The bird seed situation is actually not so bad anymore. For a while their bird feeder ran out of seed, and I thought maybe they were choosing not to refill it because of the letter the apartment complex sent them regarding the issue. But no, they eventually refilled it. Then they moved it to a different part of their balcony, maybe because that is what the letter asked them to do. But then a week or so later it was back in its original spot. And then one day I noticed an even more significant decrease in bird seed on my balcony, and I discovered that they had moved their bird feeder off of the tall pole/stand it had been hanging on, and it was now sitting on the floor of their balcony. I believe the squirrels couldn't attack it while it was on the floor and therefore it didn't swing back and forth and spill seed ten feet in either direction. That also lasted about a week, and now the feeder is back where it started, hanging up and filled up. But I have hardly found any seed on my balcony for weeks! I guess the birds and squirrels are not as hungry as they used to be.
In the middle of my battle with the bird feeder two floors up, the balcony was invaded by pollen. Lots of it. We had pollen in Boston, but not like this. Maybe it is because we are surrounded by more trees and plants in this apartment than we were in Brighton. All I know is that I did not have an allergy problem until I moved to Atlanta. I was in denial about having allergies, but I finally decided that all of this sneezing, nose blowing and red eyes could only be explained by the massive amounts of pollen outside. And inside for that matter. Roxanne has so much fur and everything clings to it when she goes outside, so I'm pretty sure we have a big ball of pollen just constantly running around our apartment, jumping on our couch and bed.
The pollen isn't as bad as it was a few weeks ago, but of course our balcony problems couldn't end there. It's like they gave us the apartment with the balcony from Hell. Next problem? Bees...lots of big, fat carpenter bees. I saw them buzzing around the ceiling of the balcony now and then, but did not see a nest anywhere so thought we were safe. One day while sitting outside I saw not one, but two bees squeeze up into a crack between two wooden boards. I couldn't believe it. We definitely had a bee problem. We bought a few cans of the bee killer spray and Rob went to work, spraying up into the crack where the bees were living. A few fell out dead right on the spot, success! Rob sprayed again, and again, but still bees were coming and going. He tried swatting them with a broom, and even killed one or two. It was quite the sight, Rob out there standing on a kitchen chair, with bee spray and a broom swatting and spraying bees. Then Rob had a better idea, duct tape. He taped up the entire crack between the boards so no bees could go in or out. There were some pretty angry bees circling the taped off boards later that day. I'm not sure if the situation had been resolved yet or not. The tape just went up this past weekend. A couple of days ago I saw one bee creeping in through a spot where the tape had come a little loose. Rob secured the tape soon after that though, and I haven't seen any more bees since then. I wonder what will invade the balcony next? Stay tuned, I'll let you know.
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