New Critter in the House

Looked just like this little guy

Well, how should I put this...? I was in the bathroom of the farm house using the latrine after having drank too many Dr Peppers. I'm used to seeing the black beetles in the corner with their little legs pointed up to the ceiling. However, I'm NOT used to seeing a little mouse dart past my foot.

Startled at first, of course, this is my first sighting of the little guy. I had seen his little brown rice grains (read: poop) in the cabinets under the sink. I've been here three full weeks and hadn't seen him yet and had already written him off.

Last Christmas, when we came to visit family, a visit to the farm barn revealed sounds of a mouse party in the tack room of the barn. A closer look showed that the room was so crammed full of peoples belongings that there was no WAY anyone was getting in there. This had become a nice refuge for a gang of field mice. It was just half cleaned out a week ago and a dried up, no longer occupied, skunk pelt was found in there.

Anyway, I didn't hear any noise in there upon moving to the farm and Aunt D informed me that the field mice mostly come inside during the cold winter months. Well, I thought, that spares me from that critter at least through the summer. WRONG! Perhaps he came inside because it has been raining all day? Or he's uber stealthy. Either way, game on!

Once I got my britches zippered up, I gave chase. He darted under my bed and I haven't been able to flush him out. So, as soon as my last load of Wonderwash laundry is done, I'll be heading off to Walmart for some mouse traps...and I DON'T mean the old board game.

~OJD

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Quick Back Home Report

I reported that the AC belt snapped yesterday on the family Suburban. Well, upon further inspection, the AC compressor is bad too. I'm looking at $800+ in repairs right during a time when we desperately need to be saving up for the big move (which is in 17 days!).

On top of that, Wifey is now stuck with a vehicle that has no air in the hot desert summer month of July. The girls are NONE to happy about it either. My neighbor can fix it but he can't evacuate the freon. I know of no other alternative than to send Wifey to a shop and pay to have it evacuated. Then our neighbor can do the repair.