Yesterday, we received the most lovely surprise! There was a package waiting for us at the post office. We weren’t expecting anything and when we arrived at the post office, we didn’t recognize the name of the sender. The address wasn’t complete and the street name wasn’t correct. One glorious benefit of living in such a low-populated area is that it didn’t matter. Our post master knows our names and the name of our farm.
Getting packages (actually any mail) is a huge highlight for me. One of the saddest moments of my day is when our mail delivery woman drives right on by our mailbox. So an unexpected package in the first place is so exciting, never mind the contents.
When we opened the package, we found a bat house kit! And a wonderful note from the sender saying he had read our article in the most recent Rural Delivery (where we mention we’d like to invite more bats to the neighbourhood) and he thought our farm could use one of these! Matt Saunders, the owner of Bat Check, creates these lovely bat house kits with so much thoughtfulness to the future inhabitants (no paint or varnish with toxic fumes, rough wood for sure bat-footing, and a little packet of bat droppings included to add a homey scent). His father, Gary Saunders, wrote the “Making Peace with Dandelions” article in the same issue of Rural Delivery which we had also very much enjoyed.
We were so delighted!
Here’s me putting it together.
This packet made me smile!
I did it! Our bat house is #1820 so houses with inhabitants can be tracked. We’re looking forward to sending Matt the information about bats that move in!
Bryan put it up on the SW corner of the barn (as per the recommendations) since I can’t reach that high. Yay! Thank you so so much Matt, for your thoughtfulness and for helping our small farm become a better home for others besides the two of us!
We enjoyed your article in Rural Delivery. So nice that you received such a useful gift.
Thank you so much! I’m so happy you enjoyed the article!
The bats have all but disappeared from the North Shore this year. I suspect the fungus known as white nose syndrome is responsible. Some reports estimate that up to 97% of Nova Scotia’s bat population has died in the last two years. I’m looking forward to hearing that you get lots of bats!
P.S. I started following your blog after reading your article in Rural Delivery.
I hope we see bats too! Thanks for following our blog. I’m just enjoying your right now too!