Poised to fight

I was up extra early today as I needed to get petrol for Lucy before I collected the men.

I fed Rambo again on the porch this morning as I wa sin a hurry and did not have time to  sit with him while he ate.  It turns out he ate pretty well and I was greeted with such a happy dog!

Morning Mum!

So I set off into town and practised what I needed to ask for the whole way down the road.  It's the only thing that will make me remember - I have such a terrible memory!  Successfully putting 50 leva into the tank, I headed off up the main road and collected them.

Once in and everyone was settled, I took ten minutes to spend with Rambo in the garden.  He loves company and I hate to leave him down there all alone all day.  I have noticed (even last year) that these little critters are absolutely EVERYWHERE on the land.  They seem to cling to anything damp - wood, branches, humanure, water taps.  There are absolutely thousands and thousands of them and I have no idea what they are.  Obviously a beetle of sorts?

Little critters

Whilst outside, I heard the men bantering away and laughing.  They do seem happy to be back and we are both glad that they are.  It's hard to find people you can trust to do this sort of work, even in the UK where you acn speak the lingo, but here especially - we are very lucky.

Working happily

I had lots of paid work today again and this morning, despite getting outside for a little while, I was feeling a little bit down in the dumps, mostly exaggerated by tiredness I think.  I went upstairs mid morning to collect some more wood for the petchka and was happily filling the buckets when I came across a wedge of straw.  It took me a second, but then I realised what it could be.  We have only straw in the outbuilding, but as I dug further in I let out a squeal - it was another nest.  Sally came over and dug further into the nest for me, seeing that I was a bit shaken again, but found no trace of dead rats, mice or discarded poison pouches.

Yet another nest

I am not sure if this nest was still in use.  I have seen some dropping up in the attic, but not a huge amount.  I took my wood and went downstairs again feeling absolutely dejected.  On one hand, it is good that I fond another nest - that is three so far - on the other hand, there were no dead ones, no poison and it just means that there are possibly so many more around the house than I originally feared.  I know that there will be at least another few nests too in the rooms that aren't used much which are dark and damp at the moment.  I just felt horrible.

I had a right old moan up to the Mr on Skype, which in hindsight is really not fair because it just makes him feel bad, but I didn't think.  So I got stuck into some more work and then took myself back upstairs to get some shots of what the men were doing.  They seemed to have everything in place and were ready to pour the concrete.  Progress!

Morning status

And once the concrete was poured:

Afternoon status

Lunchtime came and went with tuna sandwiches, more work and another break with Rambo.  Bless him, he really has never grown up and still thinks he is a puppy!  He has got considerably unfit though and after only one throw of the Kong he seems to be knackered!  I played with him n the garden for a while just to stretch my legs and get some air as my workload has been fairly intense the last few days.

Throw it!

I threw the Kong, he fetched,  Then we had to play the game of giving it back to me, which is technically a snatch and grab on my part.  Here he is mid dash:

Got it!

Also, here is the pulley in action.  They are so efficient here it is ridiculous. They even sit on the table outside and pull it up in the sun, with the coffee I made them.  Brilliant.

Pulley in action

So, I was expecting a lot of rain today because of the forecast and I decided last night not to wash any clothes.  I have lots of things I want to get washed and dried, mostly bedclothes and towels but there are also the clothes from around the rats nest that the Mr found that will need about six washes before I allow him to wear them again.  Look at the torrential rain!

The forecasted rain

I couldn't understand why each time I went down to check on Rambo that his water bowl was completely dry.  I again was starting to worry about that rat he had caught and any poison it had in it.  Then I discovered that the little git had bitten his bowl and there was a tiny crack in it.  He chucks his bowl around to let you know it is empty and by the end of the afternoon I walked out onto the porch and found this -

Another casulty

I think it is a bit broken now.

And so to the last couple of hours.  I have decided that (today) instead of feeling sorry for myself I was not going to let these rats ruin every day for me.  I went to battle.

If you remember, I bought 7 traps.  Five of them are now set.  The latch on the other two are missing.  I set them last night but sadly there has been no results as of yet.  So this evening I took the box of poison and emptied it.  There is poison in most rooms in the house now, except for Sassy's room.  I went around and must have left 20 sachets of poison anywhere near to where I have seen droppings.  It is do or die.  I do hope they die and preferably outside.  Tomorrow, I buy more poison.  No rat will live in this house.  I am on it!

Let's do battle!

Just had my dinner, so now I am going to take an hour to myself and chill out with a beer by the fire.

Leka nosht!

A xxx