Beauty Farming Life

This past weekend, when I was at the farm, staying inside where it was cool , taking a break from mowing, I was putting some stuff in a closet when I noticed something odd.  I moved a basket that had some fabric in it and saw that some of it had been chewed up a bit and the pieces had been made into a cozy, fluffy little nest. It was apparently on it's way to becoming a regular four star mouse spa.  There were none that I could find. I envision that they take off running when we drive up and then hide somewhere, laughing.  I took it all outside to clean it, threw away the fabric that had been chewed up and brought the rest back inside, in drawers this time, while wondering how to combat this new enemy. Sure, a fuzzy and cute enemy, but still the enemy.  I'll admit, I'm a sucker for fuzzy and cute and alas, I don't have a mean bone in my body.  Except for poisonous snakes and spiders, wasps and all bloodsucking insects, but I digress. We aren't out there ful...

Mouse nest in basket I opened a drawer at the farm and found the above in a basket.  I immediately thought "oh oh".  But before I could get the second "oh" out, I saw movement!  A live mouse!  In a drawer in the living room!  Eeek! Channeling my inner "He-Man", I lifted the cabinet up, drawers and all, and took it out on the porch in about 15 seconds (OK, so it wasn't  that heavy).  I pulled the top drawer out and there I was, nose to whiskers with a little brown mouse.   Cute mouse, NOT actual size Of course 2nd Man came out and what were the first words out of his mouth?  "Oh, he's so cute!" That, however, was followed by screaming, as said "cute mouse" lunged  jumped out of the cabinet and began running around on the porch, heading for the door to go back in.  Of course, then 2nd Man goes "get your camera!" (at least he's thinking about the blog!).  I run to get the camera, then I hear "get a broo...

This past weekend was a mouse proofing weekend at the farm.  After our  RECENT MOUSE TROUBLE , and asking you all for advice, we saw another  mouse in the house.  The time had come.  We devised a multi-prong plan of attack.    Ortho mousetrap First we got these mousetraps, the Ortho Kill and Contain traps.  They will keep the mouse body inside and sealed up until we get there to dispose of it.  We put six of them around the house, baited with peanut butter and a little vanilla (apparently mice love the smell of vanilla). Great Stuff Pestblock Then we found this awesome stuff at our local hardware store.  The guy there highly recommended it.  I remembered that several of you said that mice will chew through the regular foam sealant.  This is the "Great Stuff" brand but it's called Pestblock.  It contains a bitter tasting and smelling additive.  The guy said he had a mouse coming in and out of a small hole...

What? Getting dirty on the farm? (wait, that didn't sound right!) No!   Mouse bathing?  No, this isn't a mouse B&B! We bought all this soap because we have still had a couple of mice show up in the mouse traps we put down.  No overwhelming infestation, but one or two a month is one or two too many in my book.  One of you commented in my post about the mouse problem a few months back that Irish Spring soap was a deterrent.  I decided to Google it to learn more and I found numerous references online to people using it that way.   So, I went out and bought an 8-pack of "original scent" which is apparently the one that works best.  It was kind of hard to find in original scent at the store, but after a few stops, I found them at a grocery store.  However, Amazon sells  Irish Spring Soap, Original  for those who can't find it at their local store. I decided to make it go even further by cutting each bar in half.  Ei...

OK, not in THAT bed, but in one of the raised garden beds.  It's amazing how, from last week to this week, this happened: Ants in a raised garden bed This isn't freshly turned soil.  Well, actually I guess "technically" it is, but it's freshly turned by fire ants!  Ugh.  I need to plant in this bed soon and I don't want to put anything toxic in there.  I have used vinegar before on regular mounds in the yard, but when I do that, I'm not worried about how the vinegar might affect the grass.  However, I am  concerned about how it might affect the garden soil I will be planting vegetables in. Does anyone have any suggestion for a garden safe remedy?

OK, not in THAT bed, but in one of the raised garden beds.  It's amazing how, from last week to this week, this happened: Ants in a raised garden bed This isn't freshly turned soil.  Well, actually I guess "technically" it is, but it's freshly turned by fire ants!  Ugh.  I need to plant in this bed soon and I don't want to put anything toxic in there.  I have used vinegar before on regular mounds in the yard, but when I do that, I'm not worried about how the vinegar might affect the grass.  However, I am  concerned about how it might affect the garden soil I will be planting vegetables in. Does anyone have any suggestion for a garden safe remedy?

The lowest tomatoes on the bushes are being eaten by something.  At first I thought it was birds when I saw a damaged one last week, but I now think that was a split from the heavy rains a couple of weeks ago. This is what happened this weekend: Something eating tomato bottoms It is the lowest fruit on the vines and only the bottoms of each are eaten.  I'm guessing rabbits?  We had not had any problems in the garden so I was hoping the pickets on the fence were close enough together that they weren't able to get in but alas, I believe the garden has been breached! The only 'upside' that I can think of is that the rest of the toms are much higher up in the bushes so I think they are safe.  Until then,  I'll be getting some hardware cloth and fighting the good fight! Cornmeal to kill ants in raised bed     The other problem was ants in the eggplants.  Two of the three plants were for all practical purposes, dead. ...

THEY'RE BAAAACK... ARRRRGH!  SO upsetting...   So this is what we walked into at the farm.  Remember last week?  Just a few nibbles.  This week, the entire edge of the flooring from one side to the other... And on the other side, same thing, stripped out huge chunks of the vinyl flooring trying to get out.   We're guessing this is more than a snake and a mouse.  There was also additional large scat (poop) today.  I did some more Googling and there is a chance it's either a roof rat (aka Norwegian rat) or a possum.  Whatever it is is, it has to be something living perhaps in the attic and coming down through the walls behind the water heater or maybe even something hiding/living back up under the bathtub.  One this is for sure, I'm not sticking my face under to check it out.  For brief moment I thought maybe we should just leave the doors open but then my brain cleared and I realized ...

Part of the routine when we get to the house after it's been closed up for a week is to walk around and check all the drawers and cabinets for creatures... Scorpion in a drawer So I pull open the first drawer and all is clear.  The second drawer also clear.  The third drawer, oh oh!  There was a dead (thankfully) scorpion in the biscuit cutter in 2nd Man's baking supplies drawer.   I asked if we were having scorpion biscuits and gravy ...he was not amused. 2nd Family said they have found three scorpions inside their house lately, one in the bathtub, one in a sink and one in a cabinet.   Anyone have any scorpion advice? 

So while I was cleaning, I pulled open a drawer in the dining room cabinet and inside a large red bowl was this: Scorpion Needless to say it is dead.  I have no patience for scorpions.  We do not need to have dangerous creatures lurking around in drawers and cabinets and God only knows where else.  It's bad enough that there has been a snake inside the house.  And mice.  These things genuinely creep me out. I have to laugh though...my Grandmother, who lived in SW Oklahoma, would always tell us to "check the bed for stingin' scorpions (as if there are other kinds?) and mice" right as we climbed into bed.  Yeah, sleep tight Grandma!  They had a great little house in the country, clean and neat, but she always said that.  We laughed, nervously, then.   Now here I am, all these years later, and it looks like I might once again end up checking the beds for 'stingin scorpions and mice'!  I can hear 2nd Man the first time I suggest...

Look what is at the farm now!?!?  The purple one is a Nidoran and the pink one is a Slowpoke!   WHAT you say?  HA!   What pesticide takes care of that?   OK...our farm got into the Pokemon craze... ...not us playing though, I think we're well over the age limit for that, haha! No, 2nd Family's daughter is playing and since it involves lots of walking, they asked if she could walk around our property.  Well of course she can!   We said "you can roam wherever as long as you send us pics whenever you find one" and now we have these.   Funny, I didn't see them when I was mowing...they must have been hiding well.   I'll have to keep an eye out this weekend just in case...

OK...here is something we're going to try.  Regular blog readers will know we tried Irish Spring soap as mouse deterrent and the results were inconclusive.  We have no mice, knock on wood, but that could have been the soap, the mousetraps, the lack of food in the house or maybe even a snake or two. Irish Spring soap as Deer repellent  But then I read that it is a deer repellent.  Really?  OK, worth a try I suppose.  I bought some Irish Spring soap, original scent, and proceeded to cut it up into smaller chunks.  We had these muslin drawstring bags from a previous project.  After cutting the pieces, I put a few into each bag and tied it shut.  The strings are long so... ...I hung a "sachet" in every tree.  This is what all the recommendations we found suggested.  Apparently deer don't like the smell and so you just hang them in the branches.  They've been there a couple of weeks now and when I go to water a...

Several of you have asked for an update so I thought I better let y'all know. TWO DOWN, hopefully none to go!!! So let me back up. A few days back, we went out in the middle of the week after work to see if the traps were sprung. Going out there (it's about 45 miles one way) after getting home from a long day of work makes for a long night, be we were hopeful.  Sadly, they weren't sprung.  Ugh.  All I managed to do was scare myself silly in the dark when I heard a strange noise, but more on that in another posting. The next step was to order some sort of ultrasonic noise type machine that several of you mentioned in the comments.  I did some research and found these online.  Supposed to be very good and they came pretty highly reviewed.  So I ordered two and they arrived on Friday. It was a wet, rainy weekend, Saturday very heavy, so we stayed in town.  Sunday we loaded up and headed out, in the rain again, bu...