SageHill
Herd Master
Daaaamn $6 !! -- it's almost worth a drive down this way.OMG! Are you guys complaining or bragging about your gas prices? Still around $6/gal here in So CA.
Farmerjan's journal - Weather
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murphysranch
Herd Master
Went up to $3.38 in Vancouver WA. Up over 10 cents in the last week.
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farmerjan
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Sunday aft. It has been a chilly raw day. Little bit of rain/misty stuff and temps now dropping to low 30's...
My brother came in Friday eve and spent some time with DS. I had already planned dinner at Deb's.... our 2nd taco night. Sat DS and brother went around feeding cattle hay and then we went up to the state fish hatchery and saw the 3 varieties of trout they raise up and stock the fishing streams from. They actually do not hatch them there but get the fingerlings from another hatchery and then feed them out there to stock. They were closed but DS knows one of the guys that works there, and it is where he went and did the course on tree cutting/lumberjacking for work a few weeks ago. So we got to see what they were learning about felling trees, different cuts/wedges all that... and got to see the fish being fed. It was chilly but the sun was out and a nice afternoon. Then they went and took some hay to the farm down near DS's GF house and then I drove down and met them and we went out to eat at a locally owned BBQ place, not far from her place. Then I brought brother back with me to DS house where he was staying as DS had to be in to work at 4 this morning for the possibility of the sleet/freezing rain that was in the forecast. It never materialized... just a cold rain that started mid-morning. It has been very slight and sporadic. Just plain old nasty out.
Brother was going to leave early this morning since DS had to work until noon. I haven't talked to DS so don't know if he is going to have to go back in tonight. Brother is heading down to Fla... visit some friends and then make his way back up through here in a week or 2 on his way back to NY. He has no real timeline since he is not committed to any "work" this winter. He said he has not had a vacation in 12 years... between all the various jobs he did off season of the fishing charter boat. No snow plowing this year, no care for parents for the past 2 winters, he said he was just slowing down some. I get it.
Still problems with the lawyer up north for the estate and brother is ready to force it to go to the probate since the terms of the will are not being followed. House has been sold, distributions have not been made and now the lawyer is asking for info that brother's own lawyer says has NOTHING to do with the settlements and that parents lawyer is milking the estate. It is going to get nasty real quick unless that lawyer gets his act together.
Took bread crusts out of the freezer to thaw and going to make some bread pudding. Want some comfort food and heat the oven to warm the kitchen. Might make some brownies or something else to use the oven heat too. Should have taken out something to cook like a roast or something... This week coming it is looking like we are going to get some more "iffy" weather... maybe I will get another chicken out to roast. I ate beef stew for several days so not really wanting that for another week. Got to take out some more ground beef to brown to make more tacos and use the stuff I have available too.
Going to get the paint out since I have the bottom cabinets all cleaned out, and stuff boxed in the kitchen... counter tops all cleaned and washed a few more things that went into the cupboards. Bad thing is that I caught 2 more mice after nearly 3 weeks of none... got 1 one night and another the next morning. Found where they got into a brand new box with a glass jar and shredded the styrofoam and made a mess....and a bag of rice in with some other stuff that they got into and rice grains all over everywhere... trying to get all that sort of stuff into jars and stuff they can't chew through. Got a few things into another tote to go with all the "yard sale" stuff too.
It is foggy and just plain nasty out there.... getting dark early due to the crummy weather.
My brother came in Friday eve and spent some time with DS. I had already planned dinner at Deb's.... our 2nd taco night. Sat DS and brother went around feeding cattle hay and then we went up to the state fish hatchery and saw the 3 varieties of trout they raise up and stock the fishing streams from. They actually do not hatch them there but get the fingerlings from another hatchery and then feed them out there to stock. They were closed but DS knows one of the guys that works there, and it is where he went and did the course on tree cutting/lumberjacking for work a few weeks ago. So we got to see what they were learning about felling trees, different cuts/wedges all that... and got to see the fish being fed. It was chilly but the sun was out and a nice afternoon. Then they went and took some hay to the farm down near DS's GF house and then I drove down and met them and we went out to eat at a locally owned BBQ place, not far from her place. Then I brought brother back with me to DS house where he was staying as DS had to be in to work at 4 this morning for the possibility of the sleet/freezing rain that was in the forecast. It never materialized... just a cold rain that started mid-morning. It has been very slight and sporadic. Just plain old nasty out.
Brother was going to leave early this morning since DS had to work until noon. I haven't talked to DS so don't know if he is going to have to go back in tonight. Brother is heading down to Fla... visit some friends and then make his way back up through here in a week or 2 on his way back to NY. He has no real timeline since he is not committed to any "work" this winter. He said he has not had a vacation in 12 years... between all the various jobs he did off season of the fishing charter boat. No snow plowing this year, no care for parents for the past 2 winters, he said he was just slowing down some. I get it.
Still problems with the lawyer up north for the estate and brother is ready to force it to go to the probate since the terms of the will are not being followed. House has been sold, distributions have not been made and now the lawyer is asking for info that brother's own lawyer says has NOTHING to do with the settlements and that parents lawyer is milking the estate. It is going to get nasty real quick unless that lawyer gets his act together.
Took bread crusts out of the freezer to thaw and going to make some bread pudding. Want some comfort food and heat the oven to warm the kitchen. Might make some brownies or something else to use the oven heat too. Should have taken out something to cook like a roast or something... This week coming it is looking like we are going to get some more "iffy" weather... maybe I will get another chicken out to roast. I ate beef stew for several days so not really wanting that for another week. Got to take out some more ground beef to brown to make more tacos and use the stuff I have available too.
Going to get the paint out since I have the bottom cabinets all cleaned out, and stuff boxed in the kitchen... counter tops all cleaned and washed a few more things that went into the cupboards. Bad thing is that I caught 2 more mice after nearly 3 weeks of none... got 1 one night and another the next morning. Found where they got into a brand new box with a glass jar and shredded the styrofoam and made a mess....and a bag of rice in with some other stuff that they got into and rice grains all over everywhere... trying to get all that sort of stuff into jars and stuff they can't chew through. Got a few things into another tote to go with all the "yard sale" stuff too.
It is foggy and just plain nasty out there.... getting dark early due to the crummy weather.
SageHill
Herd Master
GRRRRR on the mice. DANG. Sneaky bastards.
Ridgetop
Herd Master
Such a shame about your parents' estate. The way the grandchildren were behaving and not agreeing probably made it easy for the lawyer to overbill. Quick settlement of the estate would have saved a lot of $$$. So sorry for yo and DS having to go through this.
Bruce
Herd Master
You need a nice house cat with sharp claws! What they don't catch and kill they will "spot" for you. They can hear the mice when we can't. If our cats are overly interested in something, it is probably a mouse in hiding.
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farmerjan
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@Bruce .....I do not like inside cats... but I am almost ready for one. Heard a mouse in the bedroom this morning... haven't had anything in there in weeks that I could see or hear. Time for one outside and have to pray it stays off the roads. I can feed it in the storage building and there are places along the bottom that it can get in and out where there are pieces of the siding missing. This has gotten out of hand. Plus I can get a swinging type door for them to be able to get in and out of the basement crawl space if I have to. I have never seen so many mice in an area like here. But, I have always had outside barn cats, at the other places I have lived. They get fed, and are supposed to supplement with choice "catches" outside..... and most have also taken care of the moles/voles in the lawn too and there are alot of mole tunnels here with the ground not staying frozen this winter.
Ridgetop
Herd Master
In the case of an infestation like you seem to have, a cat seems to be the next step.
Our first house was falling down when we bought it 50 years ago. Two story, built in 1900, it had been rented out for years. There were broken windows surrounded by orange trees in the back upstairs bedroom. Holes in the floorboards and old plaster walls gave access to mice and rats to get inside and circulate through the walls, ceilings, etc. After 6 months of listening to feet patter in the walls and overhead all night we got a cat and turned it loose in that room. She went through a hole in the floorboards and we didn't see her again for over a month. I kept her water bowl filled every day so I knew she was still there somewhere. While we couldn't see her, we could hear her on the job. Such thumping and banging around you never heard!! Lasted for several months then nothing but pitiful meowing. She had caught all the mice, rats, and squirrels that had been living in the house and got hungry! She was sleek and sassy, and after that she needed to be fed, but the house was vermin free until she disappeared about 5 years later. We lived on a busy road then so she was possibly hit by a car, but she was a marvelous mouser. By the time she disappeared we had renovated and sealed the house but still kept a couple of indoor/outdoor cats. We brought our cat with us when we moved to this house. She was an indoor/outdoor cat and she had several litters of kittens, then we switched to barn cats when DD1 developed an allergy to cats and rabbits. The children used to hint for the nests of newborn kittens in the barn and garage. They kept the place free of vermin. Now we use sticky traps because everyone is spaying and neutering their cats and there are no people standing in front of the grocery store with cardboard boxes of kittens to give away.
My kids would come home with several kittens at a time - extra kittens were always welcome here. Between the rabbits, chickens, and dairy goats there was always plenty of dropped feed for rats and mice to eat. The cats fed on them. Ah, the circle of life.
Yep, @Bruce is right, you need a cat.
Our first house was falling down when we bought it 50 years ago. Two story, built in 1900, it had been rented out for years. There were broken windows surrounded by orange trees in the back upstairs bedroom. Holes in the floorboards and old plaster walls gave access to mice and rats to get inside and circulate through the walls, ceilings, etc. After 6 months of listening to feet patter in the walls and overhead all night we got a cat and turned it loose in that room. She went through a hole in the floorboards and we didn't see her again for over a month. I kept her water bowl filled every day so I knew she was still there somewhere. While we couldn't see her, we could hear her on the job. Such thumping and banging around you never heard!! Lasted for several months then nothing but pitiful meowing. She had caught all the mice, rats, and squirrels that had been living in the house and got hungry! She was sleek and sassy, and after that she needed to be fed, but the house was vermin free until she disappeared about 5 years later. We lived on a busy road then so she was possibly hit by a car, but she was a marvelous mouser. By the time she disappeared we had renovated and sealed the house but still kept a couple of indoor/outdoor cats. We brought our cat with us when we moved to this house. She was an indoor/outdoor cat and she had several litters of kittens, then we switched to barn cats when DD1 developed an allergy to cats and rabbits. The children used to hint for the nests of newborn kittens in the barn and garage. They kept the place free of vermin. Now we use sticky traps because everyone is spaying and neutering their cats and there are no people standing in front of the grocery store with cardboard boxes of kittens to give away.
My kids would come home with several kittens at a time - extra kittens were always welcome here. Between the rabbits, chickens, and dairy goats there was always plenty of dropped feed for rats and mice to eat. The cats fed on them. Ah, the circle of life. Yep, @Bruce is right, you need a cat.
Mini Horses
Herd Master
I have several ferals, always there & on the job...just can't pet them! 
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farmerjan
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The only real reason I have not gotten any is the proximity to the road and seeing so many dead on the roads in my travels.... I just don't want to go out and find them splattered.... there were a few that actually got killed on the dirt road I used to live on, with about 10 cars a day on it at most. And they traveled a WHOLE LOT SLOWER on that road than the 45-60 on this road.....I've had outside barn cats most all the time I've had animals....
