 Should you ever have the need to borrow a couple cats for mouse control, don’t bother asking for mine. Talk about useless. A great chase went on in the great room Friday night. To no avail. I searched high and low Saturday morning and couldn’t find a mouse carcass. The cats had let it get away. (I had awakened after something fell over with a crash, and I had definitely heard the squeak of a mouse. So I knew there was a mouse in the house.) Saturday night was a repeat. Sunday morning we saw the wee beastie scamper under the kitchen stove. Of course. Why scamper under something that could easily be moved? I removed the drawer from under the oven to give the cats a sporting chance. The mouse came out several times and sashayed around. Had it been carrying a walking stick it would have twirled said walking stick. Then the mouse hid behind the grandfather clock. Another item of furniture not easily or safely moved. You might suspect the mouse knew what he/she was doing. The mouse then scampered into my study and finally – FINALLY – hid behind an easily moved small cupboard. Child-sized, actually. Built by my dad and tole-painted by my Auntie M, it was designed to hold CDs. I’m not sure what I’ll store in there. Anyway, back to the Great Chase, i.e., the Mouse Hunt, i.e., Now I’ve Got the Bugger. With Mogget standing by (Bruno had tired of the game) I slid one end of the cupboard from the wall just far enough to plop a plastic storage container on top of the rodent. I then slid a pad of paper under the trap and carried the mouse out to the great wilderness that is our yard. I let him/her go next to a stack of lumber should he/she wish to take shelter. I like to think the wee beastie will choose to remain out of doors, safe from the ferocious predator inside, by which I mean me. The cats are useless. Here’s a picture of the breed of mouse in question – deer mouse. I didn’t have time to snap a pic of the actual creature. I’ve got to say, it was awfully cute!  Cheers!
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My apologies for seemingly falling off the face of the earth. Surprisingly enough, moving into a new house three days before Christmas, AND hosting Christmas dinner leaves little time for extras like writing blog posts, or sleeping. To add more excitement, a ripping windstorm roared through on the 25th and we lost power – as I was peeling the potatoes. Thank goodness for a propane range and a propane “wood stove”. We were cosy, well fed, and we opened gifts by the light of the camping lantern. The latter added to the cosy feel, in my opinion. A week and a few days later we experienced another windstorm. Boy oh boy, the trees were dancing! We didn’t lose power, amazingly, but our kayaks and the 17’ freight canoe were shuttled around the yard as if they were made of paper. No damage, thank goodness. We left the canoe where it landed, safely tucked amongst the trees. <grin> Dare I say we’re over the worst? Probably not, there’s lots more winter to come. As far as the move goes, I think we are over the worst. Ninety percent of the boxes have been unpacked and we’ve lugged over 80 kg of cardboard and packing paper to the recycling depot. We are getting settled in our new nest and starting to feel “at home”. Here’s a snapshot of the view from the dining room.  The water you can see through the trees is pale because it’s covered in ice. Yes, the ocean freezes when the temperature falls to minus 15 degrees Celsius. Brrr! And here’s Bruno checking out his new stomping grounds.  Cheers!
P.S. Today is Bubble Bath Day, so go fill the tub with bubbles! And don’t forget your rubber duckie! For many years we’ve grown copious amounts of green beans, sweet peppers, and tomatoes to store in our deep-freeze. A small taste of summer makes the dreariest February day a little brighter. But even with our best efforts at manual vacuum packing (sucking the air out of the zipper locked bag using a drinking straw) we inevitably lost some produce to freezer burn. Well, in this week’s flyer from Costco I saw a food saver on sale, as well as the required storage bags. Huzzah! No more freezer burn! We can also use it when we buy freezer orders of beef, pork and chicken – a fabulous way to save money. (I’d say we could freeze cookies for long-term storage but I don’t think the food saver works on baked goods…and who am I kidding? Cookies never last that long in this house.) Now let’s see if we can leave the store with only the food saver in our shopping cart. Ha! Oh, and since we’ll be in the big city we’ll swing by IKEA and scope out closet innards to furnish our new walk-in. One more item to check off our to-do list.  Bruno living dangerously in his favourite evening perch.
What are you up to this weekend? Do you shop at a big wholesale club store? Do you ever stick to your list? Cheers! * This post contains an Amazon affiliate link. For many years we’ve grown copious amounts of green beans, sweet peppers, and tomatoes in our garden to store in our deep-freeze. A small taste of summer makes the dreariest February day a little brighter. But even with our best efforts at manual vacuum packing (sucking the air out of a zipper locked bag using a drinking straw) we inevitably lost some produce to freezer burn. Well, in this week’s flyer from Costco I saw a food saver on sale, as well as the required storage bags. Huzzah! No more freezer burn! We can also use it when we buy freezer orders of beef, pork and chicken – a fabulous way to save money. (I’d say we could freeze cookies for long-term storage but I don’t think the food saver works on baked goods…and who am I kidding? Cookies never last that long in our house.) Now let’s see if we can leave the store with only the food saver in our shopping cart. Ha! Oh, and since we’ll be in the big city we’ll swing by IKEA and scope out closet innards to furnish our new walk-in. One more item to check off our to-do list.  Bruno living dangerously in his favourite evening perch.
What are you up to this weekend? Do you shop at a big wholesale club store? Do you ever stick to your list? Cheers! |
| Luanna Stewart | Welcome to my Blog! |