Why Yes, Yes, I DO Battle Rodents

Well, and also insects, as seen in the following:

But we'll get to that tomorrow.

Do you remember this?

This has been a great, but busy and fast summer.  Usually I make some kind of plan of what I want to accomplish house and kid-wise, but this summer, I have been flying by the seat of my pants.  I did know that I wanted to paint my basic oak builder-grade-from-30-years-ago kitchen cabinets, which I did do in June (that story to come soon) until I lost steam.  That means that I have all the kitchen cabinets done with the exception of six doors and seven drawers.  Which are still sitting in my basement.  Oh my heavenly days do I need to get going on that again and GET THAT PROJECT FINISHED.

I tend to go all gung ho on a project until 90% of it is done.  And then I'm done.  Do not follow this example.

Anyway, in the midst of painting those cabinets, I decided that I really needed to use our finished basement/"Trading Spaces" room for my business office rather than the spread of my dining room table.  I've hated how messy that's looked all year (but convenient!).  Which lead to "The Great Purge of 2011."  Y'all, I've gone Throw Out Crazy.  Not throw up, mind you, throw out.

So, I bippity bopped my way downstairs and got all design inspired for what I was going to do to Genevieve's Creation.  I mean, we've left it pretty much the same - but messier - since we were on the show five years ago. But that set of old encyclopedias she bought to fill the bookshelves?  GONE!  The blacky green she painted on the walls?  GONE!  All the two years of paperwork that we had yet to file as we were too stinking lazy?  GONE (well, filed finally)!  All that extra junk that we have been Hoarder-ing (love that show!) down there?  GONE!  So, I'm getting there.  And in came a new desk and furniture-style filing cabinet and some really awesome fabrics to reupholster my couch and loveseat and awesome desk chair from guess where.

So where do the rodents come in you ask?

Well, I'll tell you, in the midst of all that purging, what do I discover in my TS room (and yes, that is what we call it)?  Mouse poo.  All over.  In cabinets, under furniture, on top of boxes.  Now, y'all.  I am not the best housekeeper.  And we don't even go into that room that much.  But seriously? It was a bit over the top.  But you know, vacuum, vacuum, dust, dust, mop, mop, and it's gone.

And then I go to tidy up the pantry in our dining room.  The pantry that holds casserole dishes and coolers and the assorted crystal wedding gift that we never use.  Read: it holds no food.  And there was mouse poo galore.  GALORE.  All over everything in the shelves. And the floor.  So, again, I washed from top to bottom.  And it's not like we had no idea that we've had mice in there before.  We've set traps to no avail.  So, I figured the mousie just went away.  Oh, what a fool's paradise of delusion I lived in. The huge hole chewed into the drywall of my pantry confirmed that my mouse was indeed alive and well if not thriving.  Oh joy. 

And then the ant infestation began.  I can't even begin to talk about that right now without holding my therapist's hands, so hold those thoughts until tomorrow.

But just know that it prompted me to do a SUPER CLEAN in the kitchen.

Now, I cook a fair amount which means I clean up a fair amount, too.  Wiping up the kitchen with my soapy dishrag and stuff.  Mopping occasionally.  Even - wait for it - moving the refrigerator to vacuum behind it. So, imagine my dismay - my horror - when I noticed some mouse poo on my kitchen counters.  And then moved my awesome IKEA canisters and saw more mouse poo.  And then moved my toaster oven to discover THE MOTHER LODE OF ALL MOUSE POO.  I am not at all embarrassed to admit that I called my husband in frustrated tears.  Bless his sweet soul.  He's all trying to be consoling without letting his cubicle mates know that his Psycho Wife Can't Handle More Mouse Poo.

So, after taking deep breaths and looking at the box of D-Con  on the counter (not for mysterious family deaths, by the way) and drinking a whole bottle of wine (please.  I am Southern Baptist), I decided that I could tackle a mouse.  That the mouse was going down.  And that my home was not going to tumble down with it.

So after the massive Garage Purge of 2011 that occurred this past weekend, I put several glueboard boxes around the garage. Along with a tidy little pile of Precious Poison Pellets.

Along with more Precious Poison Pellets behind my refrigerator.

And more Precious Poison Pellets under the sink.

And in the pantry.

And anywhere else that the dog and children - and oh! heaven forbid the guinea pig - wouldn't get them.

And lo and behold, the pellets have been disappearing.  And it occurred to me during breakfast yesterday to check the glueboards in the garage.  And along with assorted and sundry insects (but no ants on them for pete's sake), there was a little brown mouse - alive - on one looking back at me.  Looking right at me with big brown eyes like this:

Oh, good gracious.  I am a sucker.  I just could not kill it even if it had been destroying my house.  Letting it eat poison pellets (which, sidenote: clearly this alive version was not the one eating the pellets, which means yes, I definitely had more than one mouse) and die somewhere sight unseen is one thing, but killing it by my own physical hand is another.

Look at those eyes!

So, being the sap that I am, I took the glueboard up the road to the woods near the neighbors house (hi neighbors!  brought you a present!), pulled the mouse off by its tail, and let it scamper off in the woods.  Straight towards my house.

And yes, more mouse poison pellets were gone this morning.