Loading ...Inspection
Yes, we passed final electrical inspection, by default because the inspector didn’t show up in the two day window. Apparently a group of inspectors will be coming shortly… this presents yet another educational opportunity. So officially all we need to get final occupancy is the completion of the railing on Merrily and Howie’s deck.
We had purchased used fishing net material to fill in under the railing but apparently this does not meet code. So plan B was to use a bit of our left over deer fencing as this is very strong and UV stable…but no go as well as the 1.5 inch toe holds may allow for a child to climb. So once we solve this we can move in…that is after we move a few residents out.
With doors being open and all the traffic, our home has had a few guests, which have become long term… perhaps, even a generation or four. There is nothing to eat in the house (clay and sand have no food value) but the squatters like to sleep inside…who could blame them. For months we have been live trapping and releasing outside…they have had peanut butter and oatmeal for months.
Two years ago our trailer was overrun with squatters. It was at this time that Ann moved from the trailer to the loft in the den, and Gord became the door man, carting out cute furry little deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) down the driveway from 11 pm till 4 am, multiple times a night for three months. We were using live traps of course and catering to the mice. After a shear emotional collapse from sleep deprivation, coupled with the incident of Gord chasing a mouse which climbed into Emily’s bunk snuggling in till morning. Gord contemplated mouse-icide rather than mouse-outside.
Our fearless mouse warrior spent a couple hours laying on his back under the trailer painting cayenne pepper and Tabasco sauce on everything that a critter could climb on as per Ann’s suggestion. With burning hands and armpits our problem was solved with never another mouse. Ann’s comment was, “Great, we wont hear them chewing in the walls anymore…just crying”.
Compton Hill Mouse Escapades… part 2
So painting the cob house with cayenne was not an option. This time we started off with a large multiple live mouse trap (a mouse condo) and two snap-kill-the-little-bastards trap. The first night we caught two; one was caught and composted, the other caught and released outside. A couple hours later another was caught in the live trap. Ann decided to capture and mark this unshaven squatter.
Lacking the proper mouse tagging equipment she used a permanent marker on it’s… or should I say HIS left ear. (Ann actually has training in live trapping, tagging, weighing, and sexing these cute little rodents – hence Gord has a black left ear and he is confirmed male.) She let HIM loose out across the garden about 100 feet away. Two hours later we caught another, HE remarkably had a black left ear. This time it was Gord’s job to relocate him… about 400 feet away well below the trailers over a steep drop off. In the morning we had caught another well fed cutie… with a black left ear of course.
Parker and Emily were thrilled, especially when Gord told the kids that the mouse was going on a little road trip with them. So down the driveway (about 1000 feet away) and across the road, separated by the large distance and cliffs, “Blacky” was set free.
Three days later, after a quiet lull in the traps… Blacky came home. You should never joke with kids about getting a family pet if you can’t live up to the promise. Luckily the kids understood that if Blacky stayed in a cage in the house, that he would spend his life trying to escape… compared to his normal 8 acres of space. Hmmmm. Maybe it would be best to live in a beautiful park? The kids agreed thankfully.
Blacky now resides in Francis King Park, approximately 9000 feet away, or 21 days of mouse travel time. Stay tuned for front page news and an interview on ‘As it Happens’.
Evolutionary Superiority?
There has not been any activity in the house since. The upsetting lesson learned was that the trailer incident two years earlier was a shear waste on sleep and catch and release. Live trapping is just like a trip to an all inclusive resort. We have developed a huge respect and admiration for these intelligent and adaptive creatures…and the way the world is going these days they do appear much brighter than our own species.
We finally discovered where they were coming in. We have an air intake in the mechanical room which has a metal screen and a one way plastic cover. It appears (as evidenced by the little mouse logs) that they are able to open and close this flap and squeeze through the unbelievably small holes.
We will miss the trailer, with the condensation dripping off the roof vents and the power outages, with no running water or heat, the mice and all. When we started our adventure Parker was 4 feet tall and fit in his bunk; now at age 11, and 5’ 4” tall, with size 6 men’s shoes, he will shortly be able to stretch out in a new bed. Emily’s bunk, which looks like a take off from the rammed earth building method, except where the earth has been replaced by stuffies, books, and not-quite-dirty-enough clothes, lends to a severely decreased bunk space… but warm.
Gord still spends over half his nights in the trailer, possibly still trying to catch up on the lost sleep from two years earlier, or maybe trying to overcome his phobia of little four legged gray ghosts by confronting his fear of the trailer. Ann gets to sleep in luxury… soon to have it shattered by three trailer drowned rats.
So with Christmas coming and the bank account empty it is fitting that we will be opening the storage locker at the bottom of the hill throughout December… discovering lost treasures of clothes, toys, books, and beds that we have forgotten exist over the past three years. How fitting it is for us to be giving ourselves our own recycled gifts of the things we had forgotten we had. Now there is eco-sense!
(cross-posted at www.eco-sense.ca)
