Is this normal?

I had to post about this problem that we seem to be having. It is spring and we love what that brings. Trees blooming, green grass, flowers, warm sun shinny days and the sound of birds chirping in the morning.

Every year at this time we prepare for all the birds nest that will show up around our home. We have several bird houses between our home and the neighbors. We usually have feeders up and a bird bath. We are a very welcoming family to these unique little creatures. The one thing that we did not expect was to open up our grill this season and find a huge nest. That nest was removed-no birds in it at the time. We cleaned the grill and got it ready for the season. We cooked some juicy steaks and then shut it down till next time. A couple of days later I went out to start the grill and there was another nest. Cleaned it out again, grilled some burgers, and had a good laugh. One Wednesday afternoon I was in a hurry to cook so I decided to through some burgers on the grill. That's right! I knew the second I saw the grill that we had another problem. When your grill looks like a scarecrow you know that this is not going to be a quick meal. Needless to say we did not grill burgers that night. I shut the lid and we had McDonald's after church.

The next night I decided to conquer cleaning out yet another birds nest. I took these pictures and checked to make sure there were no birds in it. Then I lit the nest on fire! That's right. Somehow I thought it would be faster and make me feel better. James said it was a bad idea and told me to just clean it out and through it in the yard. The last time we did that they just reused most of it. Not this time. The problem with this idea is that I did not consider that the grill was on a porch under the eves. The flames got so high that it was starting to reach the eves. That meant that I had to close the lid and then it just smoked and stunk up the whole house. My dear patient and forgiving husband did not get too upset with me, though he did not offer to help me clean up my mess. The nest never burned completely it just turned into a black mess. I had to pour water on it to get the flames out because it was smoking so bad or the flames were too high. It would have taken me about ten minuets or so to clean it out the other way where this took about an hour. Dinner was late and my bonfire really did not make me feel better. I did learn that it not a bad idea to listen to your husband when he is calm and you are frustrated.

So...again the nest builders are back! We are now leaving the grill open and this seems to have worked. That is for the birds. Since we have to leave the lid up the cat has taken over the grill. She waits for it too cool then treats herself to some leftovers. Oh well. I give up!