Dare Devil Tam

When I left the house this morning to go to the hairdresser I noticed that Mr and Mrs Jackdaw were in full house building mode on my chimney (well inside the chimney to be precise)! I phoned Tam the handyman to double check that he was coming and he promised this afternoon!

So he arrived in his white van with big ladder and I showed him the tin thing that protected the chimney which blew off in the storm last January (yes it has lain for over 1 year) and he declared that this was not the proper thing to cover it and showed me the neighbours one. (It was a crew of cowboys that did the work - long story).

So ladder was extended and I was asked to put my feet against the bottom of it so it didn't move and Tam scrambled up. Oh and did I mention he is 67 and has been up on roofs since the age of 15! Fantastic! He then shouted that the nest was about four feet down the chimney (no metric nonsense thankfully) and did I have a long pole so he could push it down? Well the garage is full of stuff and I found an 8ft piece of wood but I had to climb the ladder to pass it up to him...... Although I hate heights didn't want to appear a wuss, as he already had praised me for helping him extend the ladder and muttered something about me being his apprentice, so up I went...

I had to go into the living room with a plastic bin bag to cover the hole as he was pushing the nest from the top down and holy hell what a pile of twigs, feathers and general crap from the garden that landed on the fire!!! Success though! The cover thing is on so no repeat will happen ever again, and I am on the lookout for a proper cover which I cannot remember what is called.

What I liked too was no health and safety nonsense although hopefully no one from work reading and bring it up at next team meeting Safety Moment (yes we do that!) that Trisha employed a random guy working on her room with no safety equipment on and I climbed up the ladder with one hand carrying an 8ft pole!!!

Good old Tam. Here over and hour and only charged £20. I now have the number of a RELIABLE handyman:-)

I must stress very strongly that there were NO eggs laid or any chicks hatched, the nest was in the construction stage. There are plenty trees around here so hopefully they are now concentrating on building there.. This picture is of them dive bombing Tam....

Thank you to anyone who has continued reading this to the end.......