Miscellaneous Ramblings

This post is somthing of a catch-all. I haven't been very diligent about updating in the past 2 or 3 months, so this is an attempt to bring the blog up to speed...

When we bought the Prairie Box, the previous owners left some things behind. Nothing like House in Progress... All of the stuff our POs left was potentially useful. We were a bit mysified by the amount of mouse bait they had out. There were little D-Con poison pellets in each of the upstairs closet, scattered around on the insulation in the attic, and all over the basement. After seeing this, we got a little anxious. What kind of house did we buy? Are there poisoned mice inside the walls? And over a year later, we still had yet to see so much as a little mouse turd. So, to prevent poisoned mice from finding their way into the walls, and to keep Kitty from poisioning herself, the mouse poison in accessible places was thrown away.

And then, two days ago, Shayne went down into the basement and found a dead mouse. Who needs poision when you have a cat? :) I have to say I'm impressed. Kitty has never been much of a hunter, and until we moved out here, she was kept indoor except when under strict supervision. Now, Kitty goes out just about every morning. She turned up a month or so ago with a dead bird, which was a first for her. And now the mouse. Go figure. 12 years old, and she finally learns how to hunt! Now maybe Shayne won't crab as much about her being useless...!

A month or so ago, I found another former heat vent. This one is in the kitchen, under/behind the stove. In the past, the kitchen cabinets only took up 2 walls. When they covered the 3rd wall with cabinets and appliances, they also covered up the heat vent. I found it by accident when I took off the panel on the bottom of the stove to vacuum underneath it. It's covered by a piece of galvanized sheeting and duct tape. No wonder this house is heated and cooled so unevenly. It's missing about 3 or 4 vents... Also under the stove was a look at some ancient tile or linoleum, which they carpeted right over. Nice. I'd rip up the carpet, but Shayne would probably kill me... The picture also shows a lovely circular hole that is cut through the floor. No clue what might have been there.