Flash Your Stash

Shelagh! I just now found your reply and questions to me as I've finally got the group working via OE well enough that I can find unread posts. I missed many when I was reading via Google!

Aye! What memories you flash through my head in explaining that you live in a mobile home with no storage. DH and I lived in one for a couple years 'fore moving here. It was a 12' X 65' and fortunately did have the 8X10 shed that you're planning to get. The shed NOR the house, though, were rodent proof!!!!!! It was HORRIBLE! The people who'd lived there 'fore we had cats, so I spent the first month and a half scrubbing everything ... floors, walls, rugs, ceilings, cabinets, built-ins ... EVERYTHING. I was (still am but take meds now) very allergic to cats and so worked my butt off to get the smell and dander of them gone.

I did such a good job that as soon as I'd finished, the house was INVADED by mice and rats, and I DO mean invaded. Being a mobile home, the construction is kinda like a box suspended within a box with the built-ins and cupboards and all serving as openings to the air space between the two boxes. And that space was FILLED with them ... as were all the drawers, cupboards, closets, ceilings, walls, etc. Disgusting!!! I HATE rodents and am terrified of rats. One morning when getting into the shower, I stomped on the floor 'cause I could hear them running underneath me; and a rat so large came flying out of the hole in the wall where the water supply for the washing machine (in the bathroom) was. It jumped on top of the washer and was so large that it knocked the jug of detergent over!!!!!!!!!!! You can imagine how fast I flew from there, slammed the door, grabbed my robe and ran to the neighbor (whom I had not met before.) I was crying, naked except for my robe, and pounding on their door -- please let me in! There's a RAT IN MY HOUSE!!!!!!!

Long story short, we became fast friends (LOL), and they told me that the people who'd moved from our house had been PIGS. We knew this (although not to the full extent) 'cause we found bags and bags of rotten food and trash tossed underneath the house and hidden by the skirt. The neighbor said that they threw a cat under there and wouldn't let it out. They never fed it so that it would take care of the rats and mice. AYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I begged DH to get an exterminator immediately, but he did nothing for about two weeks ... during which time I nearly had a nervous breakdown. I moved out (thankfully had a friend nearby with whom I could stay), and told him I wouldn't be back till the place had been bombed and all entry points sealed. It took a couple bombings before everything was killed, and I can't tell you how disgusting it was to have bodies completely surrounding the place and all through the house too. Makes my skin crawl just to think of it. Can you tell that even though we were there for a couple years after that, I never felt completely comfortable?!?

The shed actually had less trouble with rodents than the house 'cause it contained less of a draw. I don't know how it could've been rodent-proofed, through. Truth is, if they want in, they will get in. Ewwwwwwwwww!

I TRULY hope you have nothing even remotely like this experience! I keep everything we own in tubs, cans, jars, etc. so that all is rodent and bug protected. It's a habit now, and we still deal with mice 'cause our (present) house is a piled-up stone foundation. We've had it parged (coated with concrete) and have attempted everything known to man to keep them out; but like I said above, when they want in, they will find a way. We now have three kitties who keep the problem confined to the basement. :o)

As for what I'd do with your stash...... that green and the grey variegated in pic 1 are dreamy. Think I'd make sweaters with those! The 2 skeins of self-striping in pic 2 are just screaming at me to make socks! LOL And in pic 3, the cream (or might it be soft yellow?) and the purple variegated are SO lovely, I'd make afghans or throws or something just so that I could look at that beauty all the time! The purple variegated in pic 4 says poncho and leg warmers to me, and there's enough of that lovely baby stuff to outfit a whole nursery!!!!!! LOL

Though Bart gave some great links for knitted lace items that I thought I'd fiddle with to knit the curtains I bought cotton crochet thread to crochet (and now can't crochet), I found the pattern I want to use via Elann's latest ad. Check it out! Here's the link --

It's a shawl, but I can very easily just make panels and, if I want,valances. Pretty, huh?Well, this is one long post, eh? Smiles to ya! Eve :o)

Hi Eve,

Reading that brought back memories for me. When we moved into our mobile, there were mice, about 2 dozen. My cat took one look at the first one that ran past her and got an expression of "what the heck!?" on her face, but it didn't take long before the predatory instinct took over and she was having a ball catching them.

However, they were also in the cupboards (I highly recommend anyone buying a mobile to open ALL cupboards to make sure the mice haven't gotten in there, we learned that the hard way after they ruined a lot of our kitchen implements), and our cat couldn't get in there, and the nasty filthy rodents quickly learned to avoid our cat by staying in the cupboards!

I'm allergic to pesticides, and so I couldn't just bomb my trailer, as it would have made it uninhabitable to ME. The most effective thing for catching mice we found were glue traps. Mice tend to run through the same areas, and while they may or may not try and take bait in the old snap traps, a glue trap is great in more ways than one. They run through the area, thinking they can run over the trap, and they get mired in it instantly and can't get out, even if it's only 1 leg that's caught. We found them with 1 leg caught, which they broke trying to get away, and they still couldn't, because the traps were too big for them to drag away through the tiny holes they made to get in. We also had them trying to chew their way out of the traps and some trapped their heads in the glue that way, and some suffocated themselves that way, making disposal easier. We had some that got to the drawer area and were chewing at the drawers trying to get themselves out of the traps (didn't work, and I've since got new drawers in the kitchen as we've cleaned up this hovel). In addition, a snap trap only works ONCE per setting. A glue trap, as long as there's room, will catch more mice. We had as many as 4 in a single trap when we first started using them. Got rid of the full traps, and put more in the same places, and caught more in new traps, so they were stupid enough to just keep on using the same running track. Glue traps are also EASY to set. Open the box, unfold the 2 traps (usually

4 to a box), break the plastic tabs keeping them together, and just place it where you think rodents are going. There is no poison in glue traps, so you and your pets are safe from that. If they actually get away from the trap (we haven't seen any of them able to pull themselves out), they aren't going to die somewhere else of poison and stink up your place and they aren't going to poison your pet, some neighbor's pet, or wildlife by being full of poison and being eaten by them.

BTW, they do make them big enough to catch rats. We didn't have any rats, just field mice, but some of them were rather large. But, they had rats at my husband's work, and he said it was so effective, he saw a rat caught at work, and in addition to the rat, a SNAKE was also caught, a rather long and large one. Not poisonous, but it was going after what it saw as an easy meal and it also got mired in the glue trap. He said he almost felt sorry for the rat, to see the snake coming at it, because they eat things head first, and it being unable to move, and finally, it got closer, and closer, and then WHAM, it was caught, too! They let the snake go to catch more rats, but not the rat.

For those (IMO) bleeding hearts who think the disease ridden filthy vermin should be let go, you can pour oil over them and release them from the traps, at least that's what it says on the box, that you can catch and release using that method. However, you let them go, and they'll just come back with more babies, so I killed every one we caught in our traps. I kept disposable gloves and plastic bags around for disposal, and I just put on a glove (DH was too squeamish, but I grew up on a farm dealing with them), picked up the trap with gloved hand, shoved trap mice and all into a plastic bag, closed the bag top, and then swing the bag at something solid rodent side first, and they are killed instantly with blunt force. Take the bag outside, throw it out, take off the glove and throw it out too, back inside to wash up, and you're done.

Leah