There's more

Another day off and I was up at 7am with the sun.  Well, half a sun anyway, the other half was hiding in the clouds.  I had planned a busy day today and so wanted to get cracking, but not before a coffee or two!

As we have been away from the place all winter I have been wanting to get as much washed and freshened up as I can but until now the weather has not been so great so as to get it all dry.  I started with some bedsheets first thing so that I could put them on fresh this evening.  Success with the weather, soon afterwards, the sun came out and the breeze was picking up.  Whilst that was running through the machine I grabbed one of the bleach bottles and set to work in the shower area. Obviously there is lots of dust around, given it is a building site really and also, I had visions of the rats running around in there and it made me squeamish. So I rinsed it all out, stuck the plug in the drain hole and squirted the bleach like my life depended on it.  It went everywhere!  This bottle had a nozzle that squirted like a mini shower head - haha.  It was all over the shower, the tiles, the floor, me!  Anyway, I scrubbed it all down and gave it a good rinse off.  If there was anything lurking in those drains, I hope they have now cleared off or are at least very clean!

Back up again for another coffee and I smelled a rather unpleasant smell from Sassy's room, probably intensified by the sun shining through and hitting the poop tray.  I had planned to do the humanure today and so it made sense to clean out her litter tray and cage for her while I was doing it all. I think she was pleased with the fresh sawdust.

Clean toilet

I left the buckets down on the porch and readied it all for the event.  Then I got sidetracked as the wash had finished, so Rambo and I set off to the washing line and on the way I saw my first lizard of the season.  A teeny tiny skinny little lizard, but it scampered away before I could get a pic!  Now that the machine was empty again, I sidetracked from the humanure further by popping on my gardening gloves and daring to open the suitcase that the Mr had filled with clothes that were in the vicinity of the the first nest he discovered in the store room. I have been promising not to burn these clothes as inside the case are some quite sentimental clothes. So I gingerly lifted each item, shook it free of "debris" and piled it up ready for the machine.  I have to tell you, I wasn't smiling at any stage. I will blame this whole episode for giving me wrinkles!  Filling the machine up I ran the first wash.  I subsequently ran these clothes through four wash cycles at 60 degrees, so love, if you are reading this - I am sorry if they shrunk.

I was expecting S&S over today after lunch as they had offered their help in scouting through the remaining stuff in the store room and they are much braver than I am.  With this in mind, I hurried along to finish the humanure process and so I locked Rambo away so that he did not see what all was going on.  I do NOT want to find him digging in there! So with this completed and another wash running through the machine with the "rat clothes" I came upstairs and had a natter with the Mr back home.

The sun was shining today and in the heat I had stripped off to my vest, it was so warm and really welcomed by me.  I seem to feel the cold easily.  I decided then to take a break and go and sit with my coffee on the balcony for a while and soak up some sun.  It was beautiful up there.  I sat back, coffee in hand and listened to the birds chirping away.  There was another strange bird call that surprised me as it came from behind in the tree and when i turned around I must have startled it as it flew off.  Shame.  I am sure I will hear it again.

Lunchtime beckoned and I was starving, but it was later than I thought and needed to eat something as again, I skipped breakfast.  I popped down and chucked the washing on again (final fourth wash) and made myself some toast to tide me over.  Again, I had a natter on Twitter and Skype and stayed there until the wash finished an hour later at which stage S&S were due.  Sure enough, they arrived as I was hanging the washing out and appeared on the balcony, waving!

They had some awnings to collect that we had transported back with us and they set to getting them in the car after a very quick cuppa and chat.  The awnings were three metres long and were going to be a hassle to get into the car (or on the roof), but they managed to win.  They were back in again with their gloves on and ready for the room clearance.  Whilst they had been taking out their boxes I had made a start on removing stuff that we were definitely keeping.  I will show you the room as it was so that when I have finished tidying and de-ratting you can see the difference.

Messy store room

So here you see all of the droppings that came out of the wardrobe when the first nest was found.

Nest droppings

S&S were actually quite excited when they started and were hoping to find something.  After dumping the clothes from the wardrobe in a case, S reached her hands up to remove some polystyrene from the top of the wardrobe and said very excitedly "oooh, we have one!".  I of course jumped about two feet in the air until she said it was dead.  It again, was quite a small one and makes me think it might be a sibling to the other two I found last time in the box.  Here they are looking rather pleased (the rat, less so).

Found one!

The search continued and S used his manly strength to take the first empty wardrobe outside onto the patio for me to strip off the canvas and wash.  Nothing more was revealed and this was a good thing as in the second wardrobe was all of the Mr's camping gear and about 6,000 sleeping bags (he better NEVER mention my shoes again).  Again, the wardrobe was stripped and removed to the patio.  The box I found the last nest in remained largely untouched as I am a wimp.  So S, with a brave face and a wrinkled up nose went to work.  Well, as she neared the bottom of the box and got amongst the remaining clothes, I cannot begin to tell you how horrific the smell was.  They had absolutely soiled everything and also eaten holes in everything! It was completely filthy in there and I shall have to burn the box and most of the stuff in it! There is no way on earth that can be used again.

I thanked them very much and was really pleased that the place had been searched thoroughly as I am still living on my nerves in this place. As only he would, S offered that they help search through some more rooms and I gladly accepted.  So we took ourselves off to the garage and back storage areas and they agreed with me that there had been very little rat activity in these rooms.  There were droppings, but after searching through all the gardening stuff we had stored last year, we were happy that there was no signs of any nests.  I am very grateful to them as I now cannot bring Rambo in there with me because of the poison being laid. Now I feel much better about getting in there and planting out some more seeds and plants for the growing season.  Hurray!

S and I disposed of the rat to the burning pit (he did, I wouldn't touch it) and when we got there and he threw it it in I noticed ANOTHER rat!  However, this one had been chargrilled and had no tail! It then came to me. When I found the nest in the attic last week I had grabbed a bag of string, paper and rubbish of sorts out of the bottom of the nest and chucked it in the bucket. As I had done so, I thought I had felt something fleshy in it and this is what caused me to yelp a bit and for Sally to come over and finish looking through. It had been in the bucket all the time and so when I did a small burn on the weekend, it had not been enough to burn it completely.  So that is five dead rats that I know of now!

Singed rat

S&S left and as they were going the Little Lady had ran over to the fence wielding a tablet and charger.  She handed it to me telling me that it was not working.  Now, I'm no technophobe, but I do not think my talents extend to fixing faulty tablets.  So it dawned on me that maybe the charger was broken and I should try one of my chargers on it.  As I had suspected, it charged on a mini USB and so I gave her one of my cables, a UK plug and an adapter and off she went, very happy indeed, pulling three fresh carrots from her garden and handing them to me - I love this place!

Alone again, I thought I had better do a burn while I still had some light left in the day.  It was later than I thought it was and I really did not want all that stinky stuff inside tonight as now it was whiffing due to being disturbed.

One of the t-shirts from the smelly box smelled so bad I had to drop it on the ground.  Look at the holes they chewed in it!

Stinky t-shirt

The fire took light and soon was growing in intensity.  This is what rat hell looks like:

Rat hell

I stood with the fire for quite a long time to make sure it died down a bit before I left it unattended - would just be my luck that something would go badly wrong!  I took myself back down to the patio and stripped off the canvas from one of the wardrobes and swiftly flung it in the washing machine. Which reminds me, I must wash it again overnight.

The weather had threatened all afternoon and I rushed out to pull Rambo's bedding in from the patio - he insists on bringing it out every morning to lie on it when he thinks no-one is looking, but I see him! I then went off to bring in the first batch of rat-clothes after being washed four times.  They were fresh and smelled fine so they were allowed back in the house again.

And so, it was nightfall.  I am sat with a full belly after a spicy chicken and chorizo pasta and a beer in my hand.  I feel really pleased to have achieved so much today, although I did not make it to the shops and I did not manage to plant my lettuces, but what we did achieve was to put my mind a bit more at ease which is a lot more beneficial in my eyes.

I leave you with a smile and drooping eyes.

Leka nosht.

A xx