This year, despite an awesome bird barrier house built by Wyatt, we’re having trouble with birds getting to our berries. Somehow, they’re still getting in. (We think by lifting up the netting and walking under–crazy things!)

And yes, they ate pretty much all my blueberries again. I’m pretty angry about it. Ugh. The strawberries are blooming again though, so we’ll be ready for round two for those. And if the raspberries ever decide to do anything, we’ll have to fight this battle again, I’m sure.

(Side note, I recently spoke to a commercial blueberry grower for a work-related project and found out he has the same problems we do. He said they don’t have any good solutions  because those dang birds are smart and determined…which is pretty frustrating, and yes, I admit, a little funny that we’re having just as much trouble with our two little bushes as the big growers have with their hundred of bushes.)

So, we decided to try a few other tricks. One of which was some noise-makers. Namely, some wind chimes.

My grandparents bought these for us for Christmas and now that it’s summer, we finally got them out of the box.

Which meant we  had to put them together, which wasn’t  as bad as building something large from Ikea, but wasn’t exactly easy either.

They came in a bunch of pieces and are handmade, so the instructions we’re very clear and totally detailed enough to be helpful…not.

You can tell my grandma knew what we had in store when they wrote out the card…

But eventually, even after a small mistake, and dealing with untangling these wires…

…I got them all put together.

And, they sound really nice!

Unfortunately, because they are hung low, we haven’t heard much out of them since they aren’t catching a lot of wind. But, we have plans to get them raised up soon. Although the blueberries are already gone, and the raspberries haven’t even hinted at blooming yet…

Ah well, what are your tricks for keeping birds away? We need to do something because I’ll be darned if I’m going to lose all my blueberries again next year! Are you a wind chimes person? I was worried our neighbors might not like them but it’s no worse than the outdoor clock that chimes every half our in our neighbor’s yard, right?