This has been a good week for me, but a tired one. Not because I’ve had more to do than usual, but because I’ve not gotten enough sleep. And the number one thing to do to treat Adrenal Fatigue is–duh!–get a decent amount of sleep. This is tougher for us than for people with normal, healthy adrenal function, because part of our problem is that we don’t make enough cortisol–and what we do get, comes later in the day than for most people.

That means we’re really, really not morning people. Going to bed early doesn’t help, because we can’t go to sleep early. I also can’t take naps.

So earlier this spring, when the sparrows started congregating near my bedroom window, it became a problem when they’d wake me up at the crack of dawn.

I put some bird spikes on the wires close to the house, and that kept them off of those. But they were still partying in the tree. So I put a plastic owl up beside the bushes beneath my window, and that scared them all away.

Well,  all except for one tenacious, male sparrow. Of course, this little cretin has the loudest, most obnoxious chirp of them all. And once he sits somewhere and gets going, he Never. Shuts. Up.

He even wakes my husband up. “God, I’m going to shoot that thing,” DH said after a week of this. He borrowed a pellet gun from a friend and almost got him once, but otherwise, Mr. Noisy has been elusive.

I tried a different route: a sparrow trap. I found this link with instructions on how to make my own. The hardware mesh cost me about $10 – much less than buying one!

I also read up on sparrows. Turns out gardeners and birders alike really hate these little pests. The House Sparrow (a.k.a. HOSP) is a non-native, invasive species that competes with native bluebirds and purple martins for nest space. Not only are bluebirds and martins appealing to the birders, gardeners love them because they are insectivores.

A Bird Party! All sparrows welcome.

Sparrows, OTOH, eat stuff from gardens. And they are the Russian Mafia of birds: if someone’s living in a house they want, they’ll take it by whatever means necessary. They don’t just run off the other birds, they kill them and destroy their eggs.

Which explains why I never see them in my neighborhood, even though they’re indigenous to this area. The place is overrun with sparrows. Both the federal government and all 50 states consider sparrows a nuisance animal (along with pigeons, starlings, coyotes, feral hogs, and Asian carp).

I made my trap and set it out last night with some nice, fluffy bread and a cup of water. In the morning, there were five sparrows inside! Unfortunately, not Mr. Noisy. But now we’re at war. Between my trap and DH’s pellet gun, we should be able to get some decent sleep soon.

What I’ve been reading: I beta-read a science fiction novel for a writer friend and enjoyed it very much. I’ll share more about it once it’s released.

ROW80 Update: My main goal for this week was to begin working on my next WIP, which is already half-written, but is a mess. I’ve gone through and fixed three scenes, which was what I hoped to get done. This week, I want to go through five. ROW80 Round Two ended this past Thursday, so it’s also time for a recap on quarterly goals.

My main objective was to do everything I needed to get Time’s Dilemma ready for publication. It releases Tuesday and is already up for preorder, so that’s a goal accomplished! I also wanted to start work on the next WIP, that’s done too (barely).

ROW80 Round Three officially starts on July 4th, so I’ll be back on the 3rd with Third Quarter goals.

What about you–what problem have you tackled lately? Did you know those cute, little sparrows were an introduced species, and a nuisance? How are you doing on whatever goals you might have, whether writing or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.