A bird in the... porch!

After our last attempt at a combo inspection, we had gotten the go-ahead to skin the interior walls, so Gerald worked on the west kitchen wall so that we could start working on wall coverings, cabinets, etc.

Meanwhile, J.C. came up on Friday and did some of the electrical work the inspector had noted.

Gerald's manager, Dave, came up on Saturday to help finish the siding. We had done everything except installing the bats on the south and west sides. Gerald and I thought, naively, that it would go quickly. But it took all day and wore us all out. Dave was a real trooper, serving as "ladder man," while Gerald and I took turns assisting. 

By the time we got to the west side, Dave began to muse whether the house was growing. We started running short on galvanized nails and it was a toss-up whether we would first run out of nails or steam. But we lasted until the nails were gone, frustratingly close to finishing, with just 13 bats left to install.

 
"Encounters with nature" was a recurring theme over the weekend. The first was unexpected and not entirely pleasant. When we arrived, I pulled out a T-shirt we had stored underneath the bed in the travel trailer. It was covered with little white specks. We shook out the T-shirt and other clothes and hoped the specks weren't something unpleasant, like insect eggs. I'm not sure if they were, but when I went to the trailer in the evening, the whole corner of the bed above where the T-shirt had been stored was swarming with ants.

Fortunately, we had stored some blankets in the house in plastic tubs and we also had a couple of cots we used to take afternoon naps on the porch. So we constructed rustic little beds and spent our first night in the house. The next morning, the ants were gone. Their absence was so astonishing that I had to check the wine to be sure I hadn't drunk more than I thought. Just to be sure, we went to town and picked up some ant killer.

Next, Bubba had an encounter with a bunny. We had seen cottontails in the meadow, but never near the house. This weekend, we saw two. Or maybe the same one twice. Anyway, it ran up to Bubba, which startled us all. But once Bubba got his composure, he chased it away.

Finally, we'd been noticing this bird that seemed to hover around the porch, particularly when we were around. From our bird book, we identified it as a Says Phoebe. I spent the whole weekend trying to photograph it, but it flew away every time I finally got the camera in focus. Finally I got him, or her as it turns out. Here she is.

We noticed she got more and more frantic the closer we got to the west side of the house. Gerald looked up and said, "Is that a nest?"

It was. Dave got this picture from the top of the ladder, capturing one little bird with his mouth open.