It's Personal...

11:30 pm

Clang, Clang, Clang.

Silence

Clang, Clang, Bang!

"Did you put the kids to bed?"
"Yup."
"Are you sure they went?"
"Yup"
"Ohhhhh... I know what that is."

And as the kitchen light clicked on, all the noise stopped.

It had been three days since I baited behind the kitchen trash to catch some critters.  I have been slowly cleaning out every nook in the house, and when I cleaned under the kitchen sink, where we keep the trash, I found... evidence.  And while I will not bait the garage or a shed, it is just not acceptable for us to share our living space with a mouse.

Our home is 75 years old.  Despite my best efforts, it's nearly impossible to seal every crack and crevice, no matter how many cans of spray foam I have purchased.  Having the cat would be a huge advantage in the war against wildlife, if he actually did anything. In fact, as the two of us tried to figure out what to do with our new found house guest, he laid sound asleep like a ten pound anchor on the foot of the bed.

That was Friday night.  On Saturday, after work, I came home and cleaned the basement. Our basement measures about 6'4" at it's highest, which means that at 6'2", my husband would be of little long term help.  I started in the laundry room, moving the washer, vacuuming cobwebs, sorting through items to donate, searching for anywhere there could be a nest.  I took down walls.  Removed insulation.  Destroyed panel board. Reworked wiring.

Nothing.

I moved onto Tony's section.  The section that houses approximately 70,000 baseball cards... in boxes... in stacks... in books.  I moved every box.  Inspected them all for damage.  Chew marks.  extra evidence. It is a haven for mouse nesting material.  Yet, nothing.

In fact, I found zero evidence of mice anywhere in the basement.  Every trap we had strategically placed out of reach from the cat was empty. At one point Tony came down to find out why he had heard the power tools.

"Was that wall structural?"
"I hope not.  It came down in 3 kicks."
"I don't think I like it.  We almost have too much room now."
"You can not fill it with more crap."

Six hours later, the basement was sparkly clean.  The trash bags and demo debris was thrown on the back lawn for disposal on Sunday.  Donations were bagged and boxed for drop off.  I felt a bit better thinking that maybe, just maybe, the nest was not inside the house.  We went to bed, traps set, and were woken again at 430 Monday morning.

*sigh*

Exhausted, Tony opted to wait until 530 when he would be getting up for work.  The clanging had subsided, so we figured he had given up on the struggle.  When the time came to retrieve the trap, we were in for a surprise.

The mastermind had propped the trap between the copper pipes and pried himself off, leaving nothing but a tuft of fur and a piece of popcorn.

Oh, HELL NO.

Game on.

I came home from work with multiple traps.  I set four under the cabinets.  Two more down stairs under the pipes that lead into the cabinets. I emptied an entire can of spray foam darkening every speck of light I could find.  I prepped the bucket, and went to bed.

1130 pm.

Clang, clang. rattle, rattle, rattle.

I filled the bucket from the tub.  Tony scooped the tiny mouse into the bucket for a quick execution and stuck the bucket outside.  We washed up and returned to bed where the cat had decided, now that the coast was clear, he'd go have a snack, his tag clanging against the water bowl.

Pft. *eye roll*  Useless.

Today I did some more cleaning to see if I could find evidence anywhere else. I pulled the oven, nothing.  As best as I could see, under the fridge also showed virtually no evidence of activity, although the dust bunnies are ferocious. I am tempted to pull the dishwasher as I suspect that if there is a nest, it would be in the corner of wasted space, but that is a project for another day.

For now, we wait....

This time, it's personal.

Truth Is...

... it's been a month since my last confession post, and so as to not make this feel too much like sneaking into church late, I'm just going to jump right in. Mmmmkay.... shall we?

Truth is.... this was the temperature here on Sunday, Valentine's Day...

Nope.  -14 is not the windchill, it was the actual temperature at 6 am (as per our friend's weather station) and yes, that is a -31 degree windchill.  When I went out at 10 am it had warmed to a balmy -2 with a wind chill of flash-freeze-upon-contact.  Four days earlier I was out delivering mail in shorts and a t-shirt.  Two days earlier I was sliding all over the road in 8 inches of snow.  On Monday I was out delivering in a blizzard.  By Wednesday I was in jeans and a T-Shirt, with barely any evidence of snow piles left to show for it all.

Truth is... I think Mother Nature is drunk.

Truth is... I have been purging the cabinets.  It began simply with the bathroom cabinet.  I tossed all the expired medicines, moved on to my old cosmetics, nail polish, etc. A few days later I moved onto the kitchen cabinets. A full trash bag though ancient spices,  when the hell did I buy this? and why do I have 4 boxes of corn starch???, I realized I am a hoarder of baking good intentions. So many goodies, so little time....

Truth is... upon cleaning out the cabinet under the sink, I discovered we have had a visitor.  Likely seeking shelter from the extreme temps, he happened upon a baby bell cheese snack that had been tossed in the trash.

Truth is... there is now a perimeter of glue traps laid everywhere the cat can not get into.  I will not be calling an exterminator, this time.... it's personal.

Truth is... I had to prepare Youngest of the realities of glue traps.  The only way a mouse could survive a glue trap is to shave them off.  I then had to convince him that no one would respect a bald mouse army and that his plans of world domination would need to be carried out by other means. He is bummed, but understands.

Truth is... he's taking this much better than he did a few years ago when Mr. Chewey Cat caught the only other mouse we've ever had here due to a door being left open all night. He seriously wanted to nurse it back to health. It was a sad, sad day folks.

Truth is... the cat is fired.

Truth is... the roof finally went on the house!  About a month later we finished the installation of a sun tube in the bathroom. Here's the before picture of my tiny bathroom, about noon time on a bright sunny day...

And then with the sun tube, at 8am, on a cloudy day...

Crazy, right?  So far I'm loving it.  Even at night, it collects the light from a full moon and I can get up and pee without turning on the light! Awesome... 

Truth is... about two days later the bathroom fan died and I had to work around the newly installed sun tube to retro fit the new one. *sigh*

Truth is... I finally finished the valance for the bedroom.  I used up the last of some fabric I had from another project (to be posted later) and utilized some large grommets and voila! $22 later I had curtains.

The bedroom has been a giant work in progress... at some point I will reveal the gory details, but for now you can see the valance.  You're welcome.

Truth is.... Have you ever seen photos of people at paint night and there's always that one person who does something so completely different and you wonder if they were in the same class?  Apparently, when I turned my canvas the "wrong way" and painted clouds through my moon and wanted glitter for the snow, I became that person.

Truth is.... this could also explain why no one wants to go to next Wednesday's class with me.

Truth is... I'm also trying my hand at coloring to relax at night....

I have to use markers because I have trouble getting the color I want from pencils, with the whole hands going numb thing. I have paint markers and watercolor ones.  So far, I'm not hating it. But it is taxing my hands, so I have to limit it to two drawings per night.

Truth is... my appointment to assess the nerve damage in my hands is next Monday.

Truth is... I'm beyond sick of medical appointments.

Truth is... I've missed it here...