Friday, July 13, 2012

Seriously...

Six, count them (Robin, Stella, Charlotte, Miss Bea, Smoochie, Jack), SIX terriers and not a one of them could catch this little imp hiding under the washer or dryer.



 And lets not forget the one house cat. Sheesh, it took me, worlds dinkiest Hav-A-Hart trap and some peanut butter to do the job. It was a catch and release of course. Little Minnie or Mickey went into the Peromyscus relocation program and ended up on a woodsy rock outcropping about 75 yards from the house. I am sure the local mouse population is being regaled with stories about the horde of lazy critters. Maybe the mouse version of a big fish story?

The terriers are adept at finding the errant scorpion though. He was not so lucky. Enough said.

Now I know you are all probably impressed with how magnanimous I am, not to mention sheer bravery, but I need to come clean. In the face of another Southern Oregon summer, (which by the way, finally arrived), I am a griping, grouchy wimp. I just can't stand high heat and I know that many of you, in most parts of the country, are experiencing MUCH worse than we have on average up here in the Cascade-Siskiyou Mountain range.  Kudos to you, and to all those fire fighters on the front lines in Colorado too! Anyway, I cried "Uncle"( a few other things too), and broke down and bought a cheap small window air conditioner for the bedroom. $99.00 between me and a good nights sleep. It was a no brainer. DH wisely installed it with very little comment, but I did notice he brought in the ice scraper from his truck. If only it could get the room cold enough for frost on the windows.....

In general farm news, Bob got an oil change. It was a real pain locating the proper oil filter. He's about 21 years old and the parts books no longer cross reference his old part number, so we and by "we" I mean Gene, had to take out the old filter, go to town and get a new one. That current part number is written on the front of the manual we have for him. I was a little insulted when one of the tractor parts places asked if he was a mower when I gave them his model number. Bob is NOT a big lawn mower, he's a small tractor, complete with front end loader and could take other normal tractor attachments if we wanted. He may be small, but he is mighty and I told them so.

Sewing has been steady but slow. Monday I cut out 4 summer blouse patterns. There is something perverse about spending all morning vacuuming and cleaning, only to make a mess cutting up fabrics an hour after I'm done, but that's what happens.  I made up a repeat of Burda pattern 7398.





 I had bought this pattern and some fabric I liked when I was in MA and gave my folks sewing machine a good cleaning and little workout on it while there. I liked version one a lot. It took a while constructing pockets on this second version. I just love the practicality and fun that adding a pocket offers so when I saw a little 5" zipper at the "craft store masquerading as a fabric store", I had to give it a whirl.



 This shirt got a little breast pocket too because I loved being able to use the interesting selvage edge from some left over grey Swiss Dot fabric.

Weaving has been steady but slow too. The end of the Murphy warp is in sight.

Riding has been out of the question. Along with the heat these last few days, we have stayed pretty humid for us, over 50% most evenings and overnight, dropping to around 30% during the day.  The boys did get out for a day of grazing rotation, the grass is drying up quickly, so it was probably one of their last. I may hand walk them all over to one area
and keep watch since it is nearer the road than I would like. Basically, we're hitting the dog days of summer. Fire danger is rising to "High" today, we're watching the skies for thunder storms and hoping all the visitors to our lovely mountain are as careful as we are during fire season.

Parting shot: Rodent specialists? I think not!




9 comments:

Long Ridge Farm said...

We have the same thing going here, rodent wise. Although chipmunks don't fair as well under the paw as the mice. One day Webster did catch a mouse and Luna licked it to death!
And when you gripe so so I ...I just don't like the heat at all and here we go with 5 more days of above 90 and humidity. sigh.

Cindie said...

Those ears back flat on the head look like a guilty look to me for not catching the mouse! Maybe next time one of them will do better.

Mary said...

Wonderful post-->full of details about your interesting life. I love that fabric above and the little zippered pocket. Stay cool-I am inside most of the day lately.

LA said...

"It's too hot to be chasing mice!" It's a good thing you have that AC unit, now. They'll do better next time! Love the new top!!!!

Anonymous said...

So, you succumbed to the call of the AC, good on you! Had to laugh about the non mouse catchers in your house. My sheepdog Sam has not been interested in catching any mice around here either! You are much nicer to your mice than I am. I use peanut butter to bait a really nice electonic mouse trap. Mousie steps on the electric pad to taste the peanut butter and it is goodbye mousie! See, you are much nicer than I am. Love your new top, the fabric is fabulous!

Norma from Misty Haven Alpacas said...

Beautiful shirt. I agree with the comment from Cindie above...the pup has that ashamed look that says 'Please don't tell your blog readers that I'm not doing my bit around here'...

Anonymous said...

Oh I can picture mousey holding court 'first I tamed them! Then they did my bidding and brought me treats of kibble and peanut paste!'

Theresa said...

Nancy, I'm frankly surprised at our humidity. As to the varmint hunters maybe the errant piece of dropped cheese or crumbs is enough use of their sharply refined hunting skills. After all, there are 8 of them....

Oh, he's guilty all right Cindie, but I have yet to find out about what.;)

Mary, I have to say, I think my life can be pretty dull. I mean how high up on anyone's list can tractor maintenance be to read about???! :) The fabric is awesome though, you can't really see the details of the blouse on those pics since it is so busy.

LA & Thistle Rose, Oh yes, the A/C is popular, I have a small crowd now when I go up to sew in there....They sure caught on to that fast.

Norma, Thank you!

prrtynpnk, I can see this being a good basis for a children's book. The Tall Tails of Little Mouse maybe?

mrsmole said...

Cool blouse and cool A/C...good for you girl!
We also broke down and bought a room A/C from Costco so we could lower the temps in my sewing room next to the kitchen. Peas are done producing with this heat but it is the beans and squash to make their appearances along with Japanese eggplant...and speaking of Japanese things...ooo weeee that Mushroom house dress just makes your eyes pop out! Rodents....had one that lived in my sewing room one year and once ran across the room when I had a client in her underwear...she didn't spot it, thank God. I put out boxes of rodent pellets behind furniture and they don't seem to make return appearances as I have no animals to catch them...well neither do you as it turns out...ha ha