Pesky Rodents

Out here in Utah we are having a pretty unusually warm Fall so far.  Typically it is much colder, this year we have been able to hold out for quite a few more days of nice pleasant weather,  so you know we’ll take all of that!  But the fact still remains the same it is Fall, and it is a very busy month for me with the days getting shorter it seems the list of chores is doing the opposite, getting longer! 

It seems like Fall is the season that brings out the rodents, as it cools down they start looking to homes for warmth and a place to live.  Eek!  That is no good right!   That is unless you have a pretty good size snake in need of food! 

Not to say that they are not out there but I think since I have lived in my home I have seen two mice. One got into our window well and was trapped, although I don’t think it could have gotten into the home I didn’t care for that whole idea.  So my Honey put a short board down and the it found its way up and out.  The other was dead in the yard.  We are fortunate in the way that we have neighbors with cats, this helps keep the whole mice population down quite a bit so while we didn’t ourselves kill it, the thing was terrified and scurried off to where a cat probably was awaiting.  One of those balances of life things I suppose.

But we try to take preventive steps to ensure we don’t help encourage mice to come into our home.  The steps we take are simple enough and are inexpensive, just good thinking.

·         Tidy garage-Clean up the garage, if you have any tulip bulbs or lawn seed things like that, you are going to want to remove them as they are a food source for mice and rats.

·         Pick up fallen nuts and fruit-I don’t have any fruit trees thank goodness I don’t do so well with the maintenance side of it very well, but we are so lucky to have neighbors with a tree that produces nuts.   So clean up around any fruit or nut trees, make sure to remove all of the fruit and or nuts as this serves as food for the little critters.

·         Covering your trash-Simple enough.  Check to make sure that the trash can lid fastens securely.  Also check for holes in the can if you have plastic like we do here.

·         Keeping pet food properly stored-Our puppy dodge is an inside little guy so we keep his food stored securely inside.  But if your pet is an outside kind of guy or gal then try to make sure that the food has secure tight lids and is stored in glass or metal jars. 

·         Home Inspection-Any damaged sills cracks in the siding or foundation or broken window are going to invite rodents into the home.  The only way to prevent this is to fix them, the sooner the better.   You will want to check around pipes and stove and dryer vents, look for any gaps if you have any you should cover the opening with a sheet metal collar. 

·         A tidy outside-Many people allow ivy and vines to grow on and up their home.  This is really a hazard it damages your property causes obstructions and provides rodents another way up and into your home.  It is best to keep it off of your home.  Also trim shrubbery, we like to keep them from sitting against the house, we also trim them up so that nothing can hide underneath them.  We have a little fire pit we use in the sanded volleyball pit so we make sure to keep the unused wood off the ground at least a foot. 

Doesn’t it make you wonder, do we really make it that easy and convenient for mice, rats or any other rodent to get into our homes? 

Halloween Hayride

So Halloween is up and coming and I thought it would be fun to take the little sauce along with my nephews and niece out to our first working farm.  What a wonderful way to harvest the memories!  It is a bit out of the way for me but I think it is great whenever you can show your family some of the heritage around us.  Every year in the Fall different places have these Harvest Festivals and cornfield maze’s, with hayrides, bonfires, and haunted maze’s. 


The one we are going to also has a farmers market where you can purchase flowers, gifts and produce.  Tell me this is not a great way to get together to get out and enjoy some good old-fashioned family fun!

While it is not our average colder October, the evenings on into the nights bring cool breezes and a a bit of a chill to the air.  Any more it is a must for me to be comfy and cozy when at all possible, so I brought warm clothes and with all the people running around I would recommend wearing closed-toe shoes of some sort after all it is a working farm.

So I sit here thinking what have I done?  A maze?  Will we get lost…I hope not!

A vision came to my thoughts, me in a maze with the kids?  Their ages range from 4 to 11 and I can just see it now my nephew and son taking off in one direction and me with the other two in the other direction when the niece suddenly has to go to the potty and they youngest will be crying because he's cold and hungry!  I would hate to get lost and scar the little ones for the rest of their lives as they know it, and with my luck my phone would have no service!  The more I thought about it, maybe for our first little adventure out to this working farm it would be better to treat ourselves to the farms hayride, definitely the safer bet! 


Besides you should have seen how long it took me to find my way home when we first moved.  I am easily turned upside down, and while I have really come so far I am so much better, this is still a realm that takes me into my own deep dark fears!


My road less traveled!   

They have a few tractors that constantly work taking people on their hayrides around the farm.  It was pretty neat, our driver the Corn Cop (very appropriately named) taught everyone a little about working farm and how it works.  He gave us some history about the land years ago to today and about the vegetation.  Then he took us on the trail under a bridge that connects two of the cornfield maze’s and leads out to the pumpkin patch where there are pumpkins as far as the kids can see we stopped and we got to pick out one pumpkin each of our choice that was fun the kids enjoyed it. 

While we were looking for that perfect pumpkin out in the pumpkin patch something happened somewhere in the 28 acres of field a fire had started I asked our Corn Cop if he was going to call the fire department he replied "I wonder if I should"?  Wonder if I should...Well that was not comforting at all!

The fire was a ways away in the middle of the corn I wondered how they were going to put it out.  It was apparent that the Corn Cop was not going to do anything about it.  Eventually a man on a dirt bike came flying by heading for the fire.  I could see that it was dying down and that they were able to put an end of that whew, relief huh! 

Quick tip:  If I can give some advice here on saving money, check on line for coupons.  These come in handy every cent counts I forgot and ended up having to go back and reprint them. 

Our First Tile Project-Operation Home Impovement

Ah yes with the timeless beauty of tile the long lasting durability and peace of mind that tile can bring, not to mention its ability to increase the value of the home, who would not want this?  A modern look easy to clean and lasts forever, priceless. 

When we moved in to our home we were faced with dated tile.  It came in the shade of a peach or a pink hue that they had matched the walls and carpet up to.   

Tragic I know.

It may have been the thing to do some twenty years ago, but that time had passed and it was definitely time for an update.  Being the money conscious couple that we are (not knowing just how money conscious we were going to be willing to be) to save money we decided that we would go through  and tear out the carpet and remove the old existing tile ourselves and hire a professional to install the new tile and everything that goes along with that.  With us as busy as we are the thought of having a trained experienced professional who knew the ins and outs of tiling sounded like the logical way to go and we made plans to set aside the money for it to be done. 

We felt good about our decision and started looking when we had a couple of friends in the business who had done the floor boards for us, react in shock when they heard our plan, they went on to ask us "why would you pay to have it done when you can do just as good of a job?" Then came the insisting that we handle the installation of our own ceramic tile floor ourselves, because it would be a sin and down right wrong to pay someone to do it!  The very idea made them sick!  That is how easy it is they pushed, although push sounds nice, I think shoved is much more appropriate here. 

The lectures went on for days they said that paying for professional ceramic a tile installation job was priced outrageously when it is such an easy project to manage on your own, they exclaimed over and over!  The more they talked the more it sounded like we had our own remodeling project underway.  Apparently we were not nearly as busy as we thought we were!

That was sarcasm in case you missed that.

After undergoing much personal anguish, our guts twisting and churning we came to the agreement that we would instead hire them, and that they would do it and we expressed strongly we would help them as they talk us through it as they went along.  

It went on and on this love for tile, “the tile is your friend” he would say in this calm quiet voice with no tone what so ever, "once you get going you will want to do it all yourself".   “You’ll probably end up wanting to quit your job and a go into business for yourself. “   What they somehow conveniently forget is how they have been doing this for many years and know the automatic steps one needs to take and the key things you don’t want to overlook.  It is not like we were looking at a small project like doing a bathroom, we were doing the entire floor, something open for all to see any slight mistake is yours for the viewing and permanent to boot.

We must have been absent that day, we were not preset with this knowledge and so of course we proceeded with caution.   Let it be noted that the most carefully planned ceramic floor plan, a striking conceived idea, a precise designed look and feel, and the perfect ceramic tiles can mean absolutely nothing if installed incorrectly. 

So we had checked around at prices and various styles of tiles at different locations.  We found one that we liked for a pretty good price.  We were told to go to our local hardware store and buy some wonder board.  Sounded simple enough but when we had gotten there they had a couple to choose from, not knowing one from another we bought the more expensive Hardibacker Board.  Which wasn’t what he had told us to get but ended up working out possibly better at least I think?  Aw look our puppy dodge sneak peak!

When measuring you have to take into account the estimate of tiles needed plus some extra in the inevitable case of damage.  Figure a guesstimate of the amount of thin set, cement, grout and the tools needed to complete the task.  We found the center point of the floor snapped our lines and measured the length and with width of the area we were tiling to get our figures.

At first we rented a saw.  We didn’t want to take advantage of all their wisdom and then their tools to.  These guys are good at insisting/pushing, again they insisted and were so kind to let us use their tools instead of renting.  Are they something else or what! 

After making sure the sub floor was clean from any debris from day to day living we made sure it was smooth and particle free.  We did a practice run of how we wanted the tiles to look using the chalk lines we had snapped as our guide.  We were going with a brick pattern, we really liked the look.  After we got a feel for how the tiles looked laid down we were ready to begin.  The cement was mixed and with notched trowel in hand my Honey and the fellas began the application of mortar to the sub floor, with tile in the other hand one piece at a time they secured each one into place.

 The moment had come the tile was being laid.

Remember that whole thing about undergoing much personal anguish, our guts twisting and churning that part?  They boasted about how good of an eye my Honey had for everything he did, they had seen how much detail he put in all the other things he put his work into that he could not go wrong.  But still these were things he had worked on before things he had experience on!  After about the first three rows the wise ones decided that my Honey had the hang of it and he would be just fine to carry on without them and off to the garage they went to cut tiles. 

Who does that honestly!

The mortar was mixed and the the tiles were ready to be laid we could not stop now.  After installation of one area we allowed for the floor to cure overnight.  Due to our work schedules this sometimes happened over a few nights. 

So the tiles were set and had time to cure it was time for the grout it in to connect the tiles. The grout was mixed, our friend started and I ended up doing the middle and my honey would end up completing the project.  the process took a rubber grout float to work it into the joints, with some elbow and back action. 

After laying in the grout in between the gaps between the tiles we used a damp sponge to wipe off the excess grout.  This would take a lot of rinsing to get as much of the excess grout off and keep each tile cleaned.  Once finished the color of the grout had lightened we did not expect that so we had to buy a sealant with darkening in it to seal and darken the grout lines.

Before and during all of this we had done (my honey had done) extensive research trying to find out all things tile!  I must take a moment and give credit where credit is due.  I would like to thank my honey for his unplanned dedication to operation tile, his hard work and attention for detail along with his touch of perfection that transformed our floor into beautiful and all things perfect.

I would also like to thank the fellas that turned our worlds upside down and peeled our eyelids back open to see what we were capable of doing for ourselves.  And while it saved us a bundle of money upfront, the savings were offset from the therapy sessions needed to bring us back from the intense battles between the two of us that went on for extended periods of time often seeing as if no end was in sight!  Thank y'all so much, oh! And before I forget the bill for therapy is in the mail and I think they mentioned something about needing it to be paid in full!

But seriously, now that we have had a little time to let all the pain and suffering settle slightly, we are able to reflect on it all and it is just what we wanted.  Truly the way my honey brilliantly tied it all together, it would not have been right to us had we hired someone else to do it!