Tuesday, January 17, 2012

STORMY WEATHER


High wind gusts of 60mph and heavy rain decimated our newly mowed front lawn, strewing it with iron wood boughs and small branches.  Thankfully we had the 100 foot trees trimmed last month, so we didn't lose any trees...... the branches and boughs that fell were only small and bushy.!  The canvas car port that houses  Lance's jeep and the mowing tractors was torn from it's poles, but fortunately was still strong enough to prevent  MY carport -which  was picked up by the wind and sent crashing into the poles - from destroying Lance's car!
We spent a soggy morning picking up only enough of the mess to clear a path for the gas man so he could refuel our near empty tanks.  The temperatures here had dropped to the high forties-early fifties (January is our coldest month) two days before  (blankie time) , but these were warm winds and rains.  Tomorrow, when the rain stops, we will access the full damage and start the reconstruction of the car ports and clean up the debris.
yecchh.

On another note, for the last week or so Sookie our dog has been chasing *something* in my studio shop.  She crawls under my desks, around my boxes onto the shop shelves- and not being exactly dainty - she knocks things down and makes a mess of things.
I thought she was after daddy long legs....until i saw - WHILE I WAS WORKING AT MY jewelers bench -  a mouse jump up on a foil covered chocolate rose that was in a jar...take a nibble and run away...again and again.   really a ballsy little creature.  no more than 10 inches from me! In daylight!
the traps.....
Lance has these dandy VICTOR mice traps, that entice the mouse in, but it can't get out.....until you LET it out.  He thinks they are cute and doesn't like to kill them...
.....so i set 4 traps around the shop, baiting them with dog food.  Yep .  caught 3 mice.  next day i caught 2 more.  teeny baby ones and a bigger adult one.  Then, nothing. and more nothing. .i switched the bait  to american cheese.
.... the traps were sprung....but no mouse...AND...the wouldn't eat it..... so i switched again...this time, .  chocolate chips...
yummy.
2 more mice.  then 2 more mice...and 2 more.  Now I am up to 11!  Lance says I have to keep setting them until i go a week without seeing any, or having any traps sprung...or Sookie loses interest because they aren't there anymore.
 Hmmmm.
I take the little buggers out to the farthest corner of the back acres and let them out into the adjacent orchard.
releasing the mouse

1 comment:

Joanne Huffman said...

sorry about the storm damage, glad it wasn't worse. ewww on the mouse situation (when we lived in the Berkshires. I would catch and release mice and they often made it back to the house before I did)