At Home In The Woods

[Obed]

Sawdust or fine chips and compost is just the ticket in the bottom of hole dug to plant blueberries!

I would love to have some blueberries. We had a blueberry bush at our last house along with a pear tree. Pears mixed with blueberries make for an awesome cobbler. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Obed

 

[Obed]

Do We Need Our Air Conditioner?
With a high temperature forecasted to be a record 94F, today will be a good test as to how often we will need to turn on the AC in our house. So far, with high outside temps reaching the low 90s, we have not needed the AC. The warmest it has gotten inside our house has been 74F and that's without using AC.

Yesterday we didn't use the AC but this evening we finally turned it on. We're having record heat in the mid-90s for this time of year. It got to 78F inside the house so we turned on the AC this evening.

 

[Obed]

Mice
Mice found their way into our house via two holes we had drilled through the wall to run future Cat 5 and electric to the back porch. I hate mice. They pulled some insulation away from the wall and made a mess. I needed to fill in the holes until I'm ready to use them so I cut a couple sticks, whittled them to size and tapped them into the holes.

I remembered a mouse trap I saw on YouTube and decided to make one. So this evening I built one similar to this one shown on Youtube.

I am going to try my mouse trap without water in the bucket it to see if I can catch the mice alive. The drowning part seems a bit cruel so I'll try to catch them alive first. If I need to drown them, I will put water in the bucket but I'll try a more humane method first.

 

[eepete]

What's that line from the cartoon, "I hates them meeces to pieces"?

I didn't seal the end of the conduit that brought power in from my generator. One day in the basement I smelled "that smell". The picture is what I found. I had to take the switch apart and clean it all. I replaced the fuses in case they got anything in them. What a mess... I still have to take the transfer switch apart, it has one area that got peed on. I ordered the conductive grease for that, so that should happen soon. I'll also check and grease the moving part of the disconnect switch.

Also had a mouse nibble on the seal of a garage door, and so I bent up and glued in some aluminum flashing at the bottom. If that didn't work, I'd bolt the metal to the plastic seal with some small #4 screws.

Part of moving into a new house is letting the mice show you the areas you forgot to seal up all the way...

Pete

 

[CurlyDave]

I don't know for sure, but a mouse might be able to jump out of that bucket if it is dry.

I do know that a rat could jump out...

 

[tommu56]

I don't know for sure, but a mouse might be able to jump out of that bucket if it is dry.

I do know that a rat could jump out...

I set the same trap at my cabin an if its is dry = nothing caught 3" water last weekend had 4-5 in there but it still stunk.

Does any one have any ideas how to prevent the stench ????

tom

 

[Coyote machine]

I don't know for sure, but a mouse might be able to jump out of that bucket if it is dry.

I do know that a rat* could jump out...

Speaking from personal experience, eh?

 

[PAGUY]

I set the same trap at my cabin an if its is dry = nothing caught 3" water last weekend had 4-5 in there but it still stunk.

Does any one have any ideas how to prevent the stench ????

tom

How about a little dishwashing liquid in the water?

 

[CurlyDave]

Speaking from personal experience, eh?

Too old to jump that high any more -- but I used to be able to.

* * * * * * * *

About 1/2" to 1" of oil on top of the water would probably seal in the odor beneath it. Try the least expensive vegetable oil you can find. Has to be a thick enough layer to keep the "victims" from floating to the top. The oil is less dense than water, so they won't float as well in the oil. The trap would work with only oil in it, but it would have to be deep enough to drown the mice.

 

[MoKelly]

Too old to jump that high any more -- but I used to be able to.

Reminds me of the Toby Keith song ... "I ain't as good as I once was, but I am as good once, as I ever was."

MoKelly