It's still a little hard to tell, but despite the occasional late snowstorm, it appears spring has sprung in northwestern Pennsylvania. Most of the snow on the open fields has melted, leaving only the larger snowbanks and piles built up by the snow plows. The green shoots of spring perennials have made themselves apparent in the garden. And the yearly battle with vermin waking from their dormancy has begun one more time. Sadly, it turns me into a mass murderer.
Details over the orange sno-cone.
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It has been nearly 10 years since we moved to this house in the country. Having a flock of turkeys strolling through the back yard, or a pair of bluebirds visit your deck can be delightful. However, not all wildlife is welcome, particularly when that wildlife decides that our house is free and open for residency. Damn it, we pay the mortgage!
It started with the ants. A couple years ago, out of frustration with how long it took for my old kettle to boil water on our electric range, my husband bought a new-fangled electric kettle, which is detachable from its power-providing base. It also turns itself off when the water has reached its boiling point. One morning last week (or was it two weeks ago?), I start heating the water in the pot, as I usually do, in order to make my husband his tea. Only I notice that there were ants crawling all over the kitchen counter. Many, many ants. Apparently, an enterprising troop of ants had found the kettle heating base and decided that it was just the spot to build a new colony. There were exponentially more ants underneath the base. The boiled water had the scent of formic acid, because a few ants had managed to crawl into the kettle itself. So we had an emergency clean-up of the kitchen counter, removing as many of the ants as we could.
Ants in the kitchen in the spring are nothing new. The colony, however, was a first. In order to discourage drawing ants, it's important for the kitchen to be scrupulously clean, with no traces of food or grease anywhere accessible. We tend to be a bit lax about that level of cleanliness most of the year, but in the spring, we become more careful. There are still a few stray ants crawling around the counter, but with application of vigilance and heightened cleanliness (but no insecticide), they should disappear before too long.
On to the groundhogs. I've mentioned them before. Their favorite living space is directly below the house. The reason they love it so much is that the house is on high, and therefore dry, ground. My husband hates them because they profligately eat stuff in the garden. I hate them because the groundhogs could be undermining the foundations of the house. We are at war with them continuously during the growing season. Our weapons are smoke bombs. We thought we had put them away for the winter last fall, but it should not have been a surprise to find that big old hole on the east side of the house a week ago. We scouted around the house to try to find all other entries and air-holes, sealed them all, and threw in the lit smoke bombs. Well, that's that, for at least a little while, right? The next day, I checked the east side of the house, and the hole was back. So we bombed them again that evening. Two days later, I found that the same hole had been dug out again; so I threw down more smoke bombs and sealed it again, but I knew that there must be a hole we hadn't found it yet.
Since that third bombing, they seem to have abandoned the hole on the east side of the house, but there's a new hole on the north side, inconveniently located underneath the deck. Further, while transporting firewood to the deck, I came across an additional hole in the back yard I didn't know about previously. So, tonight, I'll be smoke bombing them again. I just hope it takes more than a week for the next set of holes appear, as they invariably will.
By the way, traipsing around the property since most of the snow has melted has revealed huge amounts of deer poop everywhere. Hubby hates them, too, for the damage they do to virtually everything that ought to be growing. He's intent on erecting an electric fence to keep them out. I'm wondering how this is going to work in practice, and if this fence going to interfere with mowing the lawn. In any case, that's his project, not so much mine.
Finally, yesterday morning, as I was preparing to make coffee, I was startled by a vole skittering under the range. We have more problems with voles in the house in the fall than in the spring, but this is not unusual. So, I got out a mouse trap and baited it with peanut butter. I happened to wake up around 6 AM this mooring, and during that waking interval I heard a snap! from the kitchen. Sure enough, when I got up a few hours later, the vole was in the trap. I'll set out another trap just in case that vole had any companions.
With this continuous pitched battle against my fellow Earth-creatures, it's hard to imagine how I've had the time to do anything else. I sometimes worry about what it's doing to my karma. On the other hand, when we lived in New Jersey, we rented a house that was infested with termites, and every May, they would come out in numbers that were nothing less than Biblical. I haven't had to deal with anything quite so horrible since then. So I guess I should count my blessings.
So now, on to the comments!
TOP MOJO
April 3, 2015
(excluding Tip Jars and first comments)
Got mik!
1) Run, Bernie, Run! by Phoebe Loosinhouse — 170
2) Disaster capitalists... by markthshark — 152
3) Somebody has to go there... by ontheleftcoast — 137
4) Naomi Klein by ask — 135
5) "Pray In Public" #ThingsJesusNeverSaid nt by Gooserock — 108
6) "Anything in English" #ThingsJesusNeverSaid by ontheleftcoast — 105
7) A "must-read" on income inequality, today... by bobswern — 101
8) As Krugman points out in his headline, by DiesIrae — 95
9) LWB (living while black) by ontheleftcoast — 90
10) Don't you just love "small government" by Its the Supreme Court Stupid — 88
11) Hear, Hear by Quabbin — 87
12) Me too, as noted in... by Meteor Blades — 86
13) Whoa.. I haven't been pulled over 3 times in the by ontheleftcoast — 81
14) "Today's GOP: in your pantries by Ashes of Roses — 77
15) A lot of people don't remember this, by nosleep4u — 73
16) Matthew 6:5-6 by Angie in WA State — 72
17) Thank You Senator by Choco8 — 71
18) Of course they do... by mHainds — 69
19) There is an incredibly funny Twitter storm by ExpatGirl — 66
20) They want war, but they sure as hell... by dewtx — 64
21) The outrage by Billybones — 63
22) I drive a lipstick red sports car, usually by Greyhound — 62
23) How ironic that the deal may be consumated by WisePiper — 62
24) Report on Prog Radio Today Said Sales People by Gooserock — 60
25) DWB /nt by annieli — 60
26) Anyone who claims by anastasia p — 58
27) Good post. by TomP — 58
28) I'm Guessing They Most Wanted It 6 Months Later by Gooserock — 55
29) It was also his main focus when he was in by Fonsia — 54
30) Somewhat misleading to by Publius2008 — 53
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TOP PHOTOS
April 3, 2015
Enjoy jotter's wonderful PictureQuilt™ below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo. Have fun, Kossacks!
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