My beautiful new kitchen has a cupboard of crisps - yes a cupboard full! When the kids, or at least my eldest, were small crisps were banned from the house; along with sweets, chocolate coated cereal and any junk food whatsoever. Fizzy drinks and coco pops were allowed for the Christmas holidays and on someone's birthday - no exceptions!
But over the years they have all turned into Hungry Horaces, and I've been worn down with the constant complaining and begging. In fact I have no fight left in me at all so the cereal cupboard is full of chocolate flavour cookies/rice pops/flakes - there is a box of Weetabix and I regularly wipe the dust off it!
But back to the crisp cupboard, I had grabbed a bag on a few occasions just lately and noticed a little hole in it. I didn't bother about it too much as sometimes in a huge multi pack there will be a burst bag. It was happening pretty frequently though..... That particular cupboard has no back on it as it's where the stopcock etc is.
And then a few weeks ago, when the weather was warmer and our french doors had been open all day, I sat on the sofa watching tv when out of the corner of my eye something moved! I shouted that a giant spider was in the room and stood on the sofa pointing at a spot near the tv. After they had all finished laughing at me a little brown mouse was spotted in the corner - I think he was laughing at me too! We all chased him around the room back in the direction of the outside door and then he disappeared, we thought he'd found his way out!
As it turns out he's been with us for a few weeks, and possibly he's moved his friends and family in too. We have had no option but to lay traps and poison - not ideal I know but sitting quietly in the dark waiting for him to appear and then trying to talk him into leaving just wasn't working.
As I sat in the sitting room with number 1 son this weekend we both watched, a bit stunned, as he walked in from the kitchen - yes walked not ran - walked around number 1 son and then passed me and crawled into the other sofa. I'm sure he smiled at us both as he walked across the room.
At that point we both leapt up (yes we're both slow on the uptake!) and got a box to catch him in. It was the builders lunch box as that was near and handy but please don't tell him! Anyway the mouse had disappeared yet again, and from the looks of the underneath of the sofa he probably wasn't living there alone! The poison placed around the downstairs of our house has all gone so I don't think they're going to be about much longer.
So it looks like we have more than one around the house, comes with living in the country I suppose; that and leaving all the doors open in the summer. I'll blame the kids for making a mess on the floor with their food. It seems we have them in the kitchen, in the understairs cupboard and in the sofa!
And by the looks of my lovely, soft, Laura Ashley throw
they've made themselves a very comfy home!
Oh my goodness what have they done to your throw!
ReplyDeleteHow cheeky of them to be sauntering around your home like that!
It's hard to keep a firm line when it comes to snacks. I suppose we all would like to be home made flapjack sugar free families but few of us can stick to it. I'm just off to see what I can find in the chocolate tin to have with my cuppa!
Lisa x
It's amazing the how they can get into houses through the tiniest of gaps. We get them often in the eves space, and hear them scratching around. Poison gets rid of them for a while. Luckily I've never seen any in the house but did once find a pile of the bait stashed under one of the girl's bean bags and a chewed sweet wrapper on the floor. Must have squeezed through a hole in the bathroom about 1cm wide :( Your poor throw. Looks like you'll have to cut it up for cushions!
ReplyDeleteI have one (or more) living in my garden shed. He eats the fatballs I buy for the birds, so I started storing them inside a tupperware box - now he's chewed a hole in the box too!
ReplyDeleteThat's dreadful what they have done to your lovely throw. The cat occasionally brings one in and it is so difficult to catch them. Someone suggested using a wellington boot, I will definitely try that next time. Hope you catch them soon and don't have them staying with you for Christmas!
ReplyDeleteSarah x
The cheap parking is in Chapelfield carpark.
ReplyDeleteWe have field mice come in every year when it gets cold. A baby can get in a hole the diameter of a pencil apparently. Caught 12 this year (cruel but necessary). Humane traps have to be checked every few hours or the mice starve to death - not very humane, and I'm not willing to get up in the night to check! As you say, it's a fact of country living though the magazine of that name never mentions it....
ReplyDeleteMice are bearable..... Just but a few years ago some barns were knocked down in our little village and a rat took up residence in the house!!!!! He sat on the side of the bath and just looked at me. I moved out that same evening with my three children and stayed at Mums til he was caught. Yuk,yuk,yuk.
ReplyDeleteThanks for popping into CHalky's World
Touch wood we've not had a mouse in the house, but we had them in the garage. I thought we'd got rid of them (silly me, to think that!) but I see they are back again. I've gone for a trap (not a humane one, I tried that but I'm sure the mice just made their way back after they had been realised) baited with chocolate. Last night the chocolate went, but no mouse in the trap!
ReplyDeleteWe used to get field mice in the bathroom airing cupboard (upstairs} during the Winter months. Me, being a soft touch got live traps and used to take the little blighters 2 miles away down the lanes (as instructed, and through snow drifts) to release them into a hedgerow! It worked for that year...
ReplyDeleteNow we have them living in the drystone wall and I suspect the greenhouse, but they have their own supply of seeds now so they stay well away from the house!
Rose H
I've got so used to the occasional mouse brought in by our cat that I hardly take any notice. A family, though, is a different matter. And your poor throw!
ReplyDeleteoh yes...we had a mouse in our stove!!! when I saw that poor little thing my heart stopped and I screamed for 5 straight minutes!
ReplyDeleteyour lovely throw, those awful mice!! I'm so glad to have found your blog, having a real treat reading back :-) wow you have worked hard on your house!...
ReplyDelete