Yes, I know...it's been a week since I promised to write more. :/ But I've been busy watching movies, reading books, and waiting for sunshine!
Also, I hurt my arm and knee a little, so have been very immobile. I'm feeling better today, and I have an appt. with an orthopedic dr. on the 21st.
Meanwhile, Mark, Seth, and Tut had a Mouse Derby/Competition, keeping score of who trapped, shot, and ate mice, respectively. They kept a tally board, after removing a bag of rice that mice had found. It was stored on a shelf above our basement stairs and the mice started looking for more food after the rice bag was emptied out.
We removed all their food sources, and everything else is in bins or cabinets that the mice can't reach. Hence, the emergence of the mice and the beginning of the mouse wars.
Seth was first, shooting mice in the basement stairwell with his bb gun. Then he taught Tut to catch mice and eat them (he is too lazy to pursue them on his own, so Seth has to drop him in the general vicinity of the mouse). At the same time that Tut was being tutored in mouse hunting, Mark started setting traps out, baited with cheese. That brought them out!
Mark bought more traps, and the mice were setting them off so fast, he could hardly keep up with them. The final tally was Tut - 2, Seth - maybe 8?, and Mark and Seth's traps - 20 something. Over 30 mice killed, during a 4 or 5 day period. Since then, there's been nary a mouse anywhere.
Either they're all dead, or they've moved on. Yay for smart mice! (Or dead ones)
We'd never seen signs of mice in the house, so it was quite a shock to find out they were so numerous. We didn't feel invaded at all. And Mark, Seth, and Tut had a blast, even if it meant killing our little uninvited guests. ; )
I've been reading The Bounty, a 2003 book by Caroline Alexander. It adds much research to the record of the mutiny. I've read a bunch of books on this fascinating event and it's amazing aftermaths, so I'm delighted to find new information on it.
Prior to this, I read The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (author of The DaVinci Code). It was so interesting to learn about the architecture and symbolism of our capital city, plus learn a little about the Masons. I can't vouch for the information, but it's a starting point for sure.
I love history!
That's really it, as far as I recall. There's been mowing and home teaching visits and Primary things to make, Mark baked cookies last week, and we went to church yesterday (where we saw Alexandria (the 10 yr. old girl I've mentioned before) and she told me she was fasting for me. Isn't that cute? Apparently, she thought that I was in bad shape, worse than I thought I was, and had taken up the matter with Heavenly Father. When she saw me at church, her prayers were answered, 'cause I felt well enough to be there and see her. Her 11th birthday is on the 10th, just 2 days before mine. I hope I remember it!
I talked to Tamathy on the phone, and she said that the Howald reunion was great, and that everyone made it except Brady, who has a new job, from what I understand.
To me, it's amazing that so many were able to get there! I'm so glad they started this tradition, and I look forward to our reunion on Sat., July 3rd. You're welcome to start on the 1st or the 2nd and carry over to Sun., the 4th, too. Plan all you want, call me with your ideas, and let's celebrate birthdays, too. I really hope Phillip can come visit in June, too!
I hope you are all well. Thank you for your pictures and blog posts. I really enjoy them!
Take care!
xoxoxo
5 comments:
I loved hearing about the mouse wars! It's so funny that they had a score sheet. I can't believe that you got 30 mice in just a few days, and I'm so glad that they're gone and inhabiting another (hopefully distant) home.
I would love to do some of that vintage embroidering you were talking about. I'll have to look at it when I come to your house. Speaking of visiting, make sure and talk to Doc about you coming to my house this week! It would be so fun, although I do kind of wish you could stay overnight so that you could see Hunter more. But I'll take anything I can get! :)
Grossness!!! All the mice stuff just grosses me out, and it scares me that we could have them and never know either! We have food on shelves int he basement, but it is very clean and nice and we have canned food or buckets with lids on them. We do have crickets down there, and they gross me out too.
That is really fun though to hear about the trappings and bb shootings and Tut. It's so funny that Tutt needs such help to get to the mice before he is interested! Crazy, lazy Tutt. I'm glad you've gotten so many mice, and I hope they all leave your house now!
I am sooooo excited we get to come visit! And we can play and talk and watch movies and see Eclipse and have barbecues and visit stores and take pictures and...and... there will be a lot we will want to cram in! We'll have to make sure and have down time just for being lazy and letting the kids eat all your candy and make crafts with you! Aiden is saving finishing a craft until he gets there so he can do it with you. Isn't that cute?! It was all his idea. He said you and him like to do crafts together. And now this year Audrey will probably want to do them more too!
Uggg.... I can hardly read that post without gagging!! I have major mice issues. Mice or rats. Ever since we caught three in the cabinet below our sink and I thought I would throw up every time. And then the scene on Ratatouille where the old lady shoots the ceiling and it falls down and is full of rats? I absolutely, Hate, That, Scene. I would just move!! But, I'm glad you weren't bothered and that you stopped catching any more. I will just have to never think of that when I come visit.
That's fun that you go to talk to Tamathy and the little girl at church is so sweet!! Are we bad that we weren't fasting for you, too?
Yes Melinda, you are bad, bad, bad!
And remember, we live in the country and they were probably outside mice that just found the rice in the stairwell convenient. So don't think of them as some gross infestation!
Also, the mice were coming into the basement, to a shelf over the basement stairs down there, to eat the rice in the bag in the basement (on a shelf). Just to make it clear...they were country mice coming into our basement, for a free snack. They weren't in our ceilings or anything like that.
Does that help you feel better?
They even looked like young, clean, country mice, who made some bad choices in life and paid the price.
Now they're in country mice heaven, where they play in the fields of rice and wheat that magically grow in one spot!
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