Thursday, October 9, 2008

The only problem with Bacon Creek

So here we were at the most beautiful place I had ever seen. We had a nice dinner over the fire and were getting ready to turn in for the night, oblivious to the events that were about to change our lives forever.

We folded out the bed, crawled into our sleeping bags and started drifitng to the sound of water tumbing along the rocks. Right as I was on the brink of sleep, Michael exclaims
"Emilie, EMILIE"
"what"
"There was a mouse on my back, there was something on my back"
"WHAT? no you had to be imagining it"
"No, I felt something, was that you"
In a sleepy groggy tone "No, I don't know what you're talking about"
Comforted by my own ignorance I got ready to drift back to sleep- things calmed down, silence rolled in, until.... schmme shcmme schmee scratch scratch boing boing thump thump thump thump crinkle crinkle....

We both sat straight up in bed, grabbed our flashlights and beamed them around the car- nothing. Now I was on patrol, if there was a vermin in our bedroom I knew it was going to be a long night. Comforted by the fact that I was now on gaurd, Michael fell asleep, the little butt. He woke up 15 min later with me hunched over the food staring in every direction trying to spot the intruder. It was at this point I realized I couldn't take it.

I told him I was moving to the tent (we had set it up and put our bags in it earlier).
He said "no, no, I think he's gone, I'm sure it's fine just stay here"
"No, I can't I'm really tired and I know I won't be able to sleep at all"
"Just stay, it will be fine"
"No, I can't, I'm going" and I gathered up my sleeping bag, and pillow and ran to the tent.
I threw all the bags out and crawled in, ready finally for a quiet night.

About 5 minutes later I hear koosh-scwek, as the van door opens, then "hey let me in, I can't sleep in there with that thing alone"

So the mouse won- he kicked us out of our house, and had the whole place to himself, so in the morning, this is what we came back to...










The little monster got into everything. Among the list of the damaged included a package of cookies, 2 tortillas, and brownies that Vince had made while we in Bozeman. Not to mentioned he just pooped everywhere. In the cupboard, in all of our dishes, and then made a nest out of the toilet paper. This was war.

We stuck all the food into the big kayaking tupperware box we have and put it on top of the car. Then Mike contraped his finest invention yet- the perfect mouse trap. Large empty gallon jug of juice, with crumbled up cookie from the first attack- the hope was the little guy would crawl in to get to the cookie and wouldn't be able to get himself out at which point we would spring forward grab our trap and take it far far away ( of course this design only works under the assumption that there is only 1mouse...).

So we had a wonderful day, and once again settled in for the night. About 15 minutes after everything got quiet, about the time that Mike and I thought maybe the little monster had just run off, we hear... schmme shcmme schmee scratch scratch boing boing thump thump thump thump crinkle crinkle...

Lights go back on to search lights, and we are on patrol. And then- there he is, doing laps on the carpet- up above the trap....we hold our breath...he steps out onto the bottle...we lean forward... his nose goes in, front legs...and then....nothing he turns around and runs up one of the seats. Frustrated we sit back to watch the show. The little guy was running all over the place. We'd see him go in front of the drivers seat, and then suddenly he would pop out from behind the rear seat. And then once again nothing. We looked at each other trying to decide what to do.

Then out of the corner of my eye, I see 2 beady eyes peering over the top of the bed, he crawled up and started heading toward Michael. We both scream and shoot back, and he jumps off the bed in a panic and disappears again.

It was about this time that Mike decides he can't take it anymore.
"I'm going to the tent, come with me"
"no, no, I think it's fine, maybe we scared him off"
the look- "I don't think we scared him off"
"but I'm tired, lets just stay here"
"we won't sleep at all if we stay here"
"alright you're right, lets go to the tent"
So that's what we did, again. The mouse had won, again. Then, to add insult to injury we checked our trap in the morning, and the little monster had pooped all over the edge of the rim, and in the Lid- the nerve!
That next morning we had decided it was time to move on, and were sad to leave the perfect campsite, but very happy to leave our mouse problem behind us. We're pretty sure they or it had found a path in from the outside, and were just hanging out with us in the evening and then going back to there little holes for the daytime.

So we left with the bitter score being Mouse 2, Us 0.

This is just a side note, doesn't have a thing to do with mice- but we also saw some huuuge slugs around the site- this is one of them- they were really neat to watch.

1 comment:

Neve_r_est said...

You two are awsome.

I had an ant infestation in my 75' combi van. Took me two years to get rid of them, then I sold it. Seems like I did that the wrong way around.
My Syncro had a cat infestation. Much, much worse than ants.

Hope you mouse has truly moved out.

DG