#46 today

The mice are still avoiding the traps but are dying from the Talon.  My nose is doing a fine job of leading me to them.  YUK.    There was one today and one yesterday and we still have them around.   

One drawer, which has been a favourite, is still in use (by the rodents).   It used to contain clean dishwashing cloths and razor blade gadgets for cleaning the stove, taking stickers off car windows etc.  I emptied it out and cleaned and disinfected it thoroughly on 3 occasions before putting moth balls in it.  They seemed to keep the mice at bay for nearly a week.  But the pests have come back again and would you believe they or it are making a nest out of a microfibre cloth and some Talon pellets.  That's one strange mouse!!!!   There has been a trap in there the whole time but it catches nothing.  We're going to let the little pest believe that we don't know it's there and then put in an extra trap.

The local Shire can't cope with the opening of the roads.  Today they sent me a different Home Carer, who said that she was sent because she lives on the Cohuna side.  They obviously don't realise that the road is open from the Kerang end too.   How can they not know???   They are the ones who are supposed to give us that information!

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Hooray!!!

The Murray Valley Highway is open to Kerang!!!  Only 6 weeks after the floods commenced.  I went up there for a massage today and it was great not to have to take the long, bumpy detour.

 It was a shock seeing the water that is still lying around Kerang.  The 9 Mile Creek was as I expected, as I had seen it during the flood.  It was the area beyond that shocked me.  Huge lakes all around the town!!!  It's going to be weeks yet before the water dries up in some areas.

The mice are slowing down.  We haven't caught any in traps for days.  There have been a number of deceased ones lying dramatically on the floor (dramatic because I yell when I find them in unexpected places) and long-dead ones that try to hide and pretend that they don't stink.

Our rotating bottle trap outside has been eaten by the giant mouse!!   The night after the peanut butter was eaten, the bucket and bottle were demolished!

The other wildlife is extremely varied.   Usually, there are seasons for creatures, but this year we seem to be getting everything at once.  The dragonflies are still in their hundreds; the mosquitoes, of course, are still evil; the tiny black midges continue to get into our ears;  they are being overtaken by a bigger brother, which seems to be crossed with a mossie; spiders are prolific; and we won't mention mice or snakes.  I do NOT have a problem with snakes, at present!

It's thrilling to see my autumn crocus beginning to sprout.  I brought them with me from our other farm and the bright gold color delights me on dull days. 

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NZ Earthquake

Tuesday 7.48 NZ time (2 hours ahead of Aus)

I can't possibly speak of mice and floods in the light of the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. 

The quake hit at 12.50pm NZ  today and has damaged numerous buildings in the centre of the city, at a time when there are many people working there.   It is only 5 months since the last quake there.  

New Zealand and Australia are very closely aligned, historically, geographically and with the heart.  You can tell how much the two countries love one another by the number of jokes each makes about the other!   I expect that in time, the two countries will become one, in most or all aspects.

We had Aussie doctors at a conference in Christchurch and others are flying in.   A large contingent of our advanced search and rescue people have already arrived.   The sooner, the faster, the better.   

Don't you feel so helpless???   Don't you want to be able to do something concrete to save or comfort someone???

Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to the dead and their families and friends, the injured and frightened people.   Good luck and God speed to the brave volunteers and professionals who are searching through the rubble and to the doctors, nurses, paramedics and all who are tending to the wounded.    

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Mem'ries, not a sound from the wardrobe .....

We're up to app 40 mice.   Steve shifted my wardrobe and found two long dead ones beneath it.  They were able to creep in because there's a bargeboard at the front but not at the back, thus creating a large cavity underneath.  I had been complaining about a smelly bedroom ever since we returned home but we couldn't find the culprits.  So, we have slept in the caravan.  I'll give it a few days before we move back inside to sleep --- the memory of the smell is firmly entrenched in my brain and in my nose.

Thanks to sis in law, Debbie for her suggestion that the mouse had a heart attack when he encountered the toys in the bag.  It would have been all those beady, glassy eyes looking at him!!!

We put our plastic-bottle-over-bucket mouse trap outside.  No mice had attacked it inside and the bottle was still liberally plastered with peanut butter.  Last night, ALL of the peanut butter disappeared.  That's one big mouse!!

Sent to me by Dad's cousin, Barry, this cartoon is entitled, Dilemma for boat people."         I think this sums it up pretty well.

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You take the High road and I'll take the Dry road.

For the first time in 4 weeks, our section of the Murray Valley Highway at Milnes Bridge, has no water over the road.   There is still a lot of water on the sides of the road and some of the paddocks still look as much like lakes as they did a few weeks ago.... but this is a start.  

I should send this blog to the Council so that they can understand that my Home Help lady can now return!    Or perhaps I should send a photo of the road. My Home Fairy comes from Cohuna, the town on the side of the Dry road.

We were told tonight that we have to beware of May, the worst month for floods!!!!!  Shame it was our son who said that, otherwise I would have washed out his mouth with soap!!

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All creatures great and smelly

 Late night Thursday Feb 17th.

Just prior to last Christmas, I decided to wash the stuffed toys from the toy box.    Everyone was coming home and all the kids have their favourites amongst the toys.

Alas, I ran out of time, so I washed a select few and put the rest of the creatures in a plastic bag and hung it on a hook in the laundry.   There they stayed until now.

This morning, I was sniffing around like a hunting dog and pointing at the laundry.
Steve investigated and  lo and behold ----- a new creature in amongst the others in the bag..... a newly dead mouse.  I can imagine it climbing into the bag, saying, "Hi guys!  What's up?  Want to come out and play?"

Did it die of a broken heart when no one spoke to it?   Did they all rush to suffocate it, thinking it to be a creature from outer space?   Or, not so likely,  I suppose it might even have died from the Talon poison???  Feel free to offer alternative explanations.

I washed all of the toys this morning and put them outside to dry.

  

I decided not to wash the mouse.

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For strong stomachs only.

Here is a spaghetti cooker, for use in the microwave oven.

The 2 holes in the top are for measuring the bundles of spaghetti.

Water and spaghetti go into the bottom of the dish.

When it is cooked, it is strained out through the lid that has smaller holes.

Any leftovers can be stored by putting on a different, solid lid.

Below is a photo of the cooker with the measuring lid in place. The large hole measures enough spaghetti for six.

Below is a photo of the spaghetti cooker with the measuring lid removed.

Now you can see the small holes of the strainer lid.

No, I'm not selling this spaghetti cooker.  There is a point to this story, believe it or not.

Like the title says, do not keep reading if you have a queasy tummy.

The cooker was in a cupboard.  I tracked it down, by nose.

It had the measuring lid on.  A mouse had climbed in the big hole but couldn't get out.

It landed on the strainer lid.

When found, the mouse had his head through one of the little holes and Steve says it had its bum through another!!  (I located it but when I saw how the mouse was stuck, I gave it to Steve to dislodge!)

Thinking about it later, this is my conclusion.......... (You're very welcome to make another.)

The mouse climbed in the big hole but couldn't leap out vertically. 

Naturally, it would have made many frantic attempts to escape and for this I feel sorrow.

There was hair covering the inside of the container, showing the struggle.

When it put its head through a hole, which would have been quite easy,  it could see the much larger chamber below.  But by the time it pushed through to its stomach, it was stuck and couldn't go back.

The small holes are quite close together, near enough for the mouse to reach up and push its head through a nearby hole, then strain like crazy to get its bum out of the first hole, and pull its whole body through the second hole.

Thus, the head was coming out of one hole and its bum was stuck in another!  

A very athletic (but dead) mouse!!!

Gruesome.

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The War is On

Today we made an execution chamber from a bucket with water in the bottom, a stick, a  wire coat hanger and an empty bottle covered in peanut butter.  If this doesn't work, I will keep searching for another method of eradication.   I'm not really happy about drowning the mice --- I would prefer them to die quicker than drowning.

 

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Overview

Sunday night, 13th Feb

This is a Google photo taken some time ago.  

The levee banks have been drawn in. 

Everything that you can see outside the levee banks was flooded, up to a depth of about 4ft. 
Due to leaks and pipes, some water came through the banks and flooded around the house on all sides.  Fortunately, it stopped short of coming into the house.  It's amazing!  The Pyramid Creek from my right, the Picaninny Creek from the left and the Loddon river from behind us.
We plan to leave the levee bank in place.  It has been pushed aside just enough to allow vehicles in and out; and up towards the old dairy in case Dom brings in cattle.   The soil can be quickly put back in place, in case of another flood........ God forbid.

The death toll of mice has reached 14.  I think I'll stop counting now.  
They have eaten well from the little packages of poison and are dying wherever they fall.   
Or do they plan where they die????  
Within an hour, Steve and I both found one in the identical place.   
Was it a romantic tryst?  Did she say to him, "Let's meet in the right hand back corner of our special drawer."   She arrived and when he didn't come immediately, she killed herself and Steve removed her.   He arrived, having stopped for a feed of little green pellets, making him late.  When she didn't come, he killed himself and was removed by Laurie.  I've put on some soulful music and now we wait to see if there were others involved in this romantic dalliance!!

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WE'RE HO-OME

Saturday 12th Feb, 3 weeks after we were evacuated.

The levee bank got pushed back, the money was paid and we came home today.

I could wish to be almost anywhere else, as the place stinks of mice again. 
Those mice never learn ---- they invade the same drawers that have never contained food!  Their favourite appears to be a drawer that contains dish cloths of various kinds. At the back of that drawer is a roll of kitchen paper.   Ironically, a mouse bled to death on it.   YUCK.

It gives me a giggle that a Canadian friend, Peggy, slips in little references to floods and mice in her bulk mail.  I thought that you might like to have a laugh at Peggy's blonde jokes.

DISNEYLAND
Two blondes were going to Disneyland .  They were driving on the Interstate when they saw the sign that said Disneyland LEFT.  They started crying and turned around and went home.  

FLORIDA OR MOON
Two blondes living in Oklahoma were sitting on a bench talking, and one blonde says to the other, 'Which do you think is farther away.... Florida or the moon?'  The other blonde turns and says 'Helloooooooooo, can you see Florida ?????'

CAR TROUBLE
A blonde pushes her BMW into a gas station. She tells the
Mechanic it died.  After he works on it for a few minutes, it is idling smoothly. 
She says, 'What's the story?' 
He replies, 'Just crap in the carburetor'
She asks, 'How often do I have to do that?'

SPEEDING TICKET
A police officer stops a blonde for speeding and asks her very nicely if he could see her license. 
She replied in a huff, 'I wish you guys would get your act together.
Just yesterday you take away my license and then today you expect me to show it to you!'

RIVER WALK
There's this blonde out for a walk. She comes to a river and sees another blonde on the opposite bank 'Yoo-hoo!' she shouts, 'How can I get to the other side?'
The second blonde looks up the river then down the river and shouts back, 'You ARE on the other side.'

AT THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE
A gorgeous young redhead goes into the doctor's office and said that her body hurt wherever she touched it.
'Impossible!' says the doctor.. 'Show me.' 
The redhead took her finger, pushed on her left shoulder and screamed, then she pushed her elbow and screamed even more. She pushed her knee and screamed; likewise she pushed her ankle and screamed. Everywhere she touched made her scream. 

The doctor said, 'You're not really a redhead, are you? 
'Well, no' she said, 'I'm actually a blonde.' 
'I thought so,' the doctor said, 'Your finger is broken.'

KNITTING
A highway patrolman pulled alongside a speeding car on the freeway. Glancing at the car, he was astounded to see that the blonde behind the wheel was knitting!
Realizing that she was oblivious to his flashing lights and siren, the trooper cranked down his window, turned on his bullhorn and yelled, 'PULL OVER!' 
'NO!' the blonde yelled back, 'IT'S A SCARF!'

BLONDE ON THE SUN
A Russian, an American, and a Blonde were talking one day.
The Russian said, 'We were the first in space!' 
The American said, 'We were the first on the moon!' 
The Blonde said, 'So what? We're going to be the first on the sun!'  The Russian and the American looked at each other and shook their heads.
'You can't land on the sun, you idiot! You'll burn up!' said the Russian. 
To which the Blonde replied, 'We're not stupid, you know.. We're going at night!'

IN A VACUUM
A blonde was playing Trivial Pursuit one night... It was her turn. She rolled the dice and she landed on Science & Nature. Her question was, 'If you are in a vacuum and someone calls your name, can you hear it?' She thought for a time and then asked, 'Is it on or off?'

THE BLONDE JOKE TO END ALL BLONDE JOKES!
A girl was visiting her blonde friend, who had acquired two new dogs, and asked her what their names were. The blonde responded by saying that one was named Rolex and one was named Timex. Her friend said, 'Whoever heard of someone naming dogs like that?'  'HELLLOOOOOOO......,' answered the blonde. 'They're watch dogs'!

Just a few photos of the driveway being cleared:
                                                 Looking towards the Highway

                                                        Excavator
                                                     

Other end of driveway








   Part of "the Moat"

Latest Decision

After numerous phone calls, the decision was that the original excavator would come out and do the small job this morning.   As it's now nearly 2pm on Saturday afternoon and Steve hasn't called, I'm wondering what's going on.   This man wanted to do more work, to turn the small job into one more worth while.  Dom decided against this, as he has heard that he's very expensive.   When the excavator looked like he wouldn't come unless he had more work to do, Steve offered him "premium pay". 

It looks like we'll be home tonight ---- expensively!!

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Decision

Dom has contacted all the excavator operators and "late next week" is the earliest anyone could come.
So, we've decided to go home before the levee bank is cut.   We'll park the car and van close together in the drive and transfer items from the caravan to the car.   We try to have two sets of everything so that we don't need to take anything from the house into the van but this is a work in progress.  We'll get there eventually. 


Our plan is to pack up on Friday and go home on Saturday.  A. When we think we have everything we need from the van, Steve will drive the car over the levee bank.  The van and truck will stay on the outside of it. 
B.  Steve has a thought about driving the van over the levee bank.  I'm not in favour!!!

We went out to the house today and I could smell MOUSE as soon as we went inside.    There were 3 more dead bodies, only one of which was in a trap.   I think that gives us a total of seven.   Smelly, creepy little things.  How I ever let Rachel keep white mice is a mystery to me.

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Still here

Steve visited the house yesterday (Tuesday) and found one more dead rodent ---- still no traps touched.  That's 3 dead mice now --- they all ran after the farmer's wife!!

The water continues to recede and everything is getting dry but the problem is getting the incubator, educator, eradicator, evaporator ------  excavator.  The harder the problem, the more my memory fails me!     In fact, I think that the bigger problem is getting a relative of mine to find time to organise the excavator --- my daughter, father, uncle, cousin ----- son, that's it!!

The Red Cross rang us today, to see if we were home again or needed anything.   What a great organisation!  I hope that the really needy people feel the same as I do.

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Monday evening

NO  NO NO NO NO

All 6 tubs of mouse bait eaten.  All bait in traps eaten but nothing caught.  Saturday, a mouse ran over my bare foot;  moments later Steve found a dead mouse a few feet away.   Monday, Steve finds another dead mouse.   This is all in our house, which was occupied by hundreds of mice while we were in Moree.  We stayed living in the caravan for more than 2 months, while we worked hard on cleaning every inch of the house.  We were only back in the house for a month before the floods moved us out again.

I read in the paper “It is the smaller mammals like Antechinus (native mice) hardest hit by flooding because of their habitat in low lying woodlands and grasslands."    So???   Do I sound like I care???  LOL.
There are lots of bugs and beetles crawling everywhere. I noticed some on the carpet in the doctor's surgery today. They are much preferable to mice.    There are dragonflies by the dozen but these were around just before the floods.


We drove home today and measured the water on the road at only 6".  It's no longer right across the road, which is a great improvement. The paddocks just before the bridge are still big lakes, unfortunately.


Steve and Dom have to talk about getting an excavator to clear our driveway. Dom was out at a football meeting when Steve rang him tonight. There were footballers jogging around the oval this evening. OH NO. Surely it's not that time of the year already????

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More water coming???

We have been told that more water has been released from Kow Swamp.  We're trying to find out if this is correct.  It's infuriating to be passed from one department to another and never get the information that we want.   A couple of the men at a farmers' meeting last week told us of their experiences.  The various Departments, supposedly in control, told the meeting how farmers were sent texts or had a door knock to inform them of what was happening.   There was an uproar and men jumped to their feet to refute this.  Eventually, it was found that THREE men had been informed.

Sunday was a lovely sunny day with a stiff breeze so the levee bank should have dried up pretty well.  We'll go out there around 10am and try to get in to have a shower, as well as checking the water levels.

Fires are burning out of control in Perth.  Some Melbourne schools are closed today because of flash flooding.  Northern Queensland and Brisbane are cleaning up and rebuilding after the floods and cyclone.  My area is waiting for water to recede.  Mildura is still waiting for the slow moving riverine flood to reach it.    
Today is the second anniversary of Black Saturday in Victoria, where so many people died and a huge number of houses were lost.    It is a very sad day for Julie, my cousin by marriage, who lost two members of her family.   By comparison, we have absolutely nothing to complain about.

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RAIN

 Steve reported this morning that the Pyramid Creek has gone down another 2" and that our drive was nearly dry.

And now,  most of Victoria is getting heavy rain.

Newspapers warn of more flooding, in new areas as well as places that have already been flooded.  

The grass beneath us here is pretty well drained but we get drenched every time we go to the toilet block!  

It's Steve's birthday on Saturday.  Dom and the two boys are coming with us for dinner at The Tavern.  Mandy and Jemma are away.  I've ordered a cake and I found a computer to go on top!

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HOT and HOTTER

 Tuesday Feb1st

 

Poor Steve!  There are still a few long spikes left in his skin.  I think we might have to wait for them to fester.

On his first trip home today, he found rising water inside the levee.  On investigation, there was a slit in a water pipe, left by the excavator.  That's why he turned the water off!!!  In case the excavator hit it!  And he fell into the bush when he turned the water back on!!   There's something happening here.... can't you see it??  It's to do with the grassy knoll, I feel sure!!    Let's see ----- there are 14 letters in Steve Jenkinson and 14 letters in Lyndon B Johnson -----  OMG!!!

Anyway, he made a second trip back with tools and pipe bits and repaired the slit.

Very, very hot again today and the caravan was becoming claustrophobic.  We decided to go for a swim, donned the bathers and then visitors began to arrive.   Lovely visitors.    It reached 7pm and we hadn't shopped or been to the pool.   We went over there and found that the pool closed at 7pm, as did the supermarket!  The kind lifeguard took pity on us and let us in for a cooling dip.

So ----- northern Queensland is bracing for what may be its worst ever cyclone, Yasi.   Easter Victoria has some big bushfires and we're mopping up after floods.    What a country!

 Our Showgrounds home.

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