Travis,

In 1995 I was one of the instructors for the 1st University of Oregon summer
Preservation Field School.  The project that year was the repair and
preservation of the 1887 Peter French Round Barn in Harney County, Oregon.  The
round barn is 100 feet in diameter with a 60 foot round stone corral in the
middle, leaving a 20 foot outer circle used for breaking horses.  The stone
corral was roughly laid in mud mortar, and was irresistible to the local pack
rat population for construction of rodent condominiums.  Nearly all of the mud
mortar had been excavated out of the joints by the tunneling pack rats, so one
of the major pieces of work was to regrout and repoint most of the wall.  It
happened more than once that when I went to take a stone out of the wall a rat
popped out.  All of the cavities left by the rats were packed with straw, and
true to their name, just about anything else that caught their eye.  They seemed
especially partial to anything shiny or colorful . . . candy wrappers, bottle
caps, pieces of foil.  Unfortunately it all seemed to be fairly recent detritus,
we found a couple of old rusted harness snaps, but not much of anything else
historic.  It was definitely in the rats' best interests to keep to their runs
inside the wall, since the framing at the peak of the roof was a favored perch
of a Great Horned Owl and her babies.

I've posted a picture of one of my beady eyed little rodent buddies on
PigHabits-L along with some pictures of the barn.

Lisa