I've Been Sent To A Secure and Undisclosed Location!

I had a little excitement at the nest last week!  Last Monday Marcia walked into the family room to do a little dusting.  Little did she know that she would have to fetch my birdie boots and a rowboat!  The faucet connection under the wet bar had sprung a leak and water was everywhere!  I just couldn't resist saying this!

She quickly grabbed a bucket and put it under the sink.  She immediately put me in the cage. Called Jeff for back up and fetched the wet vac.  It was quite a night of activity!  Our neighbor came over with his wet vac and helped too!  Carpets started to get ripped up!  OH! NO! You all know how I hate that!

The damage...  The major concern is about 200 square feet of wood flooring and the saturated base of an 18 foot built in cabinet that houses the wet bar.  A team of water mitigation experts were on the scene the next morning! Joe and Aaron were great and explained to Marcia and Jeff what was going to happen in the next 3 days.  Basically, they were going to have to live inside their home with the noise that only a 747 can make!  Seven huge fans and three very large dehumidifiers were set in place to dry everything out.

I had to leave!!!

I was packed up and whisked away to a friends house as the mitigation experts unrolled yards and yards of plastic sheeting.  A drying chamber had to be set up to dry the place up.  Then the dust was going to fly! All of the wet wood flooring had to be removed!  Here is what the nest looked like on day 3.

I liked being on vacation with my friends in their home. I am very lucky to have good friend's who are very nice and let me stay with them. I thank them SO very much!!!  I hope all your birdies have a safe place to go if an emergency ever happens in your nest!  Please discuss this with your humans, it's very important.  There was no way I could have stayed during these days of upheaval.  It was just too scary!  The off gassing from the plastic, the deafening noise, the very low humidity in the house, and all the dust was very dangerous for me!

I was able to return back to the nest on Saturday afternoon when every thing was all dried out.  I did miss Jeff and Marcia! It was so fun to see them again! I think they were happy to see me too!  When they came to get me I was on my perch watching TV.  Marcia stuck her head around the corner of the room and with a big smile on her face, said "Hi! Sweetie!" I made a loud whistle, made a poop, and lifted my foot up for her to pick me up! Then a few moments later Jeff came in the room and we all sat on a sofa and I perched on Jeff's knee! Flock was together once again! YAY!!!

The repairs will be made soon. There are lots of people to talk to and decisions to be made. I will probably get to go on vacation again when workmen come to fix everything.  Marcia tells me not to start reading the travel section of the newspaper.  I shouldn't get any ideas; it will not be any place exotic!

Bon Voyage!

Nest Rebuilding

You may have noticed there hasn't been a lot of Blogging the past year. Well, I apologize. My humans, Jeff and Marcia decided last year that they would be making some changes around the nest. Boy, It sure has been hectic!

Last January, Marcia found these huge pieces of stone called, "Granite". They make counter tops out of this stuff! Well, some men came into my kitchen and hauled off the old counter tops. (Nothing was wrong with them either!) But Marcia had been wanting granite ones for about 20 years, so I guess it was time for a change. Then came the new ones. BIG, HUGE, flat pieces of stone! These men were in my kitchen practically the WHOLE Day! (I had to stay in my cage in Marcia's office.) It looks really nice, but I was kind of afraid to walk on the granite at first. It was colder and slippery. But it didn't take me long and I was running all over it!
The next day a man called a plumber came and hooked up the new faucets. He hooked up a big one and a little one. The humans call the little one a filtered water faucet, but I call in my sink perch! It's where I perch when I help Marcia do the dishes. I bet when they bought it they didn't realize it would serve two purposes! They really got their moneys worth... didn't they!
Then, a couple of weeks later some more men came to my kitchen with little square pieces of stone and started putting them on the wall in back of the countertops. They took their time and were here for about a week! Again, I had to stay with Marcia in her office. I didn't mind it so much. I got to come out once in awhile. These guys really liked me and tried to teach me new words in a lauguage called Spanish. It was OK, but I'll stick to English because it's easier for Marcia and Jeff to understand. ;>

When they were finished I had to leave the house! They needed to put something called a sealer all over everything and it had something called High VOC. Marcia learned a lot about "Volatile Organic Compounds" (VOC) during this nest rebuilding. It was best that I leave, so I went to stay with my neighbor who I REALLY like. They live right next door. I only had to stay there for a day. Marcia and Jeff opened all the windows and got the place aired out for me to come home that night.

The place actually looked really nice! Ahhh! Done at last!

OH! NOOOOO! Now Marcia wanted the wall paper taken off and and new paint! Will this ever end??? I hear paint is really stinky and this will take forever because she want the WHOLE HOUSE painted too!!! While they are at it, they (well... Marcia) decided that the carpets needed to go and now would be a good time to put in wood floors. Are they out of their minds!!! I can't live though this kind of upheaval!!! Not to mention all those nasty VOC things! This is going to take weeks! If not months!!!! What is a bird to do!!!

Time to fly the coup!!!!

That's exactly what we did! All 3 of us! We have this wonderful friend, who needed to go out of town on business for several weeks and said he needed a house sitter. Will we needed someplace to sit! We moved lock, stock, and cage over to his nest. He only lives about 15 minutes away, so Marcia could go back and forth to take care of me and supervise work on the house. I like this temporary nest because it had a cool patio and a big swimming pool. It was Summertime by this time and I got to perch in my small cage and watch the squirrels and birds on the patio. (Marcia or Jeff had to be with me, she wouldn't leave me out there alone.)

This was a summer I'll never forget! One time Jeff locked himself out of the house! I was on the perch inside. He decided to go for a swim until Marcia got home, I was a good birdie and stayed perched. Marcia got there and couldn't find Jeff and I was "Home Alone!" Finally, she figured it out. It was so funny! A couple of weeks later Marcia locked herself in the garage! I was on the perch and her laptop was on the kitchen table right next to me. She knew I could fly down and have some fun with her laptop if I wanted and she panicked! Luckily, a man was there working on the garage door opener and he helped her break into the house! From then on they carried house keys with them ALL the time!!!!

I had a great time at the temporary nest, but after about 6 weeks it was time to move back to the new and improved nest. I must say it was an adventure and I thank Marcia, Jeff and our friends for keeping me safe. The nest looks great and I hope we don't have to do this again for a long time!!!!!