My List

Inside:
Sink - Clear and clean
Bed - Put away all the clothes that are on his side.
Lounge seating area - cleared and vacuumed.
Dust TV and that area
Bench 1 - clear
Bench 2 - clear
Bench 3 - clear
Clothes rack - put dry clothing away
Tidy this desk
Put sewing box somewhere
Block of beeswax - decide where it's going and put it there. 
Table - Why is this always full of *stuff*?   Clear table
Put 2 vacuum cleaners away.   Where though? 
Sort through box near bathroom
Where can I keep my toolbag?

I am beginning to see that half my problem is that I have nowhere to put things.  And no, it's not that I have too much stuff.  Really.

Sunroom:  Started here as it's lovely and warm out there.
Clear seating area.  9.30  Now has damp washing as the sun is making this area very warm.
Sort jackets, rehang those we need to keep.  How many jackets do 2 people need?  9am
Put sheep food and chook food back out in the shed where it goes  9am
Pick up rubbish
Vacuum  9.30 but I have been outside checking on chooks and chickens...
Refill honey box  9.15  Will do more important stuff first.
Find somewhere for the books, maybe just box them up until shelves are built  9am
Find a lidded container for all my shoes and use it.  I *may* have too many shoes  9am
What is in the laundry basket out there?   Not much of anything useful.  9.10 am
It's 10.15 and getting quite warm in the sunroom now.  I'll finish the northern main seating area then start inside.

Outside:
Rake out sheep pen and put in dry straw
Empty my car
Vacuum my car


This looks like a long list but most of this stuff shouldn't take long.  It's bad that I haven't done most of it already.

Too Busy or Too Lazy?

It's Friday night.  Husband has been away working hard all week while I have been...not away. 

I was rostered on at Vinnies for 2 days so great, 3 days at home to get all my jobs done.  To get the house tidy and cleanish, to clean out the car, get some crap out of the shed, get some plants planted and some weeds pulled.  Get some mowing done, the chooks legs oiled, some of the boysenberry pulled up.  Wood chopped and woodbox full.   And all the other stuff that I should have done last time he was away...

He may get home later tonight but as it's already 7.30 I doubt it.   He may be home some time over the weekend.  If not then then maybe early next week.  

So yeah, the house should be tidy and cleanish yeah?  The gardens should be weeded and planted with more plants.  The car should be free of rubbish and boxes of *stuff*.  I couldn't mow as we have had a very wet week.  And all that other stuff that should have been done?  It hasn't been.  Oh, I have my reasons.  Excuses some would say...

I have had a busy week but have achieved nothing at home because I have not been home.  Well, not during the morning when I like to do stuff that needs doing.  Five days this week I have been down at Vinnies.  Son is not impressed and a daughter thinks I'm mad.  When Husband finally gets home he might be a tad cranky...Unless I can get my weeks worth of jobs completed tomorrow morning.  Cause I am out Sunday morning and at Vinnies all day Monday.

I think what I need are some time management skills.  Daughter thinks I need to stop going in to Vinnies so often.  Son says I need to banish FaceBook from my life. 

I'm going to make a detailed list, post it on here and tomorrow morning I will go through it and get as much as I can completed.   I like lists.  And as far as I know I am home tomorrow.   See ya then.

I Caved

Caved.  Gave In.  Gave Up.  Surrendered to using what works.

We have caught 8 rats outside and I have lost count of the mice caught inside.  I know it's been more than 20.  Seems that my cute, one little mouse in the cupboard had lots of friends and family.  

Last week I opened the bonnet of my car and there was a rat under there.  Son was going to cook some meat on the barby...there is a rats nest under the grill.

I tried the non poison Plaster of Paris baits.  I tried the toothpaste.  The toothpaste hasn't been touched and though the PofP bait has been eaten I am not finding dead mice but still catching live ones.  The traps that are working catch 1 mouse at a time and  have 3 of them but don't get something every day.  Sometimes 2 a day sometimes nothing for a week then another 1 then another 2 then nothing again...I have 5 or 6 traps that are supposed to catch multiple mice but out of them all I have caught 1.  It's taking a long time.

The trouble with catching them live is that you then have to do something with them.  Years ago I would put the cage in the bike basket and ride up the street and let them out so the mouse might have died anyway out in the cold or been eaten by birds or it may have made its way to someone else's house and the problem would have passed on to someone else.  These days if I catch them then it's my responsibility to do something with them.  And I have been doing that.  Over and over and over.  And I am over it.  It sickens me but does need to be done.   However I am now getting to the stage where I can't do it anymore but because the mice are a filthy pest that need to be eradicated I caved. 

I have put baits in areas around the inside of the house for the mice and out in the sheds for the rats.  The son has been warned to watch his dogs in case they find a dead rat.  The chances of them eating a dead rat are really low but we need to watch out for it anyway.  I will walk the yard every day looking for bodies.

And I know that in a weeks time there will be no more mice in my house and no rats in the sheds.   If I had used real baits a month ago it would all be over now.  I think sometimes we need to bite the bullet and do what we know works instead of wasting time trying alternatives to poisons.  Sometimes poison is the quickest, best way for the problem.  Maybe I need to rethink the slaters now...

A Mouse In The Cupboard.

So, I have slaters in the garden and a mouse in my cupboard. 

I knew the mouse was there as it ate through a pack of something and made a mess.  So I pulled everything out, washed it all, washed the shelves, sprayed with peppermint as I read that deters them and set a trap.   Then husband says he saw a mouse run across the floor so I set another trap over in that area.  Read up about non toxic to other animal baits and made up a batch of Plaster of Paris and oats and put that around the place.  While I was at it I put some of the bait out in the shed as well, cause you never know do you.   And set the rat traps, the humane ones that catch them alive.

Two weeks later I have caught 11 mice inside and 4 rats outside.  The Plaster of Paris baits, inside and outside, are still being eaten so there must be more around still.  I haven't found any dead mice or rats though so am unsure if the PofP bait is killing any.

And just last week I read that toothpaste will kill them so I have cut up tubes of toothpaste around the place.  Must be the Fluoride one though apparently. 

So 1 mouse means a whole lot more than one.  Just sayin'