East is east and West is west...

There’s a lot of real estate between Almont, Michigan and Sisters, Oregon.

Frankly, I didn’t know Almont exsisted until my son Caleb came home from BYU/Idaho with Kendra Kortas over Thanksgiving.

Caleb, as many of you may know, is my Number Four son. He graduated from Sisters High School and took on a two-year Mission in Puerto Rico for the LDS Church.

As a member of the Church, I can tell you that a returned Missionary is fair game on a college campus. Like an Eagle Scout, he represents a select number of young men who have set goals and fulfilled lofty personal obligations — demonstrating pretty good husband material. Sort of like a kestrel with a lizard in its beak out courting.

So it was no surprise that Caleb recently passed along the news that he’s seriously dating Kendra. Although neither Caleb nor Kendra will admit to anything more positive than a “possible wedding date sometime in September,”bringing Kendra home to “meet the parents” has to meansomething.

As you may have guessed, Kendra and her parents live in Almont.

Kendra’s dad, Charles, is a roofer, a member of the LDS Church, and has an ample family. As a roofer, he is, by occupation, a man with considerable experience working with metal and wood. Having a good-sized family means he lives in a large house — in this case, a large old house. Old houses are notorious for having many warped openings under the eaves and such and — as many of you know — bats can get into said house(s) through such openings.

You guessed it: When Kendra told her dad about Caleb’s dad’s occupation as a naturalist he thought, “Hey, maybe Jim can help us with the bats in our attic.”

At that moment, the Anderson family of Sisters and the Kortas family of Almont found themselves meshing.

I sent Charles a set of plans for a bat shelter that I designed years ago with the hopes that when he closes up all the tiny bat holes under his eaves this winter — and when his bats return to Almont this summer — they will like their new house better than the old one.

Last week I received a package from the Kortas family that contained Charles’ slick handiwork pictured above, which, after using it in my home with exceptional results, I have named the “Kortas Kritter Katcher.”

I have other live-trap designs and a few never-fail snap traps that I use at eliminating pestiferous mice from my home. Having chickens and feeding birds means that there’s enough food for everyone, including a growing population of white-footed mice.

Deer mice have the run of my barn; I don’t bother them unless they get to be too numerous and then I live-trap a few and move them to forest and field. They are not allowed in my home, however. I capture them immediately and move them to forest and field, but occasionally I will use a snap-trap and kill them. My excuse is that dead mice are good for my septic tank.

However, I must tell you, using the beautifully made, efficient, and attractive Kortas Kritter Katcher is a lot of fun. It never misses and is airy enough to keep the mice from being uncomfortable. It provides me a look at who is in the trap.

I caught a spotted skunk one time in a sheet metal Sherman Trap that did not allow me a look at who was inside — and I was notcareful…

I’ll never have that problem with the Kortas Kritter Katcher.