Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Mice again

I have found the answer to the "mice" issue. A friend told me to get a live trap so they are trapped live. I wasn't much interested because then I would have to kill the mouse (strange isn't it when I'm still killing it with a trap). Then my mind cleared & I got the answer. I went to Co-op & looked at their live traps..............I found one -- Havahart ex-small traps with 2 doors!! I bought two and tried one out the first night. A FROZEN mouse!! That worked.

Last night I tried both traps. TWO MICE, one alive & the other well, perhaps frozen, at least it was dead. I took the traps out in front of the house & brought out Jamie & Malen. Jamie handled the first one just fine. She doesn't eat it, just takes care of killing it. Malen's was already dead, but she got the feel.

So redo the traps this afternoon & I'm sure I'll have two more every night until all of them are gone (and then put them out again when they repopulate & return).

I really like these traps & am very thankful that Jamie & Malen will take care of the rest of the problem for me.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Felting

Last weekend we had a felting workshop. On Friday a number of us made felted hats out of alpaca fiber. On Saturday we made felted scarves out of alpaca fiber & other items. It was a great time. I have pictures but of course have not downloaded them. I will work toward that later down the road. Tomorrow we are going to the Taos Wool Festival. I missed last year because I had a sore throat & was having surgery the following Monday. BUT I'm headed there tomorow.

Fall

Well, it seems like forever since I posted anything. Somehow I need to make it short & sweet to cover everything!!

The mice are about the same. The glue paper doesn't work worth anything. One fell into the 4 way sweet mix, which is usually closed but somehow it was open enough that one fell in. That same day I caught one in a trap. So I threw the one out of the sweet mix & Jamie took care of that one.

Mom is doing better mentally this week, less confused. But last week a CNA left her alone in the bathroom (a big no no) and she tired of waiting, got up & promptly fell. She broke her scapula. I was extremely upset & emailed the administrator, director of nursing & regional director that night (before I knew anything was broke). The next day she saw her Dr. & got x-rays. When we got the results I ended up spending about 30 minutes with the director, & the administrator came in during part of our discussion. The aide was suspended for 2 weeks & everything had to be reported to the state of CO. I did not make any requests as far as the aide, etc. the way it sounded to me I thought if the state allowed her to keep her certification they would keep her on. Well I found out today that they fired the aide. She called me to "apologize". I accepted her apology BUT she never did say: I left your mother alone in the bathroom & it is my fault that she fell & broke her scapula. She tried to pawn a portion of the situation off on another cna. BUT Mom is feeling better so that is the good part. It is frustrating that it happened though because there were 5 big time major indicators that Mom was high risk for a fall. Besides the fact that the cna had cared for Mom before at least twice and has listened to report every day & should have known. Anyway it was the strangest apology I've ever received.

Onward to the next problem. My roof. Now about 2 years ago I told Dennis that there were water marks on the spare bedroom ceiling & I was concerned that we had a roof leak. Later I found spots in the dining room. Dennis went into the attic & looked. He couldn't find a leak anywhere, did some talking around & decided we needed to put foam in the attic. Luckily he had not done it before he died. I had the person who repainted the house check everything out about a month ago & he felt for sure we had a leak or a number of leaks. The north side of the roof has 4 layers of shingles on it & then the tin roof. There is much too much weight AND there are places where the roof is kind of pushed in. Then my neighbor, who we bought the house from told me that the boards under the roof on the south side of the house were OSB. Well, if you put screws into OSB & tighten them, they strip the hole & will not keep the screws in. That explains why we cannot keep the metal roof tight to keep water out!!! Amazing isn't it!!! People do the strangest things. Anyway we are now in the midst of pulling up the metal roof, fixing what is below & making sure NOTHING will ever leak again.

It is cold every night & was 12 degrees last night. BURRRRRRRR. I'm not ready for winter, but it is coming, that's for sure!!!