Goin' on a Mouse Hunt...

Oh wait, the song really goes...going on a bear hunt, doesn't it? All I know is I've got that line, plus the line I'm NOT scared running through my head. LOL

I will have to come back and share the card I actually made yesterday...need to take a picture and it's too dark right now.

So, for now, I'll entertain you with the latest adventure in mouse hunting. Read on, or skip, if you are tired of hearing about mice.

I was woken up by my useless at catching mice 18 year old cat, Sarah, meowing for food treats. Yep, nothing like having a cat meow in your face early in the morning, I tell you! Anyway, I plod to the kitchen, because she has me trained that she will NOT stop meowing until some treats land in her bowl. And I see that the tube is no longer on the counter! Yep, we scored another mouse. This one looks like the smaller one. Gosh, isn't it sad that I can now tell the difference in the mice that have been making themselves comfortable in our home? This is the second mouse we've caught using the tube idea and I feel safe in saying it works! LOL I got to make another trip to the dog park at odarkthirty in the morning. When I got home, Steve asked..."Did you remember to pick up my lucky tube?" I laughed at that one. I told him we really need to pull out the bookshelves behind the couch this weekend and see if there is a nest we've missed under them. Of course, he says okay, but you need to clear off the bookshelves to move them. Sigh...I just love all the fun stuff I get to do and look forward to.

He leaves for work and we get Amy off to school. I decide that I'm not waiting for him to help me move these shelves AND I'm not taking all the stuff off of them! ha! But first, I needed to check the couch and chair again to be sure they have not decided to make the insides of the furniture their future "love" nest. I got the vacuum out and sucked up what little stuff had already fallen below the cushions.  No mice in either. Then I gingerly "walked" the bookshelves away from the wall after telling Jessica to hop onto the couch "just in case." The only things I had to take off were the scrapbooks I've got stored on a couple of shelves, they can be kinda heavy. No mice! But lots of poop! Yuck! Out came the broom and mop. And I even got onto the floor with a flashlight to peek at the couple of inches of openings at the bottom of these shelves. (remember...I'm not scared-in my best sing-song voice). Thankfully, no mice! Got that all cleaned up and then decided I was pulling out all the furniture in this room to keep the mice from having places to hide. I hadn't done this before, preferring to think that setting out all those mousetraps was going to scare them into leaving. Then I got to thinking...(I know...scary isn't it?) what could I use to seal up the gap between the bottom shelf and the floor, so they cannot hide under the bookshelves in the future? I thought of  towels, but decided that might encourage them to stay rather than discourage them. The answer comes later.

So now my room is feeling smaller and smaller as I pull out things towards the center and clean up poop (e-gads, I should have done this job a lot sooner). I pulled out the girls' computer desk and cleaned up. Then I noticed a gap in the wall by the fireplace. The guy who lived here before us did a lot of woodworking and he must have put the wood frame up around our fireplace to support the wooden mantle. Anyway, there was a one inch or so gap between the end of the piece of wood and the floor. I have NO idea what this opens up to, if anything, but... just in case... I wanted to close it up. What to use? What to use? I know! Packing tape (the clear stuff you use to seal up boxes for mailing)! So I rip off several strips of packing tape and cover the gap. Great, I'm thinking...if this is where they are hiding I may get to see them trying to get out. Can you imagine it...a little mouse tooling along thinking he's gonna sneak into this house where he's found lots of cool hiding places and food stuff, going to the opening and bonk, he can't get out and even gets stuck on the tape? Makes me laugh anyway. Then I see a 1/2 inch gap on the other side of the fireplace by my computer. I cleaned up what I could, taking extraneous items to the garage.

Then I noticed a message popping up on the computer screens...little or no connectivity. GREAT...I messed up the internet on this little (big?) mouse hunt. Another reason to just love the little critters, no? Called Steve and get the girls' computer back online, but mine is a no-go. To make it even more fun...the printer was offline as well. grrrrr I had planned on printing off some images to color while Jessica was at school. Sigh...oh well. It's not like I don't have a TON of other supplies to use, right?

Steve gets home from work and fixes the computer problem rather quickly...in my cleaning frenzy, I knocked the ethernet  box off the desk and somehow it caused a cable to go ka-put. It just needed a new cable, which Steve had in the garage. Then he decides to use insulating foam for the gaps in the wall. Only his can is so old it won't work.

A quick trip to the Home Depot netted a new can of foam and also some hardboard to cut down and fit over the openings in the bookshelves.

I didn't see any mice in my hunt today, thank goodness. But, get this...now Steve wants me to pull out stuff from under the kitchen sink to see if there are any gaps that need filling there. Sigh...it's never ending...

goin' on a mouse hunt, goin' on a mouse hunt. I'm not scared. I'm not scared....

Jeanne