Day #323 Night-time Cleanup Crew

Birdfeeders are messy. All around them, birds scatter seeds, feathers, and the end products of digestion. That’s what they do in my front yard. It’s okay, though. I have a clean-up crew who come around every night, 24/7. They never take a day off. They never complain. They keep the area under my “squirrel-proof” birdfeeders looking (relatively) tidy.

And I don’t have to pay them!

Last night I went out to bring in the feeders—because if I don’t, the cleaner-uppers climb the pole and empty them for me—and heard scrabblings up the trunk on the majestic tulip poplar that stands near my front door.

I stood still and waited. Within seconds a black-masked little face peeked around the trunk about ten feet off the ground.  Before I could say, “Good evening, little friend,” a second face poked its way over the first one’s shoulder.

Two nights ago, I remembered after I was practically asleep that I’d forgotten to bring in the feeders. I barged out the front door without thinking and startled a possum on my front porch. She cleans up the niger seeds the goldfinches drop.

During the day, pigeons and doves and other sorts of ground-feeders pick up what the raccoons and the possums miss.

And the daddy-longleg spiders inside the house clear up any ants who find their way inside.

Life is good.

BEEattitude for Day # 323:

       Blessed are those who take the time to observe what we animals do and who appreciate us, for they shall reap the benefit of our activity.

Coming Soon: a raffle, so your dog might be in my next book!

Details on September 1^st!

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http://www.franstewart.com

Day #284 Mama Was Right

Don’t you love it (or hate it as the case may be) when one of those pithy sayings your mother was always coming out with turns out to be true?

The latest one for me is

The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.

She was right, doggone it. This all has to do with why bees are easier than other critters. Yesterday morning I’d just finished cleaning out the litter boxes and I was scurrying to put out the squirrel-proof (HA!) birdfeeders. I’ve been taking them in each night after dark to foil the possum who is very clever about getting around the squirrel-proof (so far) baffle on the pole. Then I put them out each dawn. Nowhere, by the way, did the squirrel-proof feeder advertisement claim to be possum-proof. There’s enough spilled seed on the ground for my resident possum to eat her fill from the mess the birds leave.

Now, I don’t really mind possums. In fact, I think they’d amazing creatures. Did you know that possums never get rabies? I learned that from a woman whose big and downright scary dogs mauled a possum in her fenced-in back yard one Friday just before she left to attend a weekend class. She quickly called a vet to see if she had to bring the dogs in to get rabies shots. The vet is the one who told her that possums can’t get rabies, so her dogs weren’t in any danger. Of course, the vet strongly recommended that she bring them in for the shots in case they ever ran into a rabid raccoon.

When she finally got out to the car (I’d waited there, having heard stories of her dogs before this), we took off for Tennessee. It wasn’t until we were on our back, two days later, that I asked, “What did you do with the possum?”

“I threw it in the garbage bin,” she said. “It was dead. I hope it’s not too stinky when I get back.”

I cleared my throat. “Denise, haven’t you ever heard the term playing possum?”

Turns out that possum had been thoroughly enjoying a regular feast in the garbage can. As soon as Denise opened the garage door (the bin was tipped over and garbage was EVERYWHERE!), the possum scooted out. I could have sworn I heard that critter say thank you, ma’am! over his/her shoulder as he/she ran around the corner of the house.

Anyway, to get back to my point, I was scurrying to fill the feeders (the hurrier I go) and I misjudged the angle of where I was pouring the seed. Hit the edge of the feeder with the scoop and ended up with (the behinder I get) this mess.

Bees are easier. All I do is plant shrubs and flowers.

BEEattitude for Day # 284:

       Blessed are those who learn from those who go before them, for they shall avoid many mistakes. Or maybe not. You folks are human, after all.



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