Critters . . .Part II

(Since blogs post newest first, scroll down and read Emrys-1 Critters-0 first)

I'm not a fan of Critters - at all. And very early this morning when was woken by noises it took me a second to realize that they were louder that the scuttering in the attic from the night before and seemed to involve metal and glass. I got out of bed and turned lights on as I looked around the house. I got to the kitchen, wandered through, half awake into the living room and turned again to the kitchen. First my eyes landed on a lot of things that should have been in the window sill, haphazardly in the sink and on the counter. Then over on the top of the stove, sitting very very still was a Critter - little grey squirrel to be exact.

I called up to Emrys - he was still asleep or ignoring the comotion. So I looked around for a box or something to try to lure the little guy into to throw him out - evicted! At 5 am rational thought doesn't come into play - all I thought was "he looks scared and I'm bigger than he is!" Unfortunately he was faster. Even with peanut butter he wouldn't climb into the flower pot I found. Instead he jumped on my hand up one arm, down the other and across the room. I screamed. Emrys finally woke up and called down to see if I was ok. I opened the window and door hoping he'd find his way to the cold air (yeah right!). I closed everything up and went back to bed.

This morning, the flower pot with peanut butter that I left in the sink was still in the sink - minus the peanut butter. Ok Critter, get used to the flavor and find it in the attic. I tried to play nice now Emrys can have ya! And I have to go lysol the Kitchen. :(

Critters-1, Emrys-1

Last night we heard critters scampering in the ceiling over our bedroom. Actually, 'scampering' doesn't quite do justice. To be accurate, we should say that a crew of rodents spent the night constructing and testing out Upstate New York's first four-footed discotheque. So this morning I whipped out my brand-new Gorilla ladder (13 positions, stores smaller than a five-foot step ladder: urgh, urgh, UURRRGH!) and broke through the top of our closet into the crawl-space.

I had been worried about the amount of insulation between our ceiling and the roof--I worry no more. Seas of yellow and pink greeted the sweeping beam of my Mag-Lite as it swept under the rafters. Seas in which a legion of furry four-footers could easily live and breed for a decade and still have room to expand.

Why don't animals suffer ill effects from breathing in fibreglass insulation?

After covering the louvred vent to the outside--whose screen had been decimated by aggressive teeth and claws--I went to work beginning the end of our unwanted residents.

I don't know who invented the first mousetrap. I do know that Victor, a dominant vendor of rodent-destroying paraphernalia, now makes a plastic trap that is easy to load and less risky for human fingers. It's the better mousetrap of today . . . but I use the old ones. Why?

A few weeks ago I heard the plastic trap go off and found in its jaws--nothing! That experience, mixed with a fear that mice too can learn and combined with old-fashioned machismo has brought me back to the old wood-and-metal traps. That's right: the Tom-and-Jerry kind that have to be pulled all the way back and set very, very carefully lest you get a finger caught and curse like a drunken sailor (unseemly for a pastor).

I took my mousetrap--excuse, me, rat-trap: about four times bigger than a mousetrap and capable of nearly breaking human distal phalanges (believe me, I know)--and mounted the ladder to the crawl space. It took me twenty minutes to set the trap, because the half-teaspoon of peanut butter I used as bait was too heavy. You hear that? A half-teaspoon of peanut butter set off the trap! (Uh, huh. That's what I'm talking about.) Finally, with just a smear of the sweet-and-salty siren calling from its yellow tab, I set the trap in the crawl-space very, very carefully. (Why does the feeling of a trap going off in my hand scare me? I nearly shouted aloud when it happened the first time. The suspense of setting a trap makes me sweat!) Then I descended to other tasks around the house. Four hours later I went up to check the trap.

The beauty of the Victor mousetrap is its special-ops-style execution. It breaks the neck without breaking the skin. Crazy. Instantaneous (which makes it more "humane," I suppose) and bloodless. The subject dies without struggle or suffering--and I suppose if you wanted to preserve the pelt for production of a wardrobe piece, you could. I prefer to dump them out in the back 40.

That's what I did with the squirrel--not rat, not mouse, but squirrel--who found the peanut butter bait irresistible. One down. Let's see how many more are up there.

Rural life. Actual nature. Gotta love it.

~emrys

6:15:04

Yesterday I finished my first marathon! 4 hours after the first folks crossed the finish... I came strolling through! If someone would have told me in the middle of chemo that I would walk a marathon in the next 18 months I probably would have shot out all sort of dirty looks and then laughed at them. But then I got my health back and a new sort of resolution.

A self proclaimed non-athlete, I guess I have to change my song. After my first half marathon my mom told me that I couldn't say I wasn't athletic anymore

Yesterday I finished my first marathon in 6:15:04 - walking 26.2 miles on an average of 14 minutes 19 seconds each.

I was walking for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training. Personally I raised almost $4,800, as a team we raised $51,000 and in its entirity, Team In Training brought in over $5 million with this weekend's event with over 1,800 participants in the full and half marathons.

It was amazing!!

Correction & I love new shoes!

So today was my first day out in pair of sneakers #3 and they felt awesome! Some women get excited about new shoes to go with an outfit, for me, it's my walking shoes!

And here's a correction: Race results will be posted at http://www.azcentral.com/sports/azetc/07rnraz/07rnraz_index.html the day of the race. Find me there: Bib number 13112 or by my name :)
~sjt

One Week Out

Well, my road to the marathon started over a year ago. Now I am one week out from the big event. Seven days from right now it will all be over and I'll be hobbling around Peoria AZ! I'm excited for the race - although I'm only out to finish in less than 7 hours! As an added bonus we have friends from California who will be coming out to see us and our friend Sophie will be walking the marathon with me. It will be some good catch up time, and probably some scheming too. We're good at that!

So if I don't make it on the blog again between now and then, start time is 7:30 AM in Arizona which is 9:30 Eastern, 8:30 Central, 6:30 Pacific. The time splits from the chip on my shoe should be posted at www.rnraz.com. And we'll have the cell phone and can be reached that way!

~sjt

The Assault Against The Draft

We’re becoming more and more convinced that either A) This house was never occupied in past winters or B) A fortune was spent on heating! We’re trying to occupy the house in the winter and not spend a fortune on heating. We want it all! So we’re out to eliminate The Draft- you know, that pesky cold breeze that floats across your ankles or nose, just when you've warmed up. Well his big brother, the one that turns your feet to icecubes, is trying to take over The Cabin.

Phase one of the assault was insulating windows- we mentioned that before. Then better weather stripping around the doors. Phase 2 has been window blanket/curtain things to help keep The Draft from coming in that way.

Last night, someone told us to check where the pipes come inside from the baseboard heating. So this morning Emrys was trying to figure out how to get the metal casings off of the baseboard heating and resigned himself to the thought that all the baseboard trim was going to have to come off to get at the pipes. Enter me. I’ve become really good at taking things apart (see earlier blog about the icemaker)! 5 minutes later the baseboard in the kitchen was taken apart and low and behold: there’s a freakin’ hole in the wall around the pipe and The Draft is marching right in around it! So Emrys is off to the local hardware store to find out what to insulate around heating pipes with and come back and fix it! Then he’ll have to figure out how to put the baseboard heating unit back together!

I’m off for a 12 mile walk in the neighborhood, the latest Vince Flynn novel loaded on my MP3 player for my entertainment out on the road. Happy Saturday to all!

The Party Cabin!

Last night we hosted the first non-family party here at the Cabin. We had 13 of the church youth and their friends over for pizza & games. Besides the fact that they left us with a ton of leftover pizza – it was a great night! A couple had to double up on chairs to fit around the table and anytime someone got up for seconds they were likely to lose their seat- but hey, they’re teenagers: they don’t care!

Pizza was followed by two games of spoons: one group upstairs, one group downstairs. Nothing was broken so it was a success. (For those unfamiliar: Spoons is a card game and can get rather rowdy and involve fighting over silverware. Clear as mud?) Then they moved on to Celebrities: a modified form of charades.

Kudo’s to the KitchenAid! A QUADRUPLE batch of pizza dough and not even a whimper!

Round 2 is Sunday for our New Years Eve Open House :)
~sjt

Northeast Heating & Utilities

After arriving back in the northeast this fall, I realized that I have never been responsible for the utility bills in areas where there’s actually winter. I’m slowly getting the hang of this whole paying to stay warm bit that I’d seen so many news reports about in my years out here. After at 300 gallon delivery of propane, the driver left a receipt on the door listing the number of gallons and the rate per gallon. He was kind enough not to tally it up for me- good thing because with my rough estimate, I didn’t want to know exactly how big the bill was going to be! So we’ve invested in a pellet stove insert that was installed today in hopes that the long term return will be lower heating bills. Time will tell.

Yesterday we made a trip to Lowes with my folks to get stuff to help better “winterize” the Cabin and Mom and I put the plastic shrink wrap stuff over some of the draftier windows and today Emrys was filling in the gaps around the doors. The pellet stove has been burning away all afternoon and the upstairs didn’t seem to be gaining the “heat rises” effect. The downstairs living room was great; into the kitchen was fine then BAM! All the heat was headed right out the front door – a metal door, great conductor. So we put a blanket over the door for now – we’ll see if that works! I’ve got plans to put the sewing machine to work and make some insulated window coverings.

That’s enough of the random ramblings of heating. As I sit here though, I’m thankful because we do have a warm place and money to pay the bills and I know that there are so many in this county, state, region and country that do not.

Christmas

Now that we’re smack dab in the middle of the 12 days of Christmas, I have a moment to sit down and reflect. The days leading up to the holiday were a blur of activity getting ready for family to arrive, cleaning, unpacking, and cooking. Christmas came and was celebrated with gifts (a fondue fountain and sewing machine are the big items this year!) and feasts (ham dinner- you should have been here!) and rest. We were joined by my parents and Emrys’ mom and we were all happily engrossed in books and video games for much of the afternoon. It was great! Now it’s just us and the Cabin. Our pellet stove arrived today so we’re trying to keep toasty.