Where have you been all my life?

My new favorite thing in the whole wide world,

SPACE BAGS!!!!!




I love them!

I have this issue with mouse-lings at the lake the last few years, yes I had them this Spring......yet again, I just didn't feel much like complaining about them...yet again, so I didn't.

Last Autumn  the Cattleman and the boys took a trip to the lake, just to make sure everything was fine and they came home with everything they could grab because they found mice living in the linens. This was not good as they also brought home some of the nasty little critters in those linens . As a result I had this  huge pile and I mean HUGE pile of linens that needed to be washed and then I had to find room for it all in my already overstuffed house.

I was determined that this would NOT happen to me this year or any other year from here on in.  MY solution?


SPACE BAGS!



I could put each child's comforter, set of sheets, pillow, pillow cases, their own towel and, I repeat, and  a sleeping blanket in each large SPACE BAG. (and a bounce sheet) They are waiting for each child on their bed....Fan frickin fantastically amazing stuff.

In two bags I was able to do our queen sized Comforter, sheets,  memory foam mattress, five pillows, and padded and feather mattress/ protector..Fan frickin fantastically amazing stuff.

Pop in another one twenty large bath/beach towels! Pas de sweat for my Space bag. .Fan frickin fantastically amazing stuff.

Compact, SAFE, mouse free linens....I am a deliriously happy Mamma!

They only come out at night

Those of you that have been around a while know that I have had a wee mouse issue this past year. Which I find a tad puzzling as I have managed to live to the ripe old age of  ** (thought I would let it slip did ya? Wrong) with out ever clapping eyes on a real LIVE mouse that didn't come with cedar chips, an exercise wheel and  food pellets.

It all started when we bought a two bedroom recreational trailer last spring (we affectionately named it our very own easy bake oven) and after setting up we went home and some mice moved in. Rather rude of them to just waltz in uninvited but they did. I was of course repulsed and immediately on the war path, not wanting any of those dirty disease ridden varmints any where near where my babies crawl, play, sleep and eat. Steam cleaned carpets, stuffed more steel wool then you can shake a stick at and caulked every possible crevice. Never actually saw one but they did leave a helpful trail of poop and made a nest on a quilt I was in the middle of sewing. (after they chewed it to crud I might add.)

Situation identified and taken care of, never saw them again...till later in the fall...when the Cattleman and some of our children went up to our "summer place" to give it a good look see....he found more evidence of mice and he packed up all my linens, all the coats, boots, jackets, pretty much everything but the kitchen sink he brought home...he also accidentally packed the mice that were nesting in the linens too. I have since forgiven him.

So I had mice in my house for the very first time and I was none too pleased, ate some of my dry good stores, pooped all over the back end of my laundry room and just generally made a nuisance of them selves torturing our geriatric cat whose heart, instincts and mind were willing but her body? Not so much. We caught 5, count em 5 before the traps became quiet and the corpses stopped piling up.

Situation identified and taken care of, never saw them again.......

Conversation with one of my sons:

Mom I think there is something living underneath the basement stairs, I can hear it moving around at night.

That makes no sense, I haven't seen any droppings and all the traps are empty. ( I check them,put in fresh Peanut butter every so many days, boy do I check them, just in case.  Not that I am paranoid or worried)

Life goes on as usual. But now I check those traps every ding dang darn day, I even bought more and put them around the house, just in case...ya never know. No droppings any where to be found. It's all good, right?


We had a warm day last week and I was sitting in the living room reading and I kept hearing this weird noise. I called the Cattleman in to see if he could figure out what it was. Kinda sounded like an animal in the WALL digging or scratching at something, but it had a bit of a tin sound to it and we just could not place where it was coming from. He hypothesized that it just might be the ice melting between the troughing and the house or in the fascia (Sp?) or the Dormers. Could even be a tree rubbing up against the siding of house, some of those need to be trimmed back don't cha know....Ohhhhh Kay. I'll believe ya because I want to.

The Cattleman is working the night shift, which is fine I can handle things pas de sweat. I am woman, hear me roar....I am de Mamma. Lying in bed last night reading and an odd noise starts, a tinny sound, kinda like an animal digging. Lola the wonder dog and Bear start their low level growly barks. Shush I want to hear where it is coming from, Seems to be coming from the wall in my bedroom, the noise  might be coming up from "somewhere" in the basement being brought right up to my room by the heating duct work, no...it sounds as if the thing is trying to dig right into my room and get at the peanut butter laden trap I have in that corner.

Na...couldn't be. I guess the dogs scared it off and it stops the digging clawing chewing the drywall sounds. About half hour later it starts again, dogs prance to corner in bedroom with growly bark and  chewy, digging, clawing the drywall sound stops.

 About half hour later it starts again, dogs prance to corner in bedroom with growly bark and  chewy, digging, clawing the drywall sound stops.

 About half hour later it starts again, dogs prance to corner in bedroom with growly bark and  chewy, digging, clawing the drywall sound stops.

Even in my sleep deprived daze I'm beginning to sense a pattern.....

About half hour later it starts again, dogs prance to corner in bedroom with growly bark and  chewy, digging, clawing the drywall sound stops.

Oh it's just the ice melting, it's just a tree limb, oh it's just the fascia (SP?), right......wait till I talk to that man in the AM!

I miss him, one of those rare moments, during that half hour or so where the digger/chewer  was waiting for the dogs to shut-up  I guess, I fell asleep. Sigh....

Conversation in my kitchen this afternoon.

Dear I think something is living in our house.

He looks at me as if my head is two times to big: Oh? What makes you say that?

I heard a noise last night, sounded as if it was trying to get in our room through the wall.....

I know I heard it this morning while I was trying to get to sleep...

You did? (Thank you for small mercies, I think that man thinks I make this stuff up...sometimes, like I'm paranoid now or something)

Yup.

What are you gonna do about that?

I'm going up in the attic to see if a family of raccoons have moved in, it's spring they are looking for warm nest.

So this is where we are now, attic shows no evidence of animal habitation, all traps are clean and have been for several months, no droppings anywhere that I can see, it must be a ghost of one of those mice I did in in the fall I guess..

Situation unidentified and not taken care of,  a mystery is afoot.

NARF!

Why oh why is this ' song' stuck in my brain?

Well I can hazard a guess, but come on really?

Obsessed much?



I think I need to join Joel and adopt  some kittens...

Heh.....

So I went into my unused section of my basement this afternoon to get something and I felt a stiff draft.

Looked around and found one of the windows ajar by about a good inch. (I think someone was smoking down there, but that is a different hunt isn't it?) It is against the law here to have screening on your only alternate method of escape in case of fire.........

So I guess, since I have no clue how loooooooong that window has been open, that just may be the way the wee mousies entered our establishment.

Question: Do you think this means I need to fess up and concede or do I just leave that tid bit  here and let it be? I haven't mentioned the wee beasties (around the house)  for weeks now........

Correlation is NOT necessarily CAUSATION.

This is a scientific principle that sometimes slips off the edge of my brain. I know it, I understand it, but in real life it is a principle I tend to forget to make allowances for.

Question: How many dead mice do you figure I need  before I revise the theory of how the troops set up home sweet home in my stores room?

In case you missed it my current reigning theory is that the Cattleman and company accidentally brought them home when they panicked  at the mice they found  and then packed up our summer place....I might have..ummmm...kinda sorta..ya know...not exactly accused or anything...but made a point of....gently, yeah thats the word gently, in a good natured manner ( yeah thats another good one too) referenced their hasty packing of linens as a possible source of our rodent problem. Only because the wee mousies showed up at exactly the same frickin time. See the correlation?

So back to my question, how many of them do you think it would take to make my (I wasn't really married to that whole idea but just threw it out there as a plausible possibility) theory null and void?

10? Whoosh I am still safe then.

5? Oh dear da dear dear me....now that sorta presents a wee bit of a problem for me.....See the hardware guy knew what he was talking about when he said that mice find peanut butter irresistible, so irresistible in fact I think the mice are coming from out of house to heed it's call. I almost feel like I am luring defenseless Eloi to their unsuspected fate..almost.

I of course would have no issue with revising my theory, it's not as if I have actually complained (aloud) about the bringing home of the mice creatures...or gone so far as to hastily compose a  really bad poem in honour of my frustration...no no no no not moi. It's not like I ever triumphantly asked the Cattleman to go dispose of the first two snapped ones just so he would know that I was right about the mice being down there...nope not going to be an issue at all.....

Are you sure 5 are enough? Does that stretch credibility that he accidentally brought home a blanket, sleeping bag or pillow with a nest in it? 5 sure seems like I may have to...oh what the heck...10 it is, a nice round number, very scientific non?

Yippee Ki Yay Mudder

Gotcha!

Heh...so much for the Cattleman's assurances that there was no way "we" had a mouse in our house.

Went out and bought two of the "better mouse trap". Baited them with, what I was assured by the hardware guy, the irresistible Peanut butter. Voilà one less mouses in my houses.

Now if I can only figure out where the other trap went to. I know I put it here yesterday, it was there last night when I put the washing in the dryer.....so where did it go?




I have no idea what sort of force is at play when one of those things snaps...but I have looked just about everywhere for it and I can not find it. My best guess is our cat decided to take it somewhere to snack on.... I  hope. But I really rather find it now in case I am wrong...

So the good news is I am taking care of business, (for what that is worth) The bad news?

I squealed like a bloody girl when I found the dead mouse in the trap, in fact I jumped a wee bit and may have even scooted out of the general vicinity for a split second. Yup I'm a real killing machine.

Egads I hate it when I instinctavely act like a....girly girl. Bleck.

A Seussian Tail

One Sunday morn the Cattleman woke from his slumber

Had an idea that was not dumb and dumber.

I think I will go to the house where we summer

to check for wee mousies, so spring won't be a bummer.

I will take things one, two and three ,

I smiled  "go ahead that only leaves about seven with me"

A good day for man talk and a beautiful drive I had a hunch,

and I happily packed them a rather nice lunch.

Off they go, off they go my sincere blessings,

won't have them around doing all kinds of messings..

When they opened the doors it was an obvious  disgrace,

seems there were nesties and nasties all over the place.

In a panic they threw every thing in boxes and green garbage bags,

they didn't even bother to put labels such as  dirty vs. clean  tags.

They spent the day stuffing  steel wool, spray foam in every nook and cranny,

in an attempt to block any passage, so I wouldn't be up on  their fanny.

Home again, home again to give me the news,

their industrious solution guaranteed to stave off my blues.

Empty the boxes and bags from my van tout suite, I know not exactly where,

It's summer stuff and I am so busy, I have no time, energy, inclination to care.

Deposit them in the laundry/ food storage room? Heh surely he's smarter then that?

That would be mousy heaven, I had better not find scat.

Days pass by and I find the boxes/bags in that room and what this I see?

Looks like a bag with a chewed hole to me..

My GL,  my dear, you do not have to worry,

we probably ripped it while in our frantic hurry.

A few more days and I notice our  cat,

has started to sleep in there on a old mat.

Look around, look around suspicious as hell

Hope against hope that all is still swell

Lord love a duck and all of hell's bells!!!!!!!!!

What I  discover has interrupted my "usual" mellow.

Curses and curses I heap on to that fellow,

That louse of a spouse......

done brought a mouse to my house.............

You know that mouse situation?

A conversation heard in my living room last night.

The Cattleman: I was thinking...

Grey: Yes????

The Cattleman: About that mouse situation....

Grey: Yes what about it?

The Cattleman: Kinda puts a whole new complexion on the "Curious how most of our bug bites are below our knees this year" conversation we had.....

Grey comprehension dawning: @*&^% Dirty rat...

Why you dirty rat.

Since time began my critters have always fallen asleep to the humming of my sewing machine. I sew just about everything, except pants, I suck at pants, I hate pants, what I am good at is quilting, what I love is quilting. Hmmmm I wonder of there is some sort of a connection there.

This summer has been a wee bit different as we have been settling into our new own easy bake oven. (Summer trailer at the lake). The Cattleman has been working hard, built us a 12 by 36 foot deck, platforms of our outdoor shower. (don't want all those sandy feet and derrières traipsing thru my new trailer now). The platform for the out door fridge and the one for the BBQ. Even threw on a add a room sized 11 feet by 23 feet. A beautiful place he is building us and all with his sweat equity and best of all paid for cash on the barrel head, not a drop of it on credit. So we/he have been busy, him building, me keeping the critters out of what is left of his hair, and then there is this mobile internet stick thingy that I  have that seems to suck up my "quiet time" attention at times.

 I make a quilt for each and every new addition to the family, nieces, nephews, my own critters too. So here I am about to be a  GRANNY,  no that can not be right, oh here this works, Mamma of a child that is about to be Mamma.  Anyway here I was sitting with this quilt dancing in my head, AH HA! Off to check the until now ignored quilting equipment, material, sketch pad to inventory what I have stored in the space under our bed and get started. 

And what to my wondering  eyes do appear?  But one miniature rat and eighty thousand poops dear.........

He (sorry guys but it has to be male I am so PO'd at it) has chewed the be jabbers out of my batting:



Pooped and fiddled with a finished quilt top and chewed up other material.



And made a nest in a bag with a pair of shoes, cozy retreat non? Apparently mice poop where they sleep. Where we sleep.



WThoodles? I have ripped this place apart and there is absolutely no sign, I repeat, no sign of a mousey squatter anywhere else in my very own easy bake oven. No where. It must be going out to eat.....

But this does explain why Bear and Lola would periodically wake us with general growling and unease. I guess I will have to bring up my CSI type light that makes biological stains glow in the dark to make sure I have it all clean and right again..  Carpet cleaner, bio enzyme cleaner, you name it I will implement it.

You know this means WAR don't you.......I will discombobulate this little squatter. Mouse in my little tin house? I don't think so....