Unwelcome Guests

It was getting late in the summer and our house was coming along just fine when we were required to leave it for a few months. We had quit our jobs to move here and while it would be nice to be able to immediately be self-sustaining the reality is everything in this world costs money; especially building. The insulation was in and vapor barrier up so we felt safe to leave it for a bit. We had wood stacked for winter and everything was secure.

It was hard to leave knowing that we had so much left to do but when you have a good paying contract to do you can't just say no. We were gone just over two months and arrived back before the first snow. Everything looked fine! Oh, how nice it was to be home! I didn`t care that we had a lot to do and that my kitchen wasn`t even completed. We started to unload and unpack but soon noticed something was wrong. What was this? Mouse droppings!!

OK, so I don't mind bugs too much and don't have a problem dealing with spiders, but mice? Really not a fan! I love the ones the foxes hunt and the birds of prey eat, but in the house? No way! Where were they? How many were there?

We set about cleaning... They had gotten in everything and I had no choice but to start up the generator and vacuum the mess up. We had a shop vacuum and had used it quite a bit for sawdust and stuff while building. There was only one problem... It wouldn't work! No suction whatsoever. I turned it on... it started fine but where was the suction? What could be wrong? I opened it up and then slammed that lid back down faster than you can blink. I had found them. It was a mother mouse and all her babies nicely tucked into the vacuum and easily carried outside and disposed of.

Just to be on the safe side we set up a few mouse traps around the house but we caught nothing. In the end it wasn't such a big deal... or it wouldn't have been except I found out what they had been eating while we were away. My beautiful and very expensive heritage seeds I had ordered for planting in the spring. Almost every seed packet had been chewed into and many were empty.

Lesson learned. Ever since then anytime I know we are going somewhere for more than a week, up go the traps again. We have never had another mouse in the house but I'm not taking any chances.