Where oh where did my weasel go…

Oh where, oh where can he be?

For those of you who may be unsure of what I’m talking about, you can catch up here, then come join the wrap-up party.

So when last we left this hairy adventure, I was left alone in my house, surrounded by a 5 foot bank of snow in all directions (still am, with no end it sight) and a white weasel was on the loose. Bloody beaver meat had been placed, all that was left to do was wait.

And wait I did. For days. Nothing. Well, no, not nothing. I did catch two field mice in my trap and release mouse hotel. Now before you ask, they were NOT the same mouse I caught twice. One was big and one was, well, hoarding the food shall we say. My daughter named them Scooter and Browny. Cute little buggers. We released them in our neighbors snow bank, cause that’s the neighborly thing to do, right? (Kidding. They lived closest to the woods and protection. We were not being vindictive.)

But then, where was the weasel? Was he gone? Had he gone back out the way he came in, maybe to go after the two mice I released instead hanging out with the crazy lady with the broom? Or, was I just REALLY smart? (The answer here is: I’m brilliant.)

After Beaver Meat Man left the house, I took matters into my own hands and reclaimed my sanity. There was only one way the bugger could have gotten in my house and that was via the dryer vent. The insane amounts of snow must have knocked off the dryer vent cover outside leaving a nice open space that they could just walk through and into my house. They didn’t even have to climb to reach the hole because the snow is THAT high.

Not my house, but the general idea.

 

So, I had three options: Cover up the area inside my house that vented the heat outside and never do laundry again (an idea I could really get behind) OR board it up and line dry my clothes in the tub with a wire rack like I used to do growing up as a child and youth. (I can still feel the stiffness of indoor line dried fabric tearing my skin off, *shiver).

Ah, Memories.

OR, I could cover up the vent area inside and just let the hot air from the dryer, vent the air into the house and steam up all my windows until the snow melts and I could actually find the lower half of my house and replace the dryer vent with something stronger, like barbed wire! Of course, I went with the latter since that was the most logical and less scratchy way of doing things. Plus, I can draw things on the windows when they steam up. BONUS!

Since boarding that area up? Not a single patter of a little foot that doesn’t have permission to live here

I done good. For now.

 

Danielle Bannister Author and occasional wild woman