stubbed toes and mud pies

[flowerbug]

a little snow last night and this morning, the sun is coming out now so i'll go out and shovel while it is early enough to get the sun to melt off what is left.

Mom is using her new mixer to make cookies and since i didn't hear any cursing or the smoke detector going off it has been ok. i did ask a few minutes ago if it was working ok and she said it was, but i could tell when we took it out of the box it wasn't built the same as the previous mixer so i'm not sure how long this one will last. i give it three years but i hope the engineers did better than that.

fresh air, sunshine and movement up next...

 

[flowerbug]

Mom's expression from a few moments ago that made us both laugh, "...sew my head off." talking about how glad she was to be done with the lap quilts she was making for the holiday season.

 

[flowerbug]

not quite warm enough to enjoy it, but i did get the kitchen window on the outside washed at last.

it had been looking rather bad since a few months ago when the box elder bugs were swarming on it and leaving behind their ick.

on top of that knowing that harvest of the fields across the road would be happening eventually it wasn't on my list of rush items.

i'd put it higher up on the list now that the weather is colder and field is harvested and was waiting for a warmer day. however, today was a better day because i can surprise Mom with it being done. i need all the brownie points i can get (not that i'm in the doghouse, but hey, just because )...

the inside also needs to be washed but that's going to happen later, sometime, as it isn't nearly as bad and also as long as Mom is baking it's rather pointless until the cloud of flour and flying bits of this and that calm down. in the meantime i spot clean the spots as best i can can (kicks leg but doesn't really do it because i'd probably hurt myself)...

 

[flowerbug]

after a warm break in the weather and rains and now back to snow on the ground again there were some mouse tracks looking like they were going into the crawlspace entrance covered area again.

today we've had a bit of calmer weather (snowing a bit still but at least not really heavy wind) so i went out to check on what was going on.

turns out they were not going under the crawlspace cover because i pulled that off to check it and there wasn't anything going on down there. i keep a small mason jar with bleach in it down there and the lid has a few holes in it so the fumes leak out gradually and settle in the bottom. mice do not like that for sure. however at the cost of some corrosion/rust of any bare metal and changing the bleach for some fresh bleach. i did refresh that while i had the cover off.

where the mice were going to was a hole in the gravel going under the plastic base that the air-conditioner sits upon. i wasn't in the mood at all to deal with that but having the bleach with me i poured some in that hole and that will discourage them from going back there. it's nasty stuff and i do feel sorry about doing it but i also don't want mice getting going in there or thinking it is a home or a place to store their goodies. when we do get a better break in the weather i'll put some more bleach in there and then plug that hole with some more gravel so they can't get back in there or won't want to at least for a while...

eventually they always want to try to find new homes. that's life...

they are coming from the nearby berm which is a pile of rocks on a sand hill and a few trees, which is pretty much always been a mouse and chipmunk home and a constant source of new ones trying to get in the house in various ways.

if you don't want mice/chipmunks don't create habitat for them... other areas around the house don't have this kind of repeated issues because we don't have any other piles like this close to the house. the owls come and hunt at night at times.