It’s summer, and my back-and-forthing has become somewhat more frequent and laden. Between the chickens and a little bootleg gardening* I’ve been emptying a bunch of water bottles, and they accumulate in Landlady’s barn till they reach some sort of critical mass that needs to be taken to the Lair for refilling. If I’m in the Jeep that’s no problem. If I’m afoot, it’s inconvenient.
Finally occurred to me that if I daisychain a little 550 cord and stick it in my pocket the problem goes away.
The length of the cord was determined by what was needed to loop together half a dozen bottles and sling them over my shoulder. Works okay…
And of course right away I started finding all sorts of other uses for it. Really don’t know why I haven’t done this all along. It’s like the container of earplugs, or the speedloader of Magnum ammo: I don’t need it every day but sooner or later I eventually need it and in the meantime it doesn’t cost anything to carry it.
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*Which so far has come to literally nothing. I begin to suspect the mice got it.
What’s in the bootleg garden? Corn or tomato. A little devil lettuce. Just kidding.
Radishes mostly.
But now, mostly mouse poop!
Let me know if you start running low on the 550 cord again!
You have so much rodent (various kinds) damage to everything it seems that a very focused control/elimination campaign would increase your comfort level. Can you surround your garden with buckets of water loaded with peanut butter bait? regular traps? chairs where you can sit and wait (with a good book) for them and then off the little nuisances? A salad table with its legs in oil or gasoline would keep rodents away and you probably have enough spare wood to make one or more, but that’s a lot of intense work – traps are quicker and cheaper.
Radishes/lettuce are cool weather crops that need regular watering. They don’t produce good human food in hot weather. Try again in the fall.
I’m surprised you’ve put up with the rodent problem as long as you have. It’s past time to declare war. Continuing Zelda’s thought, there’s this roller gizmo the shaft of which goes into 2 holes you drill opposite each other in the top edge of a 5 gallon bucket which you half fill with water. Smear peanut butter on the roller, provide a ramp for access, and the little buggers try to walk out on the roller to get the PB. The roller rolls and splash. Other than the continued PB expense, and having to throw out the water and bodies every day or two, it’s labor-free, and cheap, and the damn thing works, but it needs some sort of protection from rain. If you want one, add it to your Amazon wish list and I’ll get it for you (Once again, I’ve lost your mailing address……)
I’ve made a couple of them. They’re still in service but these days catch very few mice. After a while they really do seem to stop working, couldn’t say why.
Joel, if you have some old tie-down strap that’s not fit to tie anything down with, you may want to consider using a few feet of it instead of the 550 cord. The strap will not dig into your shoulder as much as the 550 cord.