Groundhog Day

I'll bet you're thinking Groundhog Day is in February.  Right now we are in August, so what gives?  It seems to be groundhog day everyday in our yard.    We have what the kids call "the creature" (aka groundhog or woodchuck) living under our shop, burrowing in the yard and making appearances in the barn.  Sean wouldn't go out in the yard for a several days because he was worried about being bitten by the creature. 

We tried trapping the groundhog, but apparently they don't go for cat food like the neighbor thought.  Hubby tried shooting the thing, but is pretty sure he missed and the puppies have even chased him, all to no avail.  Although not the same animal, it's starting to feel like we are precariously close to a scene from Caddyshack...

Bill Murray, Caddyshack 1980

Caddyshack, 1980

Each morning, the kids like to point out the freshly dug mounds of soil in the yard.  They even like to stomp on the mounds.  Well we've been doing some research and are now prepared to trap the creature, enticing him into the cage with all his favorite foods.  If that doesn't work, there's always dynamite :)   

Moving In

When a house sits empty for several months, dust begins to settle, wildlife start to explore and grass keeps growing.  When you're moving into a house that sat vacant for months, you have to clear away the dust, shoo away the wildlife and mow grass taller than a small child.

Fortunately for us, the hubby, brother-in-law and a friend got started on the mowing before the kids and I arrived - otherwise, I know we would have lost a kid or two in there (and that is a story for another day!).  Unfortunately, the ticks had already made themselves right at home.  During our first week here, three of the kids got ticks.

I can recall sitting on the toilet in my grandparents old house, while grandma lit a match.  After blowing out the flame, she would use the hot tip to press on the tick causing it to release itself from my scalp.  Since I am such an expert on removing ticks, I too pulled out a book of matches, blew out the flame and pressed the hot match tip to the tick's backside.  The tick didn't release, so I lit another match and tried again.  After lighting and blowing out four or five matches, the hubby walks over and says "the tick is dead."  Oops. 
 

tick on my sister's neck

After my tick removal failure, I moved on to the task of clearing away some of the dust, leaving wildlife to the others.  I started out by gathering several old ice cream buckets and filling them with soapy water.  Then we handed each child a scrub brush, rag or mop.  We took them out onto the porch to start scrubbing.  After a few hours of spilled buckets, wet kids, a one year old sucking on the soapy rags and not very much scrubbing, I decided it was time to bring out the big guns - the power washer.


Now, I  have to tell you, I secretly like power washing, so it was nice to spend two whole days spraying the porch, screens and windows while someone else watched the kiddos.  Of course those two days happened to be rainy and cold, and since the water was splattering all around, I was wet and cold.  The day after I finished the porch, guess what?  It was nice and sunny, like 90 degrees.