By: Laura Keil
It came in with a crash and landed on her living room floor. Jean-Ann Berkenpas entered the room to see a hole in the window pane as if someone had thrown a rock. Instead of a rock, she found a dead grouse amid the shattered glass.
Berkenpas says several grouse like to hang out in the apple tree near the window. The single pane window of the 60-year-old farmhouse was no match for the determined bird.
Meanwhile, Jean-Ann’s husband Mike Berkenpas had gone to the hardware store to get insulation plastic for the windows. When he returned, he had a much bigger problem to solve.
The couple moved into the house in September after Jean-Ann got a teaching contract at the school last year. The house was built by Jean-Ann’s grandfather Jim McKirdy when he and wife Doris were married. The original log cabin is now surrounded by various additions and outbuildings that have been added over the years.
While the grouse met an untimely end, the Berkenpas’ did what any self-respecting rural people would do. They had it for dinner.
