Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men.  Great book by John Steinbeck that I read in high school.  And although this post has absolutely nothing to do with that book, the title came to mind.  Here is why.....

We bought our house 6+ years ago.  When we did the inspection we found that there was a bit of a mouse problem.  As in, the previous owners had d-Con (mouse poison) positioned throughout the main level and basement of the house.  YUCK.  Before we bought the house we had them remove the d-Con and hire an exterminator.

Thankfully, we did not have any mice problems.  Whew.

Sometime after we moved in we hired someone to clean out the ducts in the house..... the nice man told me that the ducts had a lot of Fruit Loops in them.... possibly placed there by the mice (or maybe small children).....  I, however, have never bought Fruit Loops.  Double gross.

Fast forward to 2012.

We remodeled the main level of the house.  It is great.

Before.

After.

We really like the update.  Apparently, so do the mice. (You can see where this is going, huh....)

One day last fall as it was getting colder, I sat enjoying the afternoon quiet while the boys napped or played quietly.  And a mouse ran across our kitchen floor and behind the trash can.  AUGH!!!!  

I called Marty at work.  He didn't answer.  I called my mom in Iowa (since somehow that might help). She suggested that I move the trash can and kill the mouse with a broom.  What that?!?  Apparently that is what my Grandma would have done.  My Grandma also butchered chickens.... she gave truth to the statement "like a chicken running around with it's head chopped off".  She chopped off chicken's heads and killed mice with a broom.  I am not that cool.  Instead I freaked out and just wouldn't go into the kitchen the rest of the afternoon for fear that the mouse might be hiding behind the trash can.  

We battled the mouse and some of his friends and have felt triumphant.  Somewhere in there I took the kids to PetSmart for a "field trip" and experienced a little bit of PTSD when the kids suggested we get a mouse as a pet.  Uhm, no.

Then last night Marty was on conference call..... sitting at the breakfast bar as I had been months earlier.  A mouse ran across our kitchen floor behind the trash can.  I was safe in the living room as he told me "don't come in here."  I didn't go in there.

He tried to smash the mouse with the trash can (unsuccessfully - gross) and when the mouse ran out from the behind the trash can he grabbed the first thing he saw on the counter.

A butternut squash.

He threw a butternut squash at a mouse.  

He actually hit the mouse and killed it.... with the very thing I was planning to use to make our dinner.  

He was still on the conference call for work through the entire ordeal.  No joke.  

Marty can now say that he killed a small creature with nothing more than a gourd.  How many people can say that?

Now if only we can figure out how the mice have gotten access to our kitchen!?!  AUGH!

Stories.... Of mice and men.

Edited to add:  Marty read this blog post and would like me to clarify.... his clarification point goes something like this "It's not like I threw the squash 6 inches, it was good 5 foot!  That's a big difference and you failed to mention it."  So, now I mentioned it.  He really squashed that mouse.  :)