I'm having critter issues again. Andy Baird wrote me that putting out all the seed for the birds and squirrels might not be such a good idea, considering all the problems I've had with rodents in the rig. Good thought. I brought in the seed feeder and water bowl, in fact, I put them in a bag and threw them in the dumpster. THEN...
Having been so ridiculously proud of my engine's LED lighting each night when I plugged them in, I was appropriately devastated Tuesday morning when I went outside to check the engine and saw they had been chewed. Just like old Christmas tree light strings, I had light for the first two feet or so until the break, and the entire line past that was dark.
At first I thought it was the squirrels that had gotten into my engine since I took away their seed, but last Tuesday night I found out otherwise. Rats! Literally.
Tuesday night Katie heard something and let me know and I went out in the dark with a flashlight. I lifted the engine hood and saw a huge rodent trying to get away. All I could see was his tail stuck to the glue trap and his huge back feet bracing against the engine trying to get loose. The rest of his body was down in the engine trying to jump to the ground. This was not a mouse.
I ran to the door to get my "grabber," and ran back to the engine. I was going to grab that glue trap and toss it away. Unfortunately, when I got back the rat was gone, but left me part of his tail as a gift. Yuk! (That's the cropped part of the next two photos. I figured you wouldn't want to see the piece of tail, no pun intended. Again, Yuk!) He had also eaten most of the dCon that I had attached to the engine with double-sided tape. I was hoping he would just go away and die, but no, I'm figuring it was the same one, just not dead yet.
I went on-line and ordered two new rodent deterrents. One is animal urine soaked crystals that are spread around and the rodents will smell the urine of their predator and stay away. The other is a kind of spray.
Then last night he was back. This is what I found this morning.
He totally ripped open the dCon package to get all the pellets out. GOOD!
So, I'm sitting here thinking about it, and wondering why I'm spending all this money on rodent stuff and waiting until it gets here. The Palms must be as sweet to rodents as it is to me. They just keep coming... but I don't think this is a war I'm going to win. I decided to move.
I don't want to be too far from the trash dumpsters because Katie and I have to walk there every day with our trash bag, so I packed everything up, filled the fresh water tank, dumped the other two and then drove around looking for a new site. I drove all over the place on both sides of the main road and ended up just one "block" over from my old site. I'm alongside the next wash right on the same road. I really like our new site, maybe even more than the other one.
We have a little "living room" again.
It gets great shade until late in the afternoon. And I've hung my hummingbird feeders on that tree, great line of site out my dinette window for photos. Even a little Saguaro Cactus!
I need to rake the area, there is some black stuff on the dirt that's probably been blown over from the firepit. Don't need to be tracking that inside. Then, assuming no rodents, we'll be settled again.
I can see my old site across the desert to the next wash and through it's trees and hope the critters don't follow me here. I put out a new sticky trap and dCon this evening and left my hood open a bit so I can look in quickly if Katie and I hear noises, but I'm thinking positively. :)
This was our eastern sky this evening as the sun was setting:
The photo below is what I see out my front window - until someone parks in that spot. It's just to the left of the setting sun - the bushes, trees and cactus are in the next wash over in front of us. So pretty here in the desert at sunset.
From me and Katie, have a great Thursday evening, everyone! :)
