It's the first day of my last vacation week of the year, and I've been utterly WORTHLESS since getting off work last Friday. The last week of vacation I had, I committed to getting some things done in the house...things long overdue...the things there's never TIME to do on the regular schedule. I ended up putting in 10-15 hours per day and utterly exhausted myself physically, mentally and emotionally and was in worse shape going back into the daily work grind than when I left it. I vowed I would NEVER do that again. In fact, my public declaration for this vacation time to all concerned (particularly family) was:

"Expect NOTHING from me during this time. Ask nothing of me during this time. This will be MY time. I may do some work and I may not -- depends entirely upon my mood -- point being if I DO work, it will be because I WANT to, not because I have to or because I'm expected to."

So far I've been wonderfully faithful to my word -- I've been a total slug.

Am finally beginning to discover some very interesting folks here at Mindsay! Despite all my whining and complaining about V3, it's becoming an increasingly comfortable place to muddle around.

I have rats in my barn. I confess that it pains me to kill a mouse -- they are destructive to be sure but they are also CUTE. But rats are another story -- I believe them to be something akin to spiders -- they are both surely forms of demons from hell. Except for writing spiders -- those are pretty, they have interesting webs, and they always stay OUTSIDE -- that makes them OK. In fact, ANY spider that STAYS outside and doesn't come near ME when I'M outside is OK. All others are demons from hell.

Back to the subject at hand...RATS. Last week, I'd resolved to address the mouse issue in my tack & feed room in my barn. Mice were scurrying in every direction every time anyone entered the feed room -- they were pilfering through my boxes, knocking things off my shelves, shredding my blankets and saddle pads and saddle stuffing and leaving nasty little terds everywhere. The problem had gotten out of hand and it was time to swallow my fondness for thier cuteness and show no mercy. I cleaned up the mess in my tack/feed room, bought a grocery sack full of mouse traps and set out 8 traps in every known mouse pathway, baited with peanut butter. I also put out an entire box of mothballs in my boxes and amongst my pads & blankets to discourage further destruction of said property.

The 3 days following, we were buffeted with the remnants of hurricane Frances. They were long work days for me too, so I didn't get back to the tack room until Friday. Upon inspecting my traps, while fully expecting a satisfying carnage of mouse carcasses, I was shocked to find that EVERY trap I had set had been spring. LARGE objects had been knocked from my shelves, and large items (such as packages of Kleenex, a tube of Desitin ointment, an emptied bottle of clipper blade oil, and wads of bandage material) littered the rodent entrances where the culprits had evidently attempted to steal my supplies and carry them home. And there were no more mouse terds...only HUGE RAT terds, and LOADS of them, EVERYwhere -- it looked like I'd been looted by an entire FAMILY of the vile vermon. It even appeared that they had been attempting to EAT my mothballs! And as if the destruction in my tack & feed room were not enough, they had burrowed a hole from the drainage ditch at the back of the barn into the stalls and my shed had been flooded during the monsoons from Frances. NOW I was MAD...VERY mad.

Now I do not like having to resort to drastic measures such as poisons. My heart would ache to know I might inadvertantly be responsible for the death or illness of an innocent squirrel, or some useful black snake that ate a poisoned rodent, or worse yet, some wandering pet belonging to a neighbor who might relish gnawing on a poisoned rodent. I have many pets of my own, but I either keep them in the house at all times, or I keep them contained, and/or under constant supervision when outside. My housecats keep my end of the house (it's a HUGE house, my family lives in one portion, my mom in the other -- hence my referral to "my end" relatively rodent-free...or at least they keep them far enough at bay that they cause few noticeable problems for us humans -- and they provide countless hours of entertainment for the cats. But this wanton destruction of my property called for drastic measures.

Last night, I cleaned up the rat mess and put out a box of rat poison, that promised to be able to kill with just one feeding. If it didn't kill them, it seems it did at least take the wind out of the invaders' sails, as there were very few rat terds in the feed room this morning, but clear evidence that they had helped themselves to some pretty blue poison. I placed the poison in a very protected and out-of-the-way spot and am intent on keeping the door closed and keeping any loose pieces of poison picked up. My biggest concern is that once the rats are gone and the mice return, I don't want them bringing their poisoned little selves back into my basement to die and stink, or where my cats can get them. I suppose I will just have to maintain an extra high level of studious observances around here for a while.

Ahhhh, the joys and never-ending adventures of country life. Seems no good thing comes without a price.

God I wish this new V3 had a SPELLCHECK!!! Must my illiteracy and carelessness be exposed for all the world to see??!!!!!