HALFWAY BENCH

9/14/19

Nest?

Adventure Location: Decatur, Alabama
Click the pictures to enlarge them.

Sierra was getting some get ready to roll attention. The OFM was checking vital fluids levels and tire tread situation and some other things.  During the vital fluids checking he did his usual check the front of the radiator for blockages like old plastic bags he found once.

Well he got a big surprise when he looked behind the grill.




That black circle marks the location of where a critter nest about half the size of a basketball used to be. It was huge. It blocked a good chunk of radiator and filled the cavity between the fender wall and the grill and the radiator mount. 

The OFM was not a happy truck owner at this moment. After checking for a way to get into that area from the top or bottom and finding no way, he tried reaching through the grill.  Yep his hand fit through an opening just fine..... but his fist did not.

Now the chore was started and all the Team members hoped there was not critter hiding in the nest to cause blood flow.  The OFM pulled a chunk to the grill opening. Then wrestled the chunk with his finger tips until it came through the grill opening. Repeat, repeat, repeat until the last large chunk got to the grill. This chunk was not packed as tight as the others and  the OFM got it to come through the opening in three pieces.  In the next picture that is the one on top. The two other small ones were parts of the last chunk at first but tore loose trying to come through the grill opening.




After the last piece came out is when the OFM finally remembered to take a photo or two.  What made the nest and we are guessing it was a nest effort. There are lots of tree rats around here or it could have been built at one of our stops on the way here last April.  We will never know. And by the way, cleaning out stuff like that is not on the OFM’s list of great things for trying to have tooooo much fun.

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