Our Introduction to Life in the Country

Well, I didn't think I'd ever put this on the blog where my mother could read it because, well, I want her to come visit sometime. But, Seth spilled the beans - or maybe I should say let the cat out of the bag - tonight when he was talking to her. To my great relief and surprise, she did not freak out and actually told me how she deals with this problem! So, here is my story about our first farm animal - the mouse.

It all started a week after we moved in. Bruce and I had gone on a big food shopping trip into Nashville the day before. Not knowing any better, we moved all the groceries into the basement and left the non-perishables in bags to be put away the next day. Well, the next day, Willa reaches for the 5 pound bag of chocolate chips and exclaims, "Hey, this has a hole in it!" Upon closer examination, we realize the hole had been nibbled through by a mouse - UGH and shiver! The chips go in the trash and we go on a mouse hunt.

To my great distress, we discover mouse droppings in every room, except the girls' room, over the next few days. In the couch, around the kitchen counter, all over the basement, on the stairs, in Seth and Elsia's room, and horror of horrors, on the window ledge at the head of my bed!!!! I'm not sure how well Bruce slept that first night because I was sleeping as close to him as I could get with the blankets pulled all the way up to my nose. I wanted to give the mouse as little surface area of my body as possible to run across. Of course, I spent hours storing food away in protected bins and ridding the house of droppings. They were even in the basement refrigerator and freezer! That one puzzled us until we realized it had probably been in there between our first move and final move since we left those doors open. We even used the car as a temporary pantry since we didn't have enough plastic bins. More on that later....

Two days later, we are standing in the basement discussing the mouse problem, Olivia spots the mouse running up the wall behind the washing machine - squeal, shriek, shiver! It was fast, but not so fast that we couldn't tell it was a big mouse. We immediately named him Fat Albert. Of course, Olivia refused to go back to the basement (I hadn't told her the droppings were in the couch) and I cringed every time I reached on the wall behind the washing machine to turn on the light. I sounded like an elephant walking into the basement as I stomped loudly on each step and kicked every box before I walked by it. Thankfully, after a whole bag of mouse poisoning was eaten, many mouse traps set, and corporate prayer said at church on Sunday for the death of this creature, we found the mouse, dead, in a trap in the basement. Hallelujah!!! Now, I could relax.

Well, a few days later, we all load in the car to go ice skating with the homeschoolers in Nashville. I open the door to climb into the drivers seat and, wait a minute, what is this?, mouse droppings on my seat!!! UGHHH! "Bruce, how do I know the mouse is not still in the car?" No answer. Okay, so just how badly do we want to go skating in Nashville? I guess pretty badly because all my children stayed in the car. They did, however, feel it necessary to pray that I would not crash the car if the mouse ran out while I was driving. I didn't know whether to sit back against the seat so the mouse couldn't run up my back or sit leaning forward so it couldn't jump on my head. Oh yeah, after finding the three mouse droppings on the driver's seat, we looked around the car and found lots and lots more all over the front of the car. Well, the prayers worked because I did manage to relax a little on the drive. Olivia put on a brave face, but she did ask every few minutes how much longer till we would get there. It was a long hour and fifteen minutes.

While we were in the skating rink, we left a piece of PB and J sandwich out thinking the mouse would nibble on it if it was still in the car. Well, no nibbles, but with all the crumbs still in the car from our trip down from WV, I wasn't convinced it wasn't still in the car. Driving home in the dark was not pleasant since I kept waiting to feel a mouse run over me any time. God was gracious and no mouse was seen or heard.

Two days later, Olivia was able to give the car a very thorough cleaning. She found hundreds of mouse droppings scattered through the car! The Harper girls were here and helped her clean it out. Well, this little mouse didn't just come for daily visits, it had moved into our glove compartment!!! It had made a nest inside a cup holder and filled it with ear muffin fluff and tissues. Quite a cozy spot. Alexandria H. was kind enough to remove the nest, which was mouse-less, for us. Okay, so now we know you don't use your car as a pantry in the country.

The latest is that the girls just drove over to the Lovett's, and there were new mouse droppings in the car. Sigh. I'm suppose to be the driver for a carpool to Franklin tomorrow. I'm thinking we might want to change those plans.

Stay tuned for part two of this story when I tell you about our next farm animal - a cat :-)

Posted by Tina