds can fly themselves out of that chimney and that one apparently did. A squirrel not so much.

The take-aways from this blahg entry? 1) Hopefully we will have one fewer avenue for aminals to try to work their way into our house. 2) It wasn’t until I wrote this entry that I made the connection that the Landfill Chimney looks looked almost identical to the moomincabin chimney. Lemme see. Landfill? 1959. Moomincabin? 1960. Or maybe that’s what they all look like…

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