It's finally cooled off up here in our neck of the woods and the breezy evenings of late summer have moved in to coordinate perfectly with the early sunsets. Normally, we enjoy this time of day from the bug-free comfort of our screened in patio, but tonight we decided to come to a restaurant by the water to take advantage of these rare moments and avoid a situation we aren't sure how to deal with.
It all started because the garden was not looking it's best lately, so The Crew decided some dahlias from the Farmers Market would give a little lift to the surroundings.
While adding the last blooms to the basket, The Crew heard some scratching sounds coming from the baker's rack. Kibitz was dispatched to check it out.
It seems there's a new resident in one of the birdhouses.
There's nothing like overreacting. Really? Is it that bad?
Then, after a more thorough investigation he discovered something else.
There's two, at least. One is cute, two is a problem and there could be even more. About a month ago, when I was outside, watering our kitchen window box, something very small and soft jumped onto my shoulder and then onto the ground. After I stopped screaming and ruled out it's being a bat, the only critter it could have been was a mouse. Field mice have stonger hind legs than house mice and are supposedly excellent jumpers. (Isn't that just great?) Several of our neighbors are avid campers, and they may have been stowaways. We've never had mice around before but our sweet kitties, who have sadly crossed over the rainbow bridge, probably took care of the problem.
(They only leave their nests at dusk, so the photos of the mice were taken in the evening.)
In the end, The Crew had a good laugh over how scared they were of a tiny creature that weighs about as much as a AA battery. We will pick up some humane traps somewhere and relocate them to the county park, several miles away. As for the birdhouses, they were about to go back into the garage to make space for pumpkins anyway, and we'll toss the ones that were occupied. The birds that nest in our backyard never cared for the birdhouses, they're probably better hidden in the shrubs and rose bushes. So the cute little houses ended up as decor, until the mice came along.
So, the sun has set on another weird day. It was a good excuse to enjoy a beautiful evening and to have a break from wondering how to evict two tiny creatures from our patio without too much effort on our part. We did have five raccoons living in the upstairs of our garage once but there are professionals to handle that scary a job. This is going to be a DIY because it would be too embarassing not to do it ourselves.
I hope everyone is having a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.
See you soon!
