Weekend roofing repair. Overtime $$$ Joy! Before snow gets here in earnest. Freak winds throughout the state; trucks blown off the roads. 125 mph in Missoula - unheard of. Telephone poles & flying outhouses, oh my! One such outhouse flies 100' around various corners until tumbling into the quarry. A thoughtful operator set it up where it landed. I also have one, but lashed it down long ago,
Ah hah! Will be able now to conceal carry, per certain variations on new legislation. Small of back holster - most practical. Ammo just went up.
Pulled some more room apart. Today I got the windowsill removed and found more gaps around the windows. Pulling some of the trim off the base units I noticed a bigger air gap that had been tucked behind a part of the featherboard I hadn't managed to pry away yet. So far I've just poked fiberglass into the spaces while I figure the best way to fix everything. During the course of today's work the temperature in there went from about 46-48 degrees to 52, maybe a little higher. Outside it didn't go above 40. So what I'm doing is obviously having some effect.
Need to warm up roofing materials with electric heaters in order to repair wind damage at work. 30degs F. No snow, fortunately, a situation subject to change before long. Weekend is spent, which is okay - diversion is welcome.
We had evidence of a mouse and terminated it + sealed the hole it chewed its way in through. Next morning, all the mouse traps I laid were empty of peanut butter. A second mouse assumed, and probably more. All but one room of the house cleaned + inspected thoroughly, and no evidence of mice. This means they've either escaped, or they're hiding behind an impenetrable, immovable dresser in the kiddo's room (came with the house). Ugh.
Orwell dreamed of a spying TV, yet I carry around a 'smart' phone. How fitting. Lots of evidence of the mouse we killed; nothing of any new mice. Perplexed.
Find someone who keeps snakes. Put some snake poop on a small base of tinfoil in the general area you suspect the mice are living. Chances are you won't have mice for much longer.
Got a bit more work done in my room - a bit more of the sink unit pried away from the wall, some perished mortar seams chiseled out and repacked with fresh mortar, and one of the larger holes patched up. Along the way I took the chance to cut up some pieces of trim I'm not expecting to reuse... and so begins the third bag of wood scraps for my friend. The larger hole I patched up was big enough to fit an electrical back box into. Thankfully it was easy enough to fill it with cement in only three stages - firstly getting some cement around the edges and building towards the middle, then gradually working inwards letting previous sections dry a little before proceeding. The next big hole is much bigger, so much so that I'm trying to decide whether to spray foam into the space and cement over the top, or use an angle grinder to cut it to a regular shape and cementing some strips of concrete block into place.
I caught a second one overnight, in the kitchen. This is a 100+-year-old house, so my best guess is that they're living in the walls / behind the cabinets, as there is a wall in the kitchen (a teeny tiny little corner) that is open to the outside walls, foundation, etc. We'll give the snake poop a go if the current trap + soon-to-be-introduced peppermint doesn't work out.
Entirely possible, especially if the house is made of hollow concrete blocks or similar. I had a friend in the UK who had a mouse issue and the snake poop trick worked very well for them. They knew where the mice were probably getting in but the mice decided that the apparent presence of a snake was a good reason to find somewhere else to go. Here our house is made of concrete blocks with a huge number of air gaps between indoors and outdoors. I've been gradually blocking them up and filling them in but it's remarkable how many places in the house show evidence of mouse activity. Mostly in the form of nut shells that have been gnawed through - the mouse has long since left but the nut shells apparently last forever. I've also found a number of what I presume are parts of mouse skeletons, so I guess a few of the mice never made their way out again. Having a cat now should help discourage mice but every once in a while the mousetraps in the food cupboards catch something. The confusing part is how they are getting in - since there are no external walls there they must be finding a fairly tortuous route from outside to the cupboards. There is a cold draft coming in from one corner of the cupboard and I have no idea how cold air is getting to it, but presuambly the mice have found the same route the air did.
My black cat, Boo, a mood swinging female, has bright green eyes. She is a relentless hunter, even, at times, of imaginary prey. Mice free.