Pleasantries and Annoyances

Mouse #4 is dead and gone (back to peanut butter as bait, since they just stole the sunflower seeds without getting caught).  I have learned to start the fire in the wood cookstove on the first attempt, rather than the third.  Yesterday was beautiful (if rather windy!), so we did half of homeschool outside in the yard.  I want to put a table and chairs in the hoop house because it is so comfortable and smells so good there.  Burning the date branches I pruned makes the house smell good, too.  We haven't fixed the stinky bathroom, but have established the mildew smell is coming from the opening for the pipe under the sink.  I'll get to it this week.  El Jefe or I will block all the openings for the pipes in both bathrooms and the kitchen with a matrix of steel wool and expanding foam, so the mice won't eat through it and it will be airtight.  I hope.  I  have to snake the drains in the other bathroom today, and if that doesn't work, then I need to call the plumber.  Water is not supposed to splash up into the sink when one plunges the toilet.  The basement guy is coming Friday to give us a quote on sealing the Michigan basement and crawl spaces.  I suspect we'll have to treat the crawl spaces for mildew first.  And we need to get the dirt away from the house and install the plastic barriers, or we'll have bug problems, too.  And that means moving the termite bait stations - another phone call to the pest company to find out how to deal with that. 

We have a pair of cardinals, blue jays, redheaded woodpeckers, a mourning dove, and chickadees hanging about.  I would like to make some bluebird boxes and plant some of the flowers the hummingbirds like around the house.  We need to get the tree people here - We have a black walnut near the house that has to come down before it falls down, and there are a bunch of others on the property, maybe enough for the tractor we need...  Don't worry, I have no intention of cutting down the other black walnuts around the deck.  We're running low on wood - I'm hoping that this freakishly warm weather holds out and we won't need more.  We need to take down the old shed, have the bulldozer in to fix the drainage, throw up a lean-to for the firewood for next year...

Somewhere in there, I am taking the kids to visit my parents, finishing cleaning the old apartment (perhaps I should have figured the cost of gas driving back and forth to do that, compared to just hiring Merry Maids to do it!) and making the quilt block for the Charming Ladies meeting Monday night, and then picking the kiddies back up.  And sewing the black trim on El Jefe's TKD uniform.  And getting all the uniforms washed for Picture Day Friday.  Maybe we can get a washing machine next week.  That would be helpful.

I need to find the camera so I can post some pics of the pretty purple crocuses growing outside the kitchen door...