Roundstonefarm Blog

I arrived at the B&B about 0600 this morning to do breakfast, as always. I got out of my car and saw a male Spotted Towhee thrashing around on the front fender  of a guests Honda SUV. This is the same Towhee that has been hanging around for the last couple of months. I’ve seen him with a female, but only off and on. Anyway, this guy is sorta strange in that he gets up on the guests cars side mirrors and fights with the bird in the mirror. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone out the front door and found him walking on  the hoods of cars and pecking at the bird in the windshield. He’s even come to the kitchen window and pecked  at it while I’m doing breakfast.  Again, going at the bird in the window. He really is pretty. About the size of a large sparrow, with a black hood and white spots on his shoulders and wings. He’s got a deep belly on him and has rufous flanks and red eyes. He’s a good looking bird!

So, I go over to the SUV and find out that his right foot is stuck in the crack between the hood and the fender. His poor leg was rubbed raw and bloody. I didn’t want to shake him up anymore than he already was so I grabbed him. Man did he holler! I stroked his head and he took a dump in my hand. It didn’t seem like he could bend his leg like we do our foot or hand when we humans try to extricate either from a tight spot. Perhaps the Towhee doesn’t have something like an ankle or wrist? Never thought about it. I’ll have to research it a little bit..

Well, what to do, for I didn’t want to just pull it out and maybe amputate the foot. So, I worked he and the leg down the crack toward the headlights. Just slipped it down to where the crack was a little wider. Lo and behold it worked! The leg and the foot just slipped right out without further injury. I held him a little bit and then opend my fist and away he flew. He flew into the lavendar out in front of the B&B and out of sight.  I went out a couple of hours later to see if I could find him, but didn’t. At least I didn’t find his dead body…so there’s hope. I really hope he’s ok, because I have gotten pretty fond of him and his  crazy antics.

As the president of the West Marin Lion’s Club and the 2010 chairman of Western Weekend, I am pleased with the outcome of the weekends events; especially Sunday’s parade.  June 6 started at 0630 lining the streets of Pt. Reyes Station for the floats that would occupy 20 to 90 feet of street surface awaiting the parade start. It took four of us  about 2 hours to line all of “A,” ”5th”, “6th” and “C” streets. Actually we were lucky in that the spacing seemed to just work out. The Wells Fargo Bank Stage Coach entered at the corners of “B” and “6″th. just as if we had planned it. The Coast Guard “Rapid Resopone Boat” ended up at the corners of “4th” and “C” streets. Again, just perfect. Someone watching would have thought that we knew what we were doing. 

There were plenty of riders to consider, so we kept all the horses sequestered on “5th” street and just fed them into the main line-up when appropriate. Overall, I think we did a pretty good job of placing the animals so that they wouldn’t get startled by sudden noises or back fires from antique farm equipment.

In total there were “54″ floats consisting of animals, antique cars and tractors, marchers, drill teams and bands in the parade. The parade started at 1200 p.m. and went till about 1:30 p.m. . People lined the streets. It was noisey, exciting and smiling faces was the norm.

There was plenty of food after the parade, for West Marin Senior Services had their Chili cook-off, pie and cornbread contest., while simultaneously, the Marin County Farm Bureau hosted  a chicken barbecue. People pigged out.  Natasha Jones and her band entertained the crowd while they ate and watched Halleck Creek Ranches “Cow flop contest.” Never did hear who won the $500 prize for guessing which number the calf would poop on.

Of course, the Western Saloon was wild. But, it didn’t get too bad.  Monday morning I had to go around town  to check out the trash cans and street litter in town. Well, the Green Team of West Marin Middle School did their job, for the streets looked great. That was money well spent. We payed the kids $15 a piece to clean up the trash.  And, with 20 of them there wasn’t any more trash than there would have been on a normal weekend.

It was a great weekend and I may do it again next year. Maybe?