Next to the Launch: another rite of spring

Muscling it down

 To the left immediate side of the boat launch are several seasonal properties. As the warm weather increases, these flesh in with owners and friends to fill up our lake community. As they return, they find that there are once-a-year tasks that must be attended to.

These folks invested in the ultimate bird house, more of a Ritz Carlton for their avian arrivals.Hexagonal, with 12 guest rooms, it perches upon a 10 foot pole that sways ever so gently in lake breezes. Our neighbors wanted to, um, clean it out from late fall inhabitants and so executed the maneuver where, much like a venetian blind, you grab a rope that extends from the hotel, snap it to unlock it, and then let they house slide down the pole where it can be hosed.

Except the device that is supposed to unlock the house refused to cooperate. They (mostly he) kept trying variations of the snap-and-release, growing frustrated but ever more determined. We would not have taken so much notice (there are lots of these kinds of things around here) except the 10 foot pole kept swaying, not so gently, in our direction. Wouldn't it be 'So Us' to be taken out by a stray bird house?

I can fix this.

After about 10 minutes, they got out a ladder (exactly what the gizmo was supposed to eliminate) and the Bird Dad climbed and retrieved it. Once near the ground, it became his mission to discover the malfunction and to fix it. Wife wasn't sold but as a good wife, she feigned interest.

Soon, granddaughter, wondering WHAT they were DOING??? while she was waiting to get in the lake, had a thought that she could help speed the process along.

Her attention lasted about a minute when she spied our boat now safely launched and speeding out.

"Hey. Folks! Let's get on with the water," she thought.

Mike waved, that teaser. "Hey! Wait for me, you guy in the boat," she thought.

Not to be, little Sweetie. However, Grandpa fixed the gizmo, Grandma cleaned out the hotel, they hoisted it aloft, and their very patient granddaughter jumped into the lake.