Sunday 24 October 2010

Things that go Squeak in the Night!

It's that time of the year again when the rodents try and move indoors and the war starts as we try to keep them out of the house. Not that I have anything personally again the furry little critters but I just don't want them running around the house while I'm asleep.

A couple of weeks ago we'd started seeing signs of rodent activity inside so off I went and bought more traps, baited them and waited. Within 20 minutes I'd caught a mouse and was half hoping that we were of top of things, but over the last few days we've noticed rodent signs again and this time there wasn't just 1, but what seemed like a whole fleet of the buggers! So armed with a small amount of lard we set 3 traps last night in areas we'd seen droppings and within 3 hours we'd caught 5 mice and another overnight.

All seems quiet tonight although Molly the cocker spaniel is still on mouse watch. She's become obsessed with trying to catch them (but not suceeded as yet), Snotty the cat is not interested in the slightest and prefers to spend his days snoozing and waiting for a human to feed him! What a life eh?

This weekend I've managed to pull all of the pepper plants out, collected the last of the green tomatoes and make a start on preparing the raised beds for the winter. I'm hoping to turn one into a hotbed to try and extend the growing season, although I've not yet decided what I could grow. We'll see, I'm sure there is plenty of information available on the internet if I do some hunting around, maybe that will help me make my mind up. Hubby and I also sorted out the feed room today and moved all of the sacks of corn and barley further away from the house in an attempt to try and keep vermin away. This also meant moving little Butch, the Bulgarian bitsa back into his "winter" house where he'll be warmer when the temperatures drop.

Lately we've had some rather frosty mornings but today the sunshine was glorious and I had to remove my baba socks as I was getting a little warm while working. The washing dried well, spirits were lifted and we've had a quite nice, relaxing sunday with a lovely roast leg of our home reared pork for tea mmmmm. How has your weekend been?

5 comments:

  1. I hate mice too. We once had a real problem with them in the house and it seemed the more we trapped, the more we had. We then got a cat who was a terrific mouser - end of problem! What are baba socks?
    Jak x

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  2. The weather here has been up and down too, don't think even it knows what it wants to do. My garden is looking pretty bare right now and I have to dmit i have spent very little time in it since August. It's cool enough for the fire for a few hours a night now, to keep the dogs as well as myself cosy :D
    I have been busy baking again and getting last minute things washed (and dried) before winter arrives.
    For tea, we had, chips with onion rings, chicken nugets and sweetcorn mmmmmm
    Shirley

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  3. Hi Suzy. Your blog is very different to most of those I have been following! Much more ambitious than my tiny little urban plot. Must be hard work, but no doubt rewarding too.

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  4. The best solution for mice is, sadly, chemicals!

    I built a frame to go on top of my raised beds, and covered it with plastic sheeting. It makes the garden look like downtown Lagos, but I don't care if I can grow salad leaves in winter!

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  5. Wow lovely to see some new readers and thanks for the comments.

    Jak, all will be revealed in my next blog post...baba socks here we come!

    Shirley one day I'll visit you and taste some of the fab baking you do (and maybe a few rakia's). Just make sure you have a wheelbarrow handy as I can't handle alcohol as I used to.

    Mark, your blog is a very delightful read. We started gardening years ago in the UK with an allotment that had weeds taller than me (not that I'm tall by the way). Everything you grow helps us lead a more sustainable life.

    Mr IG, I've just been and read your blog, ah entertainment, thanks for the laughs. Unfortunately here we have problems with poisoning rodents - we can buy the stuff easily but the blighters tend to crawl into our ceilings to die and that usually leaves a horrid smell! Plus there's always a risk that one of the cats or chickens eats something we've poisoned and dies....so traps it will have to be. The current count has risen to 7 though and nightimes are a lot quieter now.

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