March 17, 201412 yr I haven't fired up my one burner NC forge for about two weeks. When I went to use it today, I found a birds nest inside. It didn't have any eggs, but it was full of twigs and leaves. This type of forge has a small opening in front that allowed the birds to enter freely and deposit the nesting materials. Spring time must be here.
March 17, 201412 yr Had a mouse in the garage once, he used my band saw as a storage place for bird seeds, Turned on the saw and it started to rain bird seeds.
March 17, 201412 yr Hey Dave, it's hard to find good housing with central heat the way things have been this winter... LOL. I'm constantly fighting birds that want to nest in the rafters of the open shop. Probably better than the raccoons I had to deal with last year or the ground hog that wandered in.
March 17, 201412 yr Last summer I had a nest of Carolina Wrens in my gas forge. I was nice, we did not have barbeque. Several times I have also found that they have nested in the fan housing on my hand crank blower. We have several houses up now, hopefully they will find them much more comfortable.
March 17, 201412 yr Had some kind of sparrow or wren next on top of my light fixture. Even though I tore down it's nest like five times it still continued coming back. Haven't seen it yet, but I imagine I will soon and the war will resume.
March 18, 201412 yr Greetings all, Every year I have the same .. The first time I start up one of my big forges the entire air tube is filled with mouse fluff... I don't mind the clean up but the first fire up stinks and takes a while to go away... While in my line shaft shop I got a flash of something coming out of a forge I had in storage.. It was long and white... I was startled but it turned out that a Martin in his winter colors ( Pure White } came to visit... We talked a while as he moved about the rafters of the shop.. I opened the doors and he went about his way ... A rare encounter that I will cherish ... Fun stuff Jim
March 23, 201412 yr We have 5 Sonoran Desert tortoise in the back yard that are drawn to the vibration of the power hammer. I'm constantly tripping over them or dragging them out from under equipment. Odd animals cause they can't back up, only turn around.
March 23, 201412 yr Best way to deal with birds up in tge rafters is to screw/nail some wood cut at a 45 degree angle about as wide as the rafter and secure it in place, workes well for my covered patio at home
March 26, 201412 yr I have toads, a hedgehog, a lot of bugs, and birds come in to eat the bugs. Wierdly, I get a lot of butterflies in my forge. They like to come in in spring and summer, just to fly around, but in autumn they come in and hibernate up the chimney, which sometimes doesn't work out for them.
March 26, 201412 yr a few years ago A wasp built a nest in the burner tube. It was exciting when I lit it. Have a 5' black snake living in the shop found his skin in the welding table. My son saw him out sunning yesterday
March 26, 201412 yr I have a friend who lives on a cliff in California who has bats living in the rafters of his shop. I only have to worry about meeting a moose once in a while but we usually scare each other enough we both go the other way. On rare occasions I find a feral cat hunting in the shop but there's no food there so no vermin. Frosty The Lucky.
March 27, 201412 yr Nothing in the forge but mice love to jump in the vegtable quench oil if I leave the cover off, even with no food in the shop the field mice still store seeds in the strangest places like the end of a grease gun tube full of grease with the cap missing, a whole handful of weed seeds what a bunch of work that must have been to collect.
March 27, 201412 yr I had just laid out a few steel pieces on the table for a project and when I returned with more pieces, this inquisitive carpet snake had turned up. It still hangs around the forge and enjoys a rat or two from the adjoining chook run.
March 27, 201412 yr I had just laid out a few steel pieces on the table for a project and when I returned with more pieces, this inquisitive carpet snake had turned up. It still hangs around the forge and enjoys a rat or two from the adjoining chook run.DSC_1779.jpg Amazing!
March 27, 201412 yr I had a pigeon get into the "clean" shop and make a mess trying to make a nest in a piece of 10" dial 10' long spirial seamed duct I had in the rafters. I ran it off as I dislike bird poop on my tools! Hardest thing I have to deal with are humming birds that fly in the 10'x10' roll up doors but then try to exit through the skylights and can't
March 28, 201412 yr Hand raked a scorpion out of my forge while cleaning out ash and clinkers. He was very annoyed and I was jumping!
April 18, 201412 yr *&^$%&*^%$ spiders LOVE to build their nests in the orifices of my burners... first time it happened, I cussed for hours trying to figure out why the thing wouldn't run right, then my dad mentioned he has the same issue with his propane deep fryer. At least now I know to check when a burner that has been sitting won't go...
April 18, 201412 yr I wonder if moth balls would keep spiders from nesting where we don't want them? "No Pest Strips" work, they'll kill most any insects. Frosty The Lucky.
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