Going away / coming home
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♥Apr. 4th, 2018 // 11:15 am♥
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This weekend, we've been in Harrogate for Follycon, which I mostly spent running around. (The trainers that quite happily did me all through Loncon were starting to pinch a bit by the end of Sunday. Surely that can't be right?) I even went to a programme item, entirely voluntarily.
Other than the crises, it all went very well, and none of the crises were really all *that* bad, with even the person-sent-to-hospital now back out and doing well.
In fact, the only thing that happened that was really bad when when you bastards gave me this, which I may never forgive:
(Which at least means that I have something to put in Hugo Corner, for a year!)
If anyone took a photo of me when I was given it, please never let me see it.
(I have already phoned my insurance company. Because NFU Mutual are marvellous, even though I couldn't find the paperwork in Mike's byzantine filing system it still only took Sue thirty seconds to check and tell me that it was covered on the insurance as long as I don't plan to carry it around with me away from home. Seems unlikely! I wonder if Timpsons can do the engraving?)
All seems to have been well here with the sitter, with GB his usual 'you came home, can we snuggle? you went away, I shall bite you' response to seeing me again. I was a wee bit annoyed to come home to a trap containing a part-decomposed, half-eaten mouse. I just happened to walk past the trap again and found that it now contained another mouse, who'd presumably come back for another snack from his larder, but wasn't actually dead and was spraying blood everywhere. And then, after I drowned him and cleaned up, I couldn't find the tub containing a manky bit of own-brand-nutella that's been sitting on the kitchen counter for six months being used to re-bait the traps. I do hope that the sitter didn't eat it....
The field and stableyard are swamps, which is to be expected after all the rain, but today is sunny and breezy, so I'm hoping that everything will dry out soon.
There's a lorry outside from KCC Highways, doing emergency fixes on the potholes (we're promised actual resurfacing in the new financial year), which is good and very much needed doing, although I bet they'll miss some due to them still being underwater.
Tomorrow, Bob!
Edit: sorry, obvs not explicit enough: if anyone took a photo of me getting the Doc Weir, please don't post it online. If you see one, please let the poster know my views. Please don't share it in the comments. FFS. |
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Some less whingy things
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♥Aug. 25th, 2017 // 07:31 pm♥
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- A few days ago, I went into the pantry to see if we had a spare bag of self-raising flour. There was a bag of flour, so I picked it up to see what it was (strong bread, as it happens) and noticed that the corner had been chewed away. Nothing else seemed to have been nibbled, and a trap overnight produced one of the lovely, sleek, glossy mice with which we are blessed (no more since). When we moved in, it was Policy not to put nibblable things into that store room, and I may need to go back and have a rearrange!
- Yesterday, the outdoor plumber came to try and find the leak in our water pipe. The blokes from the water company, having dug a hole by the meter, said it was about eight metres away by the house. Several holes later, and having come back this morning, he found and fixed the leak. It was, oh, at least a foot from the meter and he couldn't quite understand how the water company guys hadn't found it....
- It turns out that dahlias make nice cut flowers and last reasonably well, which is good: the garden's a bit poor for cutting flowers at this time of year, other than the glads.
- About a week ago, I bought (on Amazon) Mike a fairly niche book (heard about it on R4). Yesterday (ditto), I bought the new KLF JAMs book, 2023. This evening, while looking for present ideas for Mike, I went back to the page for the first book to look at the 'people who bought this book also bought' section and found 2023 on the first page of suggestions. Apparently they're *both* pretty niche books.... |
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Bits and bobs
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♥Feb. 24th, 2016 // 03:01 pm♥
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- Some of our wallflowers look like they're going to be out soon: you can see what colour the individual flowers will be. This when we had -5C last night and probably lower tonight. The aliums and wild garlic are also poking their noses up.
- Does anyone know how I would go about turning a coppiced dogwood into a pollarded one? (So, foreground type to background type in this picture.) Or is it not possible? They're the ones I put in this winter, so fairly young.
- (At least one of) GB's lodger(s) is no more. Having ignored the trap for months, it was finally overcome by the smell of chocolate today. Now, to wait and see if there are signs of any others. (Trap is re-set, just in case.)
- We now have two grape vines, thanks to Mike's mother. |
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A St Valentine's Day Mystery
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♥Feb. 14th, 2016 // 10:33 am♥
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As you may recall, ever since GB's lodger moved in and showed himself partial to GB's feed, we've taken to hanging the boy's breakfasts from the barn roof overnight. This has been very successful, and we've not had any more go missing (I shall gloss over the times he's eaten through the corners of bags of bedding, Just In Case there was food inside, and indeed the time he ate through the pockets of my hi-viz to get at the treats inside).
This morning, however, Mike found something very odd:
The food inside the bucket hadn't been touched, and there were no bits of plastic to be seen. We are very confused. |
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Meece, and other animals
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♥May. 21st, 2014 // 06:36 pm♥
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It's nearly 48 hours since I had to empty a mouse trap, and there are a couple of peanuts on the floor next to the bird food bins that have been there since yesterday morning, so hopefully....
Jodie's doing well. Her wound looks like it's healing up, and we went for a relatively sedate walk in the woods today with no limping or signs of soreness.
GB apparently *hasn't* learnt how to get his muzzle off, as he's not repeated the trick. Although, today, he was running around the field at one point with his fly mask off but trapped underneath it! When we put them on, the boys spend half an hour looking piteous, half an hour headbutting each other in an attempt to get them off, and then give up and wander the field trying to find things that they can eat: the hedge is quite popular, presumably because if they get the angle right then they can poke a twig through the muzzle's hole and chew the leaves off it.
I've decided that we're not having chickens. Mike pointed out, quite rightly, that both of us would actually much rather have runner ducks. I'd been avoiding the idea because I didn't want them in the pond, but it turns out that a) they aren't much for swimming, so don't need much water and b) you can buy plastic duck ponds on Amazon. So, the garage stable is now cleaned out, I need to get some chicken wire to put in a couple of places, and I'm going to look at some ducks on Saturday (but probably not bring them home for a few more days, as we've got visitors this weekend). |
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Animals
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♥May. 19th, 2014 // 08:34 pm♥
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To my not terribly great surprise, when we went to take the boy's muzzles off this evening I found that GB had managed to anticipate me. Hopefully it was a one-off, as it will be inconvenient if he's learnt how to get it off....
Two more mice today, so six so far. Maybe I should get some more traps?
Jodie's perkier now, and has eaten her gushy food with nearly her usual enthusiasm. She is spending quite a bit of time wandering around trying to get comfortable though, poor thing. She did come up into the field for a bit, and has voluntarily just gone out into the garden on her own. I flipped her over and had a look: the wound looks sore and red, but I dare say that she'll be fine tomorrow. She has got a couple of external stitches, just to support the internal ones, but she's not been fussing at them. |
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Beach!
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♥May. 18th, 2014 // 04:43 pm♥
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As we were riding this morning, and thinking that it was already really quite hot, we decided that it might be worth taking Jodie to the beach. When we got back inside, Mike checked the tide times and it was only a bit after low tide so we set off. The beach was somewhat busy, but fortunately most of the people who'd gone there couldn't be bothered to move more than fifty yards from the car park, so the dog-friendly end of the sand was fairly empty.
She had a lovely time running around, although she scared herself (and us) rather at one point: we sent her into the sea to chase some gulls, who all flew away leaving two ducks behind. The ducks failed to fly away, so she went a bit deeper than planned:
There were also lots of mysterious tracks on the sand, where some sort of vehicle had been going backwards and forwards. The only thing that we could think of was that it was something to do with bait collecting, but if so then it was a lot more organised and mechanised than we'd seen previously.
By the time we got to the other end of the beach and turned around to go back to the car, there was noticeably less beach than there had been. We may have laughed mockingly at the two men carrying lighted disposable barbecues away to higher ground.
This afternoon, I've been staining more furniture: two of the big chairs are done, and the table (although that might need another coat, having been out all winter). Getting there! Then it's onto painting the stables, and staining the school fence....
Two new mouse traps arrived yesterday, so last night I left them near the bird food. They were both full this morning, and one of them got another while we were at the beach. |
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♥Mar. 4th, 2014 // 02:09 pm♥
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Mike, on a work call: "Well, if you've got three plans and two of them are obviously stupid...." then, "That's one of the obviously stupid ones, right?"
As well as her first fish pond trip of the season, Jodie has been helping the decorators by offering her tail as a stand-in paint brush:
The flowers are starting to come out, in the woods. A few of the bluebells are showing the starts of flower spikes, and we found a patch of celandines along the side of our lane. There are also lots and lots of something we can't identify, so we're keeping an eye out to see what they turn into: it must be something very common, but we can't figure out what without the flowers. I must remember to take a picture, to see if anyone has any ideas.
Ratty successfully ate all the pony nuts without actually triggering the trap. Today, I was experimenting with the trap and realised that the diameter of the bait holder is pretty much the same as the horse treats, so I found a broken-off one that doesn't stick out of the holder, and stuffed it in there. We'll see if that has more success.... |
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Painty
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♥Mar. 3rd, 2014 // 03:10 pm♥
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Bought a rat trap, yesterday. No sign of any interest in it overnight, though. I'll try again tonight: I'm considering putting it in the bucket in the middle of the floor, with pony nuts in the bait cup, to see if that gets his attention....
Popped to the vet with Jodie, to make sure that she's not getting chubby since her op: all seemed to be ok, she'd put on a kilo or so, but then she was a bit off her food shortly before the op as well.
Unexpectedly, we've got the decorators in. The chaps who came last week gave us a quote that Mike approved of, and they said that they could start today. They've made good progress, and half the kitchen is currently undercoat-grey. It already looks better. I'm quite tempted by the grey, in fact, but suspect Mike would veto me....
Will post some pictures, later. |
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Or then again....
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♥Mar. 1st, 2014 // 01:07 pm♥
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I'd assumed that, because ratty was just taking the nuts and leaving the chaff that chaff wasn't tasty. But apparently it will do in a pinch: I found this when I went to make up the feeds....
I think I might start asking around the neighbours to see if anyone knows of a good ratting terrier in the area. Either that or lock Next Door's cats in the barn for a few nights! |
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Ha!
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♥Mar. 1st, 2014 // 07:45 am♥
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Baby's breakfast survived the night! Ye of little faith....
(I dare say that ratty will figure it out, so I'm on the look-out for a longer-term solution. The current bags of feed are in metal dustbins, might see if I can get another.) |
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That's you sorted!
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♥Feb. 28th, 2014 // 03:11 pm♥
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(I hope....)
There had been some discussion about whether I would be driving Mike to Canterbury for his 7:30 train this morning, but I belatedly realised that it was a really good job he eventually got a taxi: I had to do *both* the boys before I left for Pilates at 9:30, and I think that the trip into Canterbury would have been a bit much on top of it.... |
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Anticlimactic...
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♥Feb. 28th, 2014 // 09:24 am♥
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Boringly, I did manage to catch our sneak thief on film, and it's a rat.
It seems to only be *one* rat, and there's a lot of to-ing and fro-ing through the night, so I suspect that somewhere near our barn there's a big pile of pony nuts! (This would also explain the lack of poo, I suspect.)
(There's a lovely shot of him at 3:45am, when he's perched on the bucket rim having a rest. Certainly looks nice and sleek! Don't worry, the video isn't the whole night.)
Now, to think of solutions. The only ones that spring to mind are not doing the feeds at all (but then Mike has to make the feeds in the morning), covering the water bucket (but with what? It's have to be a good fit), or hanging it from the ceiling on a rope. The last of those has the advantage that, if it's a smart rat, I'll then be able to get some *really* cool pictures....
([Taps fingers] Come on YouTube, finish processing so that I can post this and head off to Pilates!) |
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Pictures
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♥Feb. 27th, 2014 // 04:33 pm♥
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On Monday, we had a couple of chaps come in to quote for repainting out varnished pine kitchen: it's structurally very sound, but a bit twiddly and dated, so we're hoping that this will perk it up a bit, as well as starting the process of de-magnolia-ifying the house. Mike vetoed my first choice of colour (beige-y brown), and instead wanted a pale pink. He changed his mind when I painted a big patch of it on the wall (phew), and it now looks like we're having a pale green. I'm getting my brown in the hall, though, so I suppose it's ok.
On Tuesday, Mike went off to town for the day and then, when he came home, we went to see the Reduced Shakespeare Bible, which was quite fun. Note to self: don't sit on the front row. There were probably more people at the theatre than there had been in total on our previous two visits, but it still wasn't remotely full. I wonder if it *ever* is?
On Wednesday, Mike came with me to walk the pooch and we went A Different Way, down to the far end of the valley (where the road doesn't go). Here's a shot back along the valley: you can just see our roof in between the trees.
I actually hung some washing on the line, so naturally it started to throw it down just as we were getting towards home. We cleaned the conservatory, too, getting rid of all the dead insects trapped behind the blinds in the roof. I very much hope that that's going to be a once-a-year job, as it was a touch grim (although better than we'd feared).
Today, the pooch had a tremendous time in the woods: we saw Next Door's dogs, and Farmer's dog, and I took her down the excessively wet path where she had a great time tearing around in the water:
We've been waiting for a pallet of the horse's bedding to be delivered, but there's no sign of it so far. The boys are somewhat annoyed at being kept in when it's a perfectly lovely afternoon, but it tipped down overnight and this morning, and the field's still too waterlogged for it to drain away quickly. Given that Mike's away this weekend, I can't decide if I'd rather it dried out enough for them to go out (and, more importantly, for me to then have to bring both of them back in) or if I'd rather they had to stay in, which will be more work for me.... (Forecast currently says that it's going to rain All Day tomorrow, but then it said heavy showers this afternoon, so.)
Tonight, I'm going to have the camera on in the barn, and we'll see what we manage to catch. Anyone like to place any bets? I'm very bemused by it: it must be something fairly big, to be able to get in the bucket, but there aren't any very big holes that we can find (there might be one behind the remaining untouched bale of hay, but it's not visible from outside) and, anyway, I'd have thought that anything big enough to get into the bucket would also be big enough to knock it over and eat the rest of the food, not just the stuff on top. Most mysterious. |
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Somewhat vindicated
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♥Feb. 27th, 2014 // 07:52 am♥
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Two days ago, Mike came in to wake me and complained that I'd forgotten to put the Baby's pony nuts in his breakfast. This seemed very odd, but I assumed that I must have just put a double helping in his dinner by accident.
Yesterday, Mike came in to wake me and said that this time I'd forgotten to put GB's posh food in *his* breakfast. Oh, and incidentally, I'd put the buckets the wrong way around so that GB's was on top. This seemed very unlikely. Mike mocked me for being senile.
GB's bucket, I add, goes on the bottom due to his food being tastier for the mice. Although, since we moved All The Rest Of The Food to a metal box, I've been taking the added precaution of putting the feed buckets inside an old water bucket, and standing it in the middle of empty floor, to make sure that the mice couldn't get to the only available source of food.
Yesterday, after I made up the feeds, Mike went around and checked that I had indeed put hard food in all four buckets, then I stacked the breakfasts up and put them in the water bucket as usual.
This morning, Mike came in to wake me and confessed that I was vindicated: the Baby's pony nuts were all gone....
So. Can't be a mouse, and I suspect that either a rat (or a bunny?) can also be crossed off the list, as there's no poo. Fox? Badger? I'm going to have a look for likely holes today, but the the current plan is to leave the light on with my time lapse camera tonight, and see who comes for tea.... |
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Mouse Patrol!
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♥Jan. 23rd, 2014 // 05:16 pm♥
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Jodie's had a terribly busy day, today, on guard against the ferocious Meece Army.
First, she had to check the barn. For reasons best known to highly skilled Mouse Hounds, it was vitally important to check the ceiling out carefully:
After that, the place at the bottom of the shelves, normally filled with spare hay nets, had to be investigated:
(Note also the carrot bucket, which I'm thinking of marketing commercially as A Better Mouse Trap.)
Later in the day, the house also had to be checked carefully:
(This is probably my fault, I'm afraid. When I unrolled the carpet, I noticed that there was a discoloured patch at one end, so I hid it under the shelves. I have now realised that that patch was probably rodent-related, so Jodie can very definitely smell a mouse under the shelves, she just can't seem to see it or get it to run away in terror so that she can chase it....)
It's all terribly exhausting, being an Elite Mouse Hound!
(And, thanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif) twinfair, my Thunderbird not-updating-unread-counts issue is fixed. Now I just need something to change the unread mail count on the dock icon to reflect all folders (not just the inbox) or, preferably, a way to put a separate total count there or in the menu bar, and I'm officially happy with the new set up.... [hopeful face]) |
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