Oh, the weather outside is frightful.

As you can easily tell, it has been like a month of Sundays since we've added anything to our blog. The last time an entry was made was when Gloria had just planted some new grass seed in the back yard and we were watering it so it would start growing. Well, between the wind and the birds, things haven't turned out quite like we wanted them to. That, plus the fact that our sprinkling system needs some revamping, simply gives us something to plan on come next spring.

One morning, after the planting of the lawn seed, I looked out the kitchen window only to see the lower end of the newly seeded lawn infested with a flock of birds voraciously feeding on the bounteous breakfast. We tried making noises to scare them off. It happened the first time fine. After that, forget it. They just looked at us and kept on feeding. Gloria had heard that if you hang old CD's on a string and stretch over the new seed bed that the suns reflection off the shiny side of the CD frightens birds away. So, she tried it. Once again, it din't wurk!! So, I made the decision. This was war and I was going to do whatever was necessary to protect my lawn. I made a quick trip to Wal-Mart and proceeded to purchase . ., you guessed it, an AIR RIFLE and a bottle of bee bees. I couldn't wait to get home to do what had to be done.

On the way home, my mind went back in time to when Gloria and I were a little past being newlyweds and in fact, we even had our first baby, James. We were visiting Gloria's parents at their home in Glenns Ferry, Idaho. It was summer time and I came across a bee bee gun that Gloria's father kept to chase off the critters and birds that liked to feast on his strawberries. I picked up the gun and quietly left the house through the back door and proceeded to the garden in the back part of their property. Dad Williams had some fruit trees around the edges of the garden and there were a number of rows of raspberries and blackberries that ran along the west side of the house where they enjoyed the warm afternoon sun. I was standing under an apple tree and I happened to look toward the front of the house when I saw a magpie sitting on a fence on the far side of the road that ran in front of the house. I had cocked the gun and it was ready to fire. I had heard that it was pretty hard to kill a magpie with a bee bee gun because they grew to be quite large and the bee bees would simply bounce off the thick growth of feathers on their bodies and wings. In spite of that fact, I started to take aim at the bird to see if I could just hit it and scare it off of its perch. As I proceeded to do so, I was surprised to see the magpie take to the air and begin flying toward the tree I was under. Apparently the tall berry plants had obscured its view of me standing in its flight path. With the butt of the rifle up to my shoulder, I watched the it fly directly toward me. The bird flew closer and closer and as it did so, I could tell it was much larger than I had imagined. I took aim at it as it grew nearer and nearer. Then, just as it landed and took hold of one of the branches of the tree directly in front of me, I quickly pulled the trigger. Pop! To my great surprise, it began flapping its wings wildly and started to quickly wobble with no apparent sense of balance. Then it simply fell to the ground kicking its feet uncontrollably and flopping around on the ground. I was stunned! What had I done? How could this have happened? I didn't really mean to kill the bird. One minute before it was a living, breathing creature full of life. Now it lay on the ground dying from a tiny metal object that had been fired at a high rate of speed and at close proximity and just happened to strike it in its most vulnerable spot -- its head. I felt sick at heart. I couldn't stand to watch it suffer so I picked up something, I can't remember what it was, and I hit it on the head strong enough to kill it outright and put it out of its misery. That experience affected me for quite some time after that. I've never forgotten and I probably never will. I'm not proud about it. In fact, I wish it had never happened.

Anyway, that is what I was thinking about on our way home from buying the air rifle. I made a promise at that time that I would never fire the gun at a living creature with the intent to kill it. I would use it only for scaring off the birds eating my grass seed and perhaps a stray dog or cat that might stray into our back yard to "relieve itself." And, I do admit that I have actually had occasion to use it for the afore mentioned purpose. I will also admit that it does work. But I don't have the time to be continually peering out the window looking for the hungry little pests. We'll replant more grass in the spring and fix the sprinklers so they will do what they're supposed to do.

My goodness, it's getting late. I'm going to have to close for now and I will continue again as soon as I can.