Hot meat, hot rats, hot cats, hot rits (Frank Zappa/ Captain Beefheart)

Photo by Alexas_Fotos on Unsplash

Wie geht's?

Rats.

I don't like rats.

I love autumn. 

I love living in the country, without close neighbours. 

I love Maple Grove (our 3 acre lifestyle property with a 5 bedroom villa that is over 120 years old).

But I don't like rats.

Autumn, it turns out, does have a downside, even though I hate to admit it.

It's like the calendar ticks over to March 1st and the local rat family gets the signal to pack their bags and take shelter in our ceiling.

The first hint came a week ago with some scratching above us, so I reset all the bait stations (two under the house, one in the tack shed/garage, and one in the ceiling).

I'll need to check and refill them all this weekend, as the noises above and in the wall behind our bed have yet to abate.

The noises have woken us up each night (once, in our sleep state, we thought it was an earthquake). This is a pain, and needs to stop, and it does take time to get rid of the pesky visitors.

But, to be clear, I still love autumn.

Love and peace - Wozza

Why does it always rain on me (Travis)

Impressions of summer

• Wasps - while taking a lead rope off Beetlebaum in the long grass of the driveway I thought I'd stepped back onto a thistle, then I saw what I thought were big black flies on my legs - nope - wasps. Black wasps. Having disturbed their sub-ground nest, they took retribution. Jeepers, a week later my legs still hurt like the blazers!!
• Hot hot heat - on the deck the mercury was saying 35 degrees most days (apart from the three day storm in early January)
• Water - either not enough (we needed to order some water before our visitors arrived before Christmas), or too much (the heavens opened on a walk SWMBO, Jerry and your faithful correspondent took)
• Wind - not that kind, the take-the-sails-down wind that came with the January storm.
• Wetas - the hot/wet/humid combo suits wetas and Jerry, helpfully, brought a few inside to bat around on the floor.
• Opossum - whether climbing on the roof or making horrible noises outside the toilet window whenever I made a nighttime pit stop, it was an unnerving experience
• Rats! I hate rats!! Either in the tool shed, or the old hay by the tractor, ratty came a calling.  I buried six in total. Take that! 
• Titus Groan novels - keeping company with the creepy ratlike Steerpike during the summer was somehow weirdly appropriate!

Not my favourite season, summer. By a long chalk!

Love and peace - Wozza