Thinning The Herd

The Farmer is really really really excited about this post. He's been waiting for this post for months. He's been planning. He's been scheming. He's been dreaming.

Because what guy is not excited about bagging something from a hunt. OK, perhaps not all guys are excited about killing a large animal or fish and taking a picture with it. But around here...it's a big deal.

In truth, the most The Farmer hunts are nutria. And the occasional sparrow.

But fishing on the Columbia River a mere 75 yards from our front door? Nah. Not so much.

And shooting one of the many deer* who use our yard as a lunchtime diner? Yeah...he has better things to do. So the fish and the deer are safe from The Farmer.

But the cable dishes that grace our roof? Those didn't have a chance.

In truth, these are just half of what we had atop our gables. Yes, we had two more of these things on the Jungle House. The process of installation apparently involves leaving the old dish up on the roof to add to the decor of the home. When we moved in we had six (counting the one we added that actually works)...count 'em six...dishes or dish brackets on the Jungle House. This is in addition to the large 50 foot radio antenna that still is in the backyard. The Farmer wants to see if it works. OK...whatever floats his boat. He doesn't know it isn't really staying long...I'm just letting him think so for the moment.

This weekend the final three dishes were removed by The Farmer. He had a blast. He crawled all over the roof, chasing cable and hunting dishes. And he got to throw them off the roof into the bushes.

A man's dream.

Of course he did all this while I was unaware of the situation. So no photos. So sorry.

In addition to the dishes above, he pulled hundreds of yards of cable. Because one dish was on the east side of the house, but served the apartment on the west side. And another had cable strewn across the roof to serve another cable box on the opposite side. We might start our own cable company from the amount of cable we pulled from the roof.

While I didn't see the hunt in progress, I did discover the results: A hole in my paint job.

Yes, The Farmer just pulled when we came to the end of a cable line that disappeared into the house. And at one point wondered what the noise was that came through the outer walls of the house.That would be the cable outlet, loose from painting, flying across the room as he yanked out the able it was attached to. Oops. But nothing a little spackle and re-painting won't fix.

So now...we are a one-dish household. Yay!

And The Farmer got to take the photo he was dreaming about. Scheming about. So excited to take.

Here are his prizes. He bagged his hunt.

I just need to be sure this is not our Christmas card photo.

*The Farmer would like to clarify the white-tailed deer that do hang out in our neighborhood are protected by federal law. We do not really hunt them. While I explained to him that this is what I said in the post, he wants me to clarify. So...

No actual deer hunting was conducted in the writing of this post. Or at any other time as well.