A Horse Trailer to Call Our Own

After years of looking, we found us a horse trailer that we can pull behind our truck.

 

It needs some work.

 A new floor.

Some new wiring.

A new tire.

A paint job.

 

But its ours.

And its paid for.

That makes it almost perfect. 

The Three Stooges

While sleeping Monday night, I heard a crash in the kitchen and I thought "Hm, wonder if the cats found a mouse." We live next to a hayfield and the occasional mouse does get in, but they never last long. The next morning we couldn't find any proof anywhere. Most cats eat the mice they kill, but ours are spoiled, so they usually don't. Then on Tuesday night the same thing happened. This time we got up to investigate. Sure enough, Buddy had a mouse in his mouth. I was so proud, it was his first mouse. When we woke up the next morning, all we found was three of the cats watching the book shelf very intensely. That's a pretty good sign that the mouse got away and that was the last place they saw it. How can ONE mouse evade THREE cats? I've decided the cats probably get in the way of each other, so now we call them the three stooges.

Last night the same thing happened again, but it was right at bed time. Since we weren't half asleep, we got up to check. We found three cats (Buddy, Ally and Zipper) trying to get under or behind the computer desk. We finally got it pulled out enough and Buddy dove behind it and came out with a mouse. A mouse that Buddy had every intention of playing with, but apparently not killing. I was standing on a kitchen chair for most of this.

Several times the mouse would get away. I was on the chair shooing it with a stick while Josh was trying to hit it with broom, (maybe I should call this the 5 stooges). At least with our efforts we were able to keep it confined to a corner of the kitchen. The only place for the mouse to hide was under my kitchen shelf, which sits about an inch and a half off of the ground. It should be a safe place for the mouse.

Nope, Buddy's going in after it! He went under the shelf three times (because he let it get away three times).

 Each time Buddy had the mouse, Josh would try to get it with the broom, but Buddy didn't want to share and we didn't want to smack the only cat that could actually fit under the kitchen shelf. Finally when the mouse got away again, Josh was able to get it under the broom and "take care of it."

If it wasn't an mouse (EW!) it would actually be quite hilarious to watch all of this.

  

Bats

Things I never wanted to know about bats.

1. They can fit side anything about the size of a quarter. If a mouse can fit through, so can a bat.
2. Bats only like to come out at night.
3. Moth balls don't really seem to help get rid of bats.
4. Bats live in colonies, so if there is one or two, there is more than likely several more then that.
5. Cats are awesome at killing bats.
6. If bats are living in your home, you have to figure out how they are getting in and then somehow make it so they can't come back.
7. The best way to do that is to wait until dark when they leave on their own. Then work through the night to do what you need to make it so they can't come back in. For us, that included screwing mesh around our chimney. Then a few months later when the weather cooled back down, adding a new layer of tar around the chimney.
If you are like me, a terrified house wife just trying to figure out what to do about bats, without having to look at pictures, hopefully this post will help you. I promise there is no pictures to haunt you and make it all seem worse.
In July, 2010, Josh was working his new job, which meant he was only home on the weekends. Also, I had decided to paint our bedroom. So our bedroom was tore apart and we were sleeping on our mattress, on the floor, in the spare room. Early Saturday morning (like 3 AM), I got up to go to the bathroom. As I stepped into the hall, I noticed something on the floor. Something small and black. I turned the light on, thinking the cats had killed a mouse. That is a very common occurrence in our house. What I saw freaked me out instead. It was a bat. I woke Josh up and made him take care of it right then. No, it couldn't wait until morning! Then I went back to bed and tried to not think on it.

Tuesday morning (again at 3 AM) found the same scenario, except this time I was home alone. I freaked out! I put on some gloves and used a shovel to throw the bat outside. Then I tried to go back to bed, but I couldn't sleep. Then I did something really stupid, I went online. I researched how to keep bats out of your home. What I found was lots and LOTS of pictures of attics full of bats. I did NOT need the pictures!

The whole week was a nightmare. Ally had just had her kittens, so each night I would pack her HUGE box into the bedroom and sleep with the door closed. All of the cats were up on their rabies shots except the new kittens. Poor Zipper had to sleep outside the bedroom because I was sure I had him to thank for making sure the bats were dead before I found them. If I hadn't been in the middle of painting, I think it would have been less stressful, because I could have just used the bathroom attached to our bedroom. But no! I was in the spare bedroom, which meant my small bladder was forcing me into the hallway to get to the restroom, which is were the bats usually were.

By the end of the week I was at my wits end. I was locking myself in the bedroom by 7:30 and reading myself to sleep. Then in the wee early hours I would realize my bladder could hold it no longer and I'd have to go to the bathroom. Even when there wasn't a bat in the hallway, that was only because the dead bat was instead in the front room. Bats can get through small holes. If a mouse can get in, so can a bat. So all of the doors had towels stuffed in them at the bottom, and any small hole I could find was duck taped. I even duck taped around the entire door to the attic. On Thursday night, I slept on my in-laws couch, just so I could get some sleep.

Josh bought all sorts of stuff before coming home on Friday so we could figure out how to get them out of our house and keep them out. When he got home, I sat outside, in the car, while he went upstairs to look. Sure enough, there was a few bats in the attic. He never did tell me how many and I don't want to know. All the pictures I saw online are enough to haunt me. He also would later admit to finding two dead bats a day after I found the first one. He thought it best to dispose of them and hope I never found out. That would have worked if that had been the last of them.

After walking around the yard  few times, we decided there was a few points in the roof where maybe they could get in. Because bats are night animals we had to just wait until they left before we could do anything. Just before sunset Dallon came over to help Josh. I sat in the car and watched while they each took a side of the house to watch. I saw the first one. In near hysterics, I told Josh that they were coming from near the chimney. Being the wise husband his, he knew I would just be in the way, so he sent me to his mothers. It was probably a wise idea. I didn't want to scream at a bat and cause him to fall off of the roof.

While I was at Josh's parents playing with a new cat that had followed Barb home from one of her walks, the guys watched a western while waiting for all the bats to leave and to hopefully figure out how they were getting into the living quarters of our house. We never did figure that part out. Every now and then they would go outside and shine a light at the chimney and look for eyes starring back at them. At midnight they finally thought the coast was clear.

Dallon had thrown a lasso around the chimney earlier and they used that to keep them steady up top. The only thing that fell off was one of our nicest, rechargeable flashlights. Because its a $100 flashlight, it survived. They screwed the mesh down all around the chimney, hopefully making it so the bats couldn't get back in. They finally got back to Josh's parents around 1:30 AM. Josh was tired and crashed out on the couch, so we stayed the night there.

I wish I could say that is the end of the story! Early the next morning, Josh & Dallon left to go help a neighbor with his barn. I went home and was relieved to not have an angry mob of bats waiting for me by the front door. I had dreamt two different dreams. The first was that I came home to find them circling the chimney, even thought it was daylight. The second dream was that our porch and lawn were covered in dead bats who had killed themselves trying to get in. For the first time in a long time, there were no dead bats in the house.

I missed a part of the story. Josh had heard that mothballs would help clear the bats out. So the night before, in an attempt to make them leave faster, he had thrown several bags of mothballs upstairs. It didn't help. The bats left when they were ready to. When it rains, my house still smells like mothballs.

Josh got home that afternoon and hadn't been home for long when I heard a noise and the cats suddenly became interested in a lunchbox cooler. I shot out the door without even looking back. A few minutes later Josh came out with the newly deceased bat. He went upstairs and found there were 3 more upstairs. He called them the sickly bats that didn't go out the night before. Not that they looked sickly, he was just trying to joke to calm me down.

Dallon came over with his Red Rider beebee gun. They got one of them, but the others got away. For the next two nights we didn't haven't any problems, so we thought we were done with them.

Josh went back to work on Monday morning. I was trying to be calm, but after living with that for a week, it was a lost effort. That night I had stuck with my routine of locking myself in my bedroom, with the kittens. About 9:00 PM I went across the hall to use the bathroom once more before going to bed. Just as I sat down, I heard a screech. I froze! (Apparently you can not scare crap out. It sucks back in.) Tripping over my pajama pants, I ran back to the bedroom and slammed the door shut. Then I called Josh and just bawled that there was another one! He told me to call his dad and have him come take care of it, but I couldn't because my house door was locked. How was he going to get in?

I realized that I would have to go through the house to let my father in-law in, so I might as well just leave. So I threw a bag together and carefully opened the the bedroom door and listened. After not hearing anything, I slowly crept down the hall. Zipper had just lost interest in a non moving, supposedly dead, bat. I should have thrown it out that night! But I just grabbed my keys and took off. Lucky for me, Dallon was also working out of town that week, so I was able to sleep in his bed.

The next morning I went back to take care of the cats before heading to work. The bat was gone. GONE as in where the heck did it go. The cats hadn't eaten any that we knew of, so I didn't dare hope that is what happened to this one. A few minutes later I was on the computer when I heard a squeak from near the piano. Ally made a dive for the piano, and I made a dive for the door. I watched from the window. It must have been wounded, because it didn't fly. I finally convinced myself that I could deal with a wounded bat. I went back in the house and grabbed the fireplace shovel. Ally had knocked the bat into the kitchen. Its hard to hit a bat without hitting a cat, but I got a few good whacks in. Then I took it outside and whacked it a few more times. I'm still terrified of bats, but I think that helped me. Now I'm not paralazyed with fear all of the time.
I spent each night that week at my in-laws, just to be safe. Each morning when I went back to take care of that cats, there were no new bats. When Josh got home, I made him check in the attic. No new bats. I'm happy to report that we have not seen another bat in our house since the one I killed. Although it was several weeks before I would sleep with the bedroom door open and the nightlights are still in the hallway.

I'm going to publish this post for two reasons. One, I survived this. It was by far one of the most horrible things I have ever lived through. I still question how I didn't go insane and how my husband put up with me during the time. At one point, I thought it would end our marriage. Not because we fought (because we didn't) but because I thought I would reach the point where I couldn't live there anymore. And number two: those first few days when I was trying to learn on the Internet about what to do, I just wanted ONE website to tell me what I needed to know and what I needed to do with NO pictures. I am by no means an expert on bats, and hopefully this never happens to anyone else. But if it does, I hope they can come here to learn something with NO pictures. (Do you hear that search engines? NO PICTURES!)

The bats didn't go far. A few weeks later our neighbor mentioned that they were living in his barn. I don't care as long as they aren't in my house.

Last night...

Last night was Josh's first night of class. It was an unadventurous night for him. Last night was also my first night home alone waiting for him to get home from class. It could have been adventurous for me, but I was off in my own little world watching TV and crocheting. I almost pulled out of it, when I was rudely interrupted by Zipper jumping from the kitchen cupboards/wall onto the couch and nearly landing in my lap. I scolded him, and then went back to crocheting.

That is when I started to hear a noise, a high pitched squeak. I looked over at the cats a few times to see them looking intently at the computer desk. I went over a few times, but each time I got there the noise stopped and I couldn't see anything.

About that time Josh called to say he was on his way home from class. We talked for a minute and "The Big Bang Theory" came back on so I hung up. About a half an hour later I called to see if he was closer and if I should warm his dinner up. While visiting with him, I heard the noise again and it seemed louder, so I hung up and went to investigate. That's hard to do with kitties in the way. Finally I got a half decent look behind the desk and I could see something fuzzy. I called Josh back and told him a mouse was stuck behind the desk.

I was all ready when he got home. I had the chairs pushed out of the way, the broom found, and kitties there to help as backup. I was also perched on the kitchen table so I could view the action, but not have to worry about it climbing up my leg.

Seconds later I was running down the hall, with the kitties. I locked myself in the bedroom and yelled at Josh to come get me when it was safe. What inspired this quick retreat? I was wrong, it wasn't a mouse...it was a bat.

Josh was able to save me from the creature. We don't know how it got stuck, and I've decided Zipper was on the wall chasing it (hence the great leap off). Josh had to use our fire tongs to pinch it's wing and get it out. I didn't come out of the bedroom until he assured me it was dead. I can't decide if I'm glad I didn't notice it before it got stuck or not. I probably would have really freaked out if I had, so I think it was a good thing.

Here is some fun trivia to make your stomach roll. Did you know if you have a bat encounter, chances are you have been bitten by a bat? Their bites are so small you don't even feel them. Oh, and this is my 3rd bat encounter. I had one as a child and about a year ago we woke up to find Zipper had killed one during the night.

Working Cows

Yesterday we helped our landlord work some of his cattle. Besides hunting, I think that is Josh's favorite thing to do. He was so excited to ride a horse. I hope someday we can have some of our own.

Yes, even I get into the mess of things and help. I don't know if I am much help because I don't always know what we are doing, but I enjoy working with Josh.

Only Josh could be covered in cow manure after a hard days work and still be happy.
When we took the cattle back to the field I was able to ride on one of the horses, but I had already put the camera away by then so we didn't get any pictures of me on the horse. I guess we just have to go riding again. I was a little nervous because I haven't been on a horse for six years, but I think I did okay.