Oh, and don't you think that if your own blog is blocked by your filter, that means the settings are set too high? LOL
It has been mostly "business as usual" here, whatever "usual" means. Well, for the most part.
Wednesday turned out to be a bit of a circus here. It was one of those mornings when I woke up, running as my feet hit the floor.
Literally.
For some reason, whether due to mommy brain, or just living in denial, I always forget that every year around this time, we get mice.
This year is no different.
Only this time, the second my feet hit the floor, I saw a tiny little mouse dart out from under my bed into our closet.
Thus the running. I actually ran AFTER it, because the baby sleeps in our room. It got panicked and darted out and I literally chased it down the hall.
This was my wake up call at 7 a.m. No coffee, not dressed, I hadn't even been in the bathroom yet.
Several of the children were already up and in the living room chasing another little mouse. Then I saw a bigger one. Okay, so far the count was up to three, which totally grossed me out and sent Esther and I to sit on our sturdy kitchen table with the littles while I tried to remember where our traps were and how in the world was I going to get some coffee in me???? First things first. Meanwhile, Benjamin,and Elizabeth were trying to get Mattan interested in chasing the mice. So far he regarded with with a little confusion and disinterest. I told him that if he didn't catch some mice, he would be evicted. Mattan then regarded me with a little confusion and disinterest.
Don't think me a coward. I know mice won't hurt me, but the thing is the "ick" factor for me. They creep me out, so like any good mother, I allowed the children who wanted to, to try and catch or kill the ones running around while I gathered up my wits and courage. This approach worked fine for a few minutes, and I was almost ready to grab a broom to try and kill a couple myself when I saw something that just made me stop and stare. I have heard of this before, but have never actually seen it.
A mouse climbed up my living room wall.
I think what happened was Mattan finally had some sort of instinct kick in. The mice, trapped in the living room by my children trying to get them, had been darting back and forth from under the piano, around the room and under the couch. That seemed to be where they went the most. Mattan made his way back there and that was when I saw what I assume to be the mama mouse climb the wall.
Benjamin said later the look on my face was priceless, laughing at me. Nice, huh?
I should have taken a good swing at the rodent, but it was near a lamp and with my not-so-good aim I didn't want to break it. I did get a pic.
Now tell me that doesn't give you the heebie-jeebies.
That pushed me over the edge and I speed dialed Dale who was on his way to work. He said as soon as his cell phone rang who knew who it was, and knew what I was going to say.
He let his boss know what was going on and she told him "Well, go go go! Goodness, go take care of it!) She apparently hates mice even more than I do, bless her heart.
Dale picked up several different mice catching/killing type thingies on the way home. With a kitten and a baby in the house, we have to be careful. He got a couple of those mouse hotels that traps them, then you can put the thing in a bucket of water and drown the mouse and dump it out, then reuse the trap.
You notice I said "YOU", not me. I don't touch those.
Dale also got some of the snap mouse traps, and put them in places where the baby or kitten can't get them. You can empty those and reuse.
Again, "YOU" can. Not me.
Thankfully Dale has no problem dealing with dead rodents. He doesn't like them, but he doesn't feel like heaving when emptying traps like I don't.
We also got Decon, and put it in the basement here and there, again, safe from baby and the kitten.
Anyway, while we were waiting for Dale to get home, the mouse on the wall eventually climbed down and went back to skittering about with the other two little ones. The kids were still trying to entrap them. Benjamin was all gung ho on killing one with the broom, or at least stunning it so he could club it to death. Charming, huh?
Then one ran across my sewing machine.
That means war.
I jumped down off the table (yup, I had gotten up again) and grabbed the broom from my son. I would have had one of the mice, but then Isaac woke up and I had to tend to him.
Later, after Dale got home, we saw the mice disappear, I think under the cellar door, and go downstairs. What we think is that they made a little spot in the wood. Benjamin can sometimes hear them at night.
With all the traps set we figured it would be good for us to leave the house so hopefully the mice would come out and get caught or killed. So we threw a lunch together and headed up north to get apples. 12 bushels and 5 hours later, we were home and had to hurry to get ready for Church.
Not one mouse caught or killed. ARGH!
I had vacuumed and sprayed and cleaned everything I could before we left to get apples, and interestingly enough I didn't find one mouse dropping. Hopefully that means they haven't been in long, and hopefully that little family is ALL. Some of the Decon was eaten so maybe they will die off quietly over the next week or so.
Also, since Wednesdays "Mice Capades", we haven't seen any at all. None of the bait in the upstairs traps have even been touched. Go figured. Maybe we traumatized the mice so badly that they are keeping a good distance. Maybe they smell Mattan and now he is around now, so they are timid about appearing up in our living quarters. Who knows. Benjamin said he can hear them downstairs at night (his room is in the basement), but he hasn't seen any in the last day or so. I'm tempted to trap Mattan down there for a night and see what happens, but he is just a kitten still. I'll give him a break... for now.
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