I'm usually comfortable with wild critters, but there was this one time... Much of the back yard at our previous house was sloped. There was a terraced path mid-slope, and I had a bluebird house attached to the fence post at about 5' high. Placement was such because it was a backup house, and I found it easier to store it there than in the garden shed. I liked to feed the birds, but the seed did tend to attract those big, ugly rats to the back area of the yard. One day, I saw a rat run into the birdhouse. In bright daylight, no less. I went over and angrily flipped open the hinged top, thinking it would run off along the top of the fence. Well, that isn't quite what happened next. That rat launched himself out of the birdhouse, and flew! My feet were frozen in place, but I arched my back and leaned my head and torso away from the airborne missile as it flew 12" in front of my face. My eyes were wide, but the pupils followed the movement as that rat landed 5 feet downslope--and was swallowed up by the sword ferns growing there. Yikes! There was no time to straighten up, because a few seconds later rat #2 flew out of the box in the same arc as the first one. I never screamed; the only thing that seemed to be working were my eyes and the count. Three. An involuntary shudder went down my arms about that time, but I was still firmly frozen in place. Number four allowed me to focus 15" in front of my nose as he flew out at a slightly different angle down the slope. There was a brief pause...and I smiled that miraculously none of them had landed on my body in their panic! I'd just begun to straighten when number five launch through the air..Ack!.. and soon, number six followed the first rat's route... I waited. And waited some more. Finally I straightened up and looked inside the birdhouse. Empty. WHEW! I have no idea how so many large rats fit inside that birdhouse--or even WHY they would all be smashed inside of there. That none of them ran out, and all jumped as if shot from a mini-canon from the interior shredded what I think of as typical rat behavior. It definitely goes down as one of the freakiest things I've ever experienced; Not sure if it qualifies more as a funny story or a nightmarish one. lol

Bakemon, Not one of those tekkies either, but suggest you post for help on the computer help forum. W've used forum several times in the last couple of months to solve a computer problem and they've never failed to get the problem resolved. Fran

THat is too funny. My lawn men picked up and bagged the leaves in fall and hauled them off. I was on the phone immediately telling them never to do that again. This poor old soil I have is getting better and better as I did and turn the composted leaves into it. And you can't believe the little wildflowers that come in spring now, since I don't put anything on the grass to kill the weeds. Little violets, and henbit (yes, I love it!), and other pretty little flowers that I don't even know the name of. In time the clover has spread and the crabgrass has spread, and it is the softest grass to walk on - much better than that awful bermuda. I love to see each spring what the birds have brought to the yard - it's a new year every year! Susan

That was great Andrew. Thanks.