My house is being "eaten"!

[exohomestead]

If your not a big cat fan go to a shelter get yourself 1 or two barn cats. Don't need to be friendly with them. Just a little food and water in the last week my two have gotten two critters which were bigger than one of them. 4 bats 3 moles 11 shrews and two many field mice parts to count whole mice. Best system I have ever used. I do lose birds in the summer but I have to look at it as training

I concur! We lost one bird that I know of, but that was okay since it was a starling that kept trying to move into our porch attic. Otherwise, they keep busy with lots of moles and field mice. They're actually quite good!

 

[exohomestead]

"More accidents happen on 6 foot step ladders than 40 foot extension ladders."

Don't I know it! After 12 years in HVAC, I learned to respect those things, for sure! What many don't realize is that the torsion bars on the steps have nuts that can be tightened; I've taken many a wobbly stepladder and made it like new again by tightening those things.

The stepladder I was using to reach the ladder in the bucket was one that someone else must have tightened (I bought it used), since it was very solid. Not bad for $5.00!!

I think of it as a risk management exercise. My wife was out picking mulberries and was getting pretty high with an 6' high step ladder. But it wasn't that stable. Instead, I proposed putting the bucket up in the air and letting her stand in that. Turns out that was a lot more stable than the ladder. It actually felt like standing on the ground. The slow droop was not a factor over the course of 10 minutes. Nobody went on the front loader until the engine was off. Rather than a step ladder, we found the front brush grill was a good step up to the cross bar, which was a good step up to the bucket.