Score one for me!

I need to give a big shout out to my friend Linda who shared a tip for keeping mice away: smelly dryer sheets! Apparently they don’t like the strong odor.

With high expectation and mild reservations, I draped dryer sheets along the edge of the tub where the mice seemed to be getting in. Then waited overnight…

Now, I have to be up front here. The dryer sheets I normally use are unscented ones – I don’t smell things very well and I know of folks who have trouble with heavy scents, so I just go without. In fact, I haven’t even used a dryer sheet in so long, I almost forgot they were there. When hubby reminded me of the non-scent variety that we have on hand, I rushed out to the local grocery in search of the worst smell I could find.

And the grocery has just “Spring Rain”, “Spring Flowers” and “Mountain Mist” on hand. Not even a regular scent. My heart sank as I tried to figure out which lovely outdoor smell would deter a mouse – it would likely love them all! In the end “Spring Flowers” won out. Fingers crossed it would be overpowering to a mouse.

When I saw two of the sheets on the deck floor peeking out from the tub cover skirting, I figured I had lost this skirmish. But NO! When the cover was raised, ever so carefully, not a mouse was in sight and no extra floating islands appeared!  Hurray!

Gonna give it a couple more days to see how effective the sheets stay. Hope to reclaim the hot tub for my own use by the weekend!

Unwanted company

Here we were, minding our own business, celebrating my oldest sister’s birthday with the added celebration of it being mother’s day. To cap off the celebration, M and I planned a soak in the hot tub. To that end, I hadn’t minded missing my periodic soaks throughout the week (due to all the rain) leading up to the celebration, knowing that there was a luxurious treat awaiting.

The day was sunny and chilly – perfect for a water temp of 101-102 degrees F. Armed with fluffy towels and too early for wine and cheese, we lifted the tub cover.

Out popped a mouse! And it had a lovely little floating island of dried moss and leaf bits drifting around trailing debris through the depths of the tub.

I readily admit to having my mom’s mice genes in that I “EEK” every time I see a mouse. I have NOT ever climbed on a chair, though. and living in the country surrounded by woods, it has been impossible to keep them out of the garage, shed and ceiling/walls of the house.

They have invaded my basketry area in the past and I have liberally used traps (both humane and non) and D-Con. They eat the traps (as well as the bait) without getting caught and store all the D-Con pellets in special little caches throughout my stuff. Over time, I’ve at least been able to keep their evidence out of sight in my space.

But the HOT TUB! This space is PERSONAL!

Yesterday’s guest was promptly removed (tossed overboard and scampered away) and the island mess cleaned up fairly well. M assured me this was no worse than all her lifeguard days of cleaning out pools, so we did actually soak a bit. And then, this morning, just to check…..

THREE MICE! A momma and two younguns enjoying another floating island of moss bits. Plus they had chewed a hole through the vinyl skirting.

This means war, now!

Nothing on-line references mice in the actual tub of a hot tub. Mostly mice have gotten into the cabinet and/or motor area. My hot tub guy was astounded about the mice being in the water. He’s gonna check with his service guys, but thinks maybe a high level of chlorine might do the trick. He also likes D-Con, but I certainly don’t want those pellets ending up in the tub, too.

I don’t want to bait traps because that will also attract other varmits to the deck. And I feel bad about going after a critter outside (after all, that IS their space) but they have invaded MY space! A cat might work, but that means trying to keep one around the house, on the outside, without it eating other things and then not being hungry enough to chase the mice. Dilemmas!

But I WILL get my hot tub back.

And the mice WILL stay out!

 

 

Maple a dud, dyebath a winner!

Well, spring maple leaves do NOT have the dyeing power that fall ones have.  In fact, they have next to nothing in them to give color.

Rather, I should say, I could not get any color out of  the spring leaves!

BUT, the dye bath itself was one that I was reusing and had lots of good color in it along with some rusty nails, so the refolding of the jacket I was trying to dye created some glorious new ‘wrapped shibori’ marks from where the cloth was newly open to the ambient ‘juice’. The jacket is still damp and hasn’t been washed yet, but I expect I’ll keep a lot of the new marks which blend nicely with the original dyeing that I did last year on it. Hope the owner likes it!

Maple seeds

Oops – forgot to actually post this earlier….

With all the maple seeds flying around right now, I thought I’d see what they had to offer in a dye pot.

And the answer is:  not much!  Just a bit of a greenish sort of color but hardly worth the effort to collect more. One more thing ticked off the list of things to try.

I am trying out young maple leaves that came down with some wind we had. The leaves in the fall give a luscious dark purply black. Not sure what these young ones will do. They are in the pot as I type.