Sometimes bad news can be GOOD NEWS!
Our trip at the mountain this time was fun because we got to see little Emmy, which made up for some of the not very fun parts of the trip.
When we got up there, to our trailer, the place had LOTS of mice droppings everywhere! Kim had done his best last fall to find all of the possible openings for mice to get in, and we had left probably 8 mouse traps. I had known there was a mouse problem in there, so I came armed with my clorox. So all of Friday (except maybe an hour) was spent pulling out dirty bedding, washing out drawers and cupboards, floors, sinks, shower, toilet, dishes etc.
We were sitting there talking to Keith and Syd and enjoying some strawberry pie with them...and out from the stove top came a mouse! We had found 4 dead mice in the traps, and we had found 1 where it was obvious that a mouse had been stuck (glue trap) but had gotten away. There were several traps that were untouched....but we had a live mouse! Kim armed himself with a pair of gloves and went after them mouse (which later we had found in the sink)....he was trying to gently pick him up so he could throw him out, but he was too cautious, and he jumped out of the sink and got away.
So we put out more battle array...Decon, cheese in flip traps, and more glue traps and went to bed. We even baited a couple of the glue traps with strawberries and graham crackers. The next morning, we found the strawberry and crackers gone, and some evidence that he had managed to free himself again. One of the new traps was upside down, but without a victim that was intended.
What I want to know was , since when did mice become smart!??? I think we have The Mice from the "Secret of NIMH"!!!!
But the battle was not to end there!
My mom and dad were planning on coming up. Well my dad showed up about 11 am without mom who was "too tired to go" (we found out this week that she has congestive heart failure-but it could take years to kill her-but she is going to be on pills to take off the water weight that is causing so much swelling in her legs). Anyway, dad had come up with some newer carpet to put in his trailer, and some rock he he wanted to dump. But with the higher altitudes, and exertions he had already had to load up his truck, he was too tired to do any work.
While Chad and Erica were trying to get Emmy to sleep in our trailer, I went over with Keith to work on cleaning out mom and dads trailer which is also a major mess. They never used it last year because it had so many problems that Kim had to fix that all stemmed from the jack under one corner breaking during the winter before. Anyway, it was very dirty, and we knew that the mice had also been in their cupboards, so we started unloading everything to take down to the valley to wash it. I started stripping the bed, layer by layer...finding more and more mice droppings. About 6 layers down, I found a dead mouse and an nest of live baby mice! They were so tiny and cute, but also SO unwanted!!! But, I looked at Keith and he looked at me...neither of us wanted to touch them! But dad was there...I knew he would have no mercy! I said, "I am OUTTA HERE!" Keith laughed and followed me out of the trailer while my dad took care of them. Anyway, we took home a suburban full of stuff that needs to be gone through, and either throw out or clean and take back. A ton of work!
My dad and mom are likely never to stay overnight up there again. Dad might, if my mom dies, but if he goes first, he probably never will stay overnight up there again. Dad signed over that trailer to Kim and I last year, which is why Kim did all of the work to fix it when the jack had broken. But we told dad, that while it was ours, he and mom would be the ones using it until they were gone. But with 30 hours of work to do to make it liveable...if they are not going to be using it, I don't really want to do all that work for nobody to use it, and it just needing to be done again the next spring. So yesterday, I asked dad (if it would be alright) that I would clean it up and make it livable again, and that they would still be able to use it always if they wanted to, but that we would like to be able to use it too, if I am going to sanitize the place . He said that was fine. So that is the way it is. What this means is the trailer we got from Grampa Groneman has now become joint property of all you kids! IF my parents do ever decide to stay over night with us there, they we would be bumped back into the Groneman one, but as I see it, that is very unlikely to happen. I will need to get a few things out of it, when the new one is ready...but I will likely just leave all of the dishes in there... towels etc. You boys will need to come up in the fall to learn out to winterize/de-winterize it...as we won't want to have to do that to that one too (with 2 others that we will already be doing)...but it is yours to enjoy!!! And of course, our girls will be able to use it when they visit too. It will make a camping trip much more enjoyable for you! Until it has been ridded of all the mice, we will be leaving everything protected, so we won't have to sanitize it again every time we go up. It has beds that stay beds so you don't have to make them at night, and a nice bathroom! So when you want to use it...well, we will just make you keys...have fun!
When we got up there, to our trailer, the place had LOTS of mice droppings everywhere! Kim had done his best last fall to find all of the possible openings for mice to get in, and we had left probably 8 mouse traps. I had known there was a mouse problem in there, so I came armed with my clorox. So all of Friday (except maybe an hour) was spent pulling out dirty bedding, washing out drawers and cupboards, floors, sinks, shower, toilet, dishes etc.
We were sitting there talking to Keith and Syd and enjoying some strawberry pie with them...and out from the stove top came a mouse! We had found 4 dead mice in the traps, and we had found 1 where it was obvious that a mouse had been stuck (glue trap) but had gotten away. There were several traps that were untouched....but we had a live mouse! Kim armed himself with a pair of gloves and went after them mouse (which later we had found in the sink)....he was trying to gently pick him up so he could throw him out, but he was too cautious, and he jumped out of the sink and got away.
So we put out more battle array...Decon, cheese in flip traps, and more glue traps and went to bed. We even baited a couple of the glue traps with strawberries and graham crackers. The next morning, we found the strawberry and crackers gone, and some evidence that he had managed to free himself again. One of the new traps was upside down, but without a victim that was intended.
What I want to know was , since when did mice become smart!??? I think we have The Mice from the "Secret of NIMH"!!!!
But the battle was not to end there!
My mom and dad were planning on coming up. Well my dad showed up about 11 am without mom who was "too tired to go" (we found out this week that she has congestive heart failure-but it could take years to kill her-but she is going to be on pills to take off the water weight that is causing so much swelling in her legs). Anyway, dad had come up with some newer carpet to put in his trailer, and some rock he he wanted to dump. But with the higher altitudes, and exertions he had already had to load up his truck, he was too tired to do any work.
While Chad and Erica were trying to get Emmy to sleep in our trailer, I went over with Keith to work on cleaning out mom and dads trailer which is also a major mess. They never used it last year because it had so many problems that Kim had to fix that all stemmed from the jack under one corner breaking during the winter before. Anyway, it was very dirty, and we knew that the mice had also been in their cupboards, so we started unloading everything to take down to the valley to wash it. I started stripping the bed, layer by layer...finding more and more mice droppings. About 6 layers down, I found a dead mouse and an nest of live baby mice! They were so tiny and cute, but also SO unwanted!!! But, I looked at Keith and he looked at me...neither of us wanted to touch them! But dad was there...I knew he would have no mercy! I said, "I am OUTTA HERE!" Keith laughed and followed me out of the trailer while my dad took care of them. Anyway, we took home a suburban full of stuff that needs to be gone through, and either throw out or clean and take back. A ton of work!
My dad and mom are likely never to stay overnight up there again. Dad might, if my mom dies, but if he goes first, he probably never will stay overnight up there again. Dad signed over that trailer to Kim and I last year, which is why Kim did all of the work to fix it when the jack had broken. But we told dad, that while it was ours, he and mom would be the ones using it until they were gone. But with 30 hours of work to do to make it liveable...if they are not going to be using it, I don't really want to do all that work for nobody to use it, and it just needing to be done again the next spring. So yesterday, I asked dad (if it would be alright) that I would clean it up and make it livable again, and that they would still be able to use it always if they wanted to, but that we would like to be able to use it too, if I am going to sanitize the place . He said that was fine. So that is the way it is. What this means is the trailer we got from Grampa Groneman has now become joint property of all you kids! IF my parents do ever decide to stay over night with us there, they we would be bumped back into the Groneman one, but as I see it, that is very unlikely to happen. I will need to get a few things out of it, when the new one is ready...but I will likely just leave all of the dishes in there... towels etc. You boys will need to come up in the fall to learn out to winterize/de-winterize it...as we won't want to have to do that to that one too (with 2 others that we will already be doing)...but it is yours to enjoy!!! And of course, our girls will be able to use it when they visit too. It will make a camping trip much more enjoyable for you! Until it has been ridded of all the mice, we will be leaving everything protected, so we won't have to sanitize it again every time we go up. It has beds that stay beds so you don't have to make them at night, and a nice bathroom! So when you want to use it...well, we will just make you keys...have fun!
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Not all trailers get mice, BTW. The one I went camping in as a kid, doesn't get mice, and neither has Keith and Syds trailer...and our trailer we bought is thus far safe.