Not Time for a Martin House!

Occasionally I annoy THE MAN quite a lot. It's a skill one acquires after 16 years of marriage.  Most recently I was down the bank in the front of the house trying to figure out how to take down the martin house we inherited when we bought our new house.

I don't know if you can tell from this aerial image, but we live on a hill. To be more specific, a surveyor I work with called it a cliff. So, I was dangling over the cliff, looking at the bottom of the pole of this Martin house yelling for tools.

It's about 10 feet up in the air and I was in the middle of the plants at the base trying to undo the bolt. See, I read on-line about Martin Houses and they said specifically they needed to be CLEAN to get new martins. They also said most of them are designed to be easily cleaned and swivel down for unwanted bird removal. (Any birds that are not Martins should NOT be allowed to nest, although that kinda seems mean, but anyway...)

I figured if the country club down the road had martin houses, we must have martins. We have all kinds of other critters, so why not a bird that adores group living.

Thankfully it came down in one piece and also didn't smash me since I was sent back up the hill due to my inability to get the bolt off. It quickly became too heavy for THE MAN who was now hanging on to a huge heavy house on the end of a long pole. He said things testily like I can't hold onto this all day and what do you want to me to do now.....

Before you feel too badly for him....lets take a minute to put the location of this martin house into perspective. THAT my dears is my huge glass windows where I sit working & scrapping. We also consider that to be the front of the house. See, a colony of purple birds to watch would be awesome (although in theory we're in the midst of summer and that whole bird nesting thing is a bit behind us. Let us not remind THE MAN that).

 So, now I am repainting & reworking the Martin House roof which was sadly too old to be reused. THE MAN did help cut a replacement top out of scrap board but can be heard mumbling not time for a Martin House every time he walks by the carcass in the garage.

Fun times! Wish me luck! Part of it has to be painted ON THE POLE....