The Unscheduled Weekend.

Labor Day weekend was the first unscheduled weekend we have had in over two months. We actually got some projects worked on. Dave tore out some of the soffit that was dry rotted on our patio roof. He cut a new piece to fit it which turned into quite an interesting cut on a 1 X 8. He had to do a double-miter cut to make it fit. He then scraped the paint around the patio and got a good coat of primer on it. Because the primer was oil base, it took a long time to dry and he didn't have time to put a top coat of paint on it yet. It's looking really good even without the top coat of paint. Hopefully, this next weekend we will get it finished amid our "Peach Days" celebrations.

I decided to tackle the basement while he was so busily engaged outside. I haven't cleaned the basement for months. David and Shannon moved a month ago, and I still hadn't even picked up the toys they left scattered about down there. With exposed rafters and no flooring, the cobwebs collect and the dust is unbelievable. I'm still sneezing from the dust. I ended up taking most of the toys to the Deseret Industries since we really don't have many little ones around to play with them anymore. I saved the books, a couple of dolls, and some cars and trucks. I guess I have collected more toys than I had realized. The donated items filled my car.

Sunday morning I woke up early with concerns about my Relief Society lesson that I was giving that day. I went into the living room to work on it. While I was sitting on the rug working on my lesson, I heard little skittering noises coming from the piano. I sat motionless for a long while to see if something came out....sure enough, a fat little mouse run out from under the piano. I called to Dave who was in a deep sleep. He managed to stagger out to the living room where I instructed him to set a mouse trap by the doorway to the kitchen. I didn't dare take my eyes off the spot, because I wanted to make sure the mouse didn't get away. Dave fumbled sleepily in the kitchen putting peanut butter on the trap and setting it. I heard it snap and Dave yelled "OOWW". It got his finger. He finally got the trap set, and I sat still waiting and watching to see it get caught in the trap. When Dave had gone back to bed and everything was quiet, the mouse ventured out, and ran right around the mouse trap toward the kitchen before it spotted me and ran back past the mouse trap and under the piano again. I decided that the trap wasn't going to work, so I ran to the garage, grabbed the broom, and waited just inside the kitchen by the back door for the mouse to run around the corner again. Seconds later, it ran around the corner (again missing the mouse trap) and I nailed him with the broom. It squeaked and wriggled out from under the broom and immediately retreated to the piano again before I could catch up with him. I am reminded of the movie, Mouse Trap! Believing that my house is slowly being nibbled away, I decided to put out some D-Con. I counted exactly ten little nibbles of it and put it by the back door. When I returned from church, all ten nibbles were still there. The next morning all ten nibbles were still there. No sign of the mouse. We moved the piano, vacuumed behind it, took the front panel off to make sure it wasn't inside. No mouse. I was drumming my fingernails thinking about where this little creature could be hiding. We moved the refrigerator and cleaned out behind there. Only dust. We checked inside all the cupboards. No sign of mice. Two days in a row, we found one or two mouse droppings by the trash can in the kitchen. I know he's still in here somewhere. More fingernail drumming. Yesterday I put out a yogurt lid behind the trash can containing some oatmeal grains with ten D-Con nibbles mixed in. This morning when I got up, all the D-Con was gone and most of the oatmeal. He's going to die. Now I have set little lids out in the garage and down in the fruit room with the same recipe. Tomorrow I will check to see if there are any more mice around here that have taken the bait. I’m not very open-minded about sharing my house with critters!

Susan and I were talking the other day and laughing about how she used to catch mice and keep them for pets. We thought they were so cute back in those days. Now neither of us like them and we’re not exactly sure when we changed our minds.