Washington State has come to the high desert. Cold. Wet. Drizzly. Foggy. Seriously? Oy.
AND I left the powershed door propped open all night, which was only annoying until I played back why I’d been in there last, and then I was horror-struck. “Did I leave that tub open? I think I left that tub open.”
I made a lovely pork, potato and pea soup last evening, using one of the chunks of frozen pork Landlady gave me in late summer and some dried split peas Big Brother had sent. The peas were in a burlap sack stored in a tub in the powershed, along with my new bag of rice, some lentils and chick peas I hope to never use, and #60 of flour which is half my deep-stored supply. I neglected to bring the sack of peas back to the powershed, which means I neglected to close that tub up tight.
Yeah, I made some mouse’s night.
Did it get into the chick peas or lentils, to which it would have been almost welcome? No, it did not. It tore open all three flour sacks. Mice don’t even like flour much, judging from evidence. This one was just sent by Uncle Murphy to rap my knuckles. At least it left my brand-new sack of brown rice alone. That shit’s expensive, and it was a gift from Ian.
(It occurs to me, as I go through that inventory in my head, that I should be nicer to people. They keep me eating.)
Fortunately the mouse didn’t really spoil much, just tore little holes in the bag looking for flour it didn’t hate. And of my two six-gallon flour buckets, one was half-full and the other completely empty. So in the cold and wet before dawn I was pouring flour into my buckets…and on the floor, and on my pants, and on my one clean hoodie…
Damn mice. Damn absent-mindedness.
Only half of Washington is cold and wet all the time, the other half is a colder version of the high desert.
“I should be nicer to people”
Who are you and what have you done with our Joel???
I trust all your storage bins and cans seal and are metal.
I have had mice eat through plastic sealed storage barrels before. At one point I have use uncle sugar’s .50 cal ammo cans in nice thick steel with a rubber seal for food storage. They are great for smaller IE daily use in the kitchen.
For long term I have scrounged some aluminum milk cans, the ones the dairies used to ship the milk to local market in. The lids are just drop in fit, but the tolerance is so good that when opening you have to fight a bit of vacuum.
When it is time to drive back out to AZ I can bring some ammo boxes if you want them and I a;ways keep an eye out for more of the dairy cans as those are great for flour, rice and bulk sugar storage. Old style “biscuit” tins which were about a cubic foot are also good to keep critters out.
Old-timer’s disease is a bitch, ain’t it?
I occasionally (well, more than occasionally) go do something before I’m done with the something I’m doing at the time, & forget to complete Something #1. I used to be methodical & didn’t let myself get distracted. If I believed in the existence of ADD/ADHD, I’d think it’s part of getting old. I know it’s just absentmindedness creeping into my life, pending the final absence of mind.
I’m thinking of getting a small blackboard for the kitchen wall, for tasks to be done ASAP. I know all the things I need to do, but find myself forgetting them until it’s too dark to do some (getting home with 1/2 hour of daylight to work in doesn’t help). Part of it is owning a house for the first time in 15 or so years, but I know that ain’t the only reason.
At least I did a lot of drugs when I was younger. I can blame the dope.
The mouse pee and poop will add flavor, vitamins and minerals to your baked goods for months to come.
Garbanzos and lentils are good eats, honest. A little garlic, onions, olive oil, celery, black pepper, maybe Tabasco if you like it; a little lemon on the lentils before you eat them, smoked ham hock go good with them. Both make good stews. And both are good with chicken. Just do the salt water soak for the garbanzos before you cook them.