Too funny, sleepless! I'll have to watch for that. I'm just a couple blocks away from our hs band's practice field. When dd was in school/band, I used to sit at the pond each evening and listen to them practice. My guess is somebody rang the dinner bell. What time of day is it? Is it nearing dusk? Now you've got me curious, too..

Thank you so much for your compliments. I tried to figure out in my mind exactly what I wanted for 3 years, and am very happy with it. Aesthetics are really important to me, now more than ever. I have 3 kids who are just past the 18 yr mark and for years aesthetics could not be a priority. You'll go out of your mind trying to keep things looking lovely with 2 boys, 18 months apart. I was lucky just to keep things intact. LOL! We spent years renovating our house and finally could do the backyard, which was one big asphalt pad. You can't do something like that a little at a time. Now I spend a great deal of time out there and have discovered gardening with a passion. I am really enjoying this new stage of my life. I already have a big ugly pool alarm, the white box you can see in the photo. I have french bulldogs and they can't swim, so we had it built 2' high. That was more than tall enough and probably still is, but I have a very exuberant younger dog now, so that keeps me from being paranoid all the time. I seriously doubt he could get up there, but I would lose him in a matter of minutes if he did. Someone who lives a couple of blocks away was consistently losing fish from a small ground-level pond a couple of years ago. He finally caught a heron snacking, so I know there's one around here somewhere. I can't believe I've been this lucky for so long, but I did have some fish disappear last year, which I just thought was the raccoons. When I had it netted in the fall I found some water hyacinth fished out and left on the side, which looked like raccoon evidence to me. I would think if the heron had found them he would have cleaned them all out. Maybe not since they were really skiddish for so long. Thank you babalu aye for your description. That makes me believe that I can possibly get away with just stretching some line across the top a couple of times. I'll try that before I get all crazy with the whole thing. I hated to net it the first year, but was surprised at how it disappeared from a few feet away. And I really couldn't see it from the window which is how I view it for the most part in the winter anyway. Angela

I have been using fishing line for years and have only had to replace a couple pieces and that was because the screws pulled out of the fence or I've cut it by mistake. I screw small C-hooks (whatever they are called) into the fence and run the line between them. I've used it for MG's, thunbergias, clematis, Malabar spinach, passifloras, Mexican Flame and canary vine. There's probably others I've forgotten. As long as it's not a heavy woody vine the line holds up well. Just make sure that you buy a strong fishing line. Fluorocarbon lines don't degrade in sunlight or water. Mine has been up for at least 4 years and it's not brittle yet. The only real drawback I've found is that it's a PITA to remove dead vines. It's hard to cut them away without cutting the line.

I have used the fishing line method,about 2 seasons ago,It did seem to work,But once the first egg was laid by the Blues,I removed it ,in favor of the Sparrow Spooker.They work much better.I would recommend using the fishing line now before a HOSP gets interested,It is much more affective.once a HOSP gets interested ,most of the time the fishing line will not work.If you do use the line,be sure to back it up with a Sparrow spooker ONLY AFTER the first egg is laid.once the spooker is up the line is no longer needed.You are right none of them will work with the House Wren