Friday, September 04, 2009

The Home Wreckers

Today I went to Bethany's place so we could work on our violas together. After I got there we talked about where we each were with our projects. She adjusted the sound post in my violin, fixing up a bit of a dead sound when I played the A string.


We talked about varnishing my violin and my next steps. Then we both started working on our violas. I began carving the scroll on mine and she busily started working on the back of hers.


Bethany needed the drill press so she put it up on the work bench, and started to use it. It didn't seem to be working properly. She stopped and looked it over.


With a surprised tone, she exclaimed, "There's a mouse in my drill press!" I looked over to see Mama Mouse peeking out at us from the underside of the pulley housing on top of the drill press. We both stood staring at it for a few moments, then I said, "Shall we take it outside?"


"Definitely" she replied", as she picked it up and headed for the door that I ran and held open.


She set the drill press down on the ground and opened the pulley housing. There was poor Mama Mouse frantically running around with a baby in her mouth. We stood there staring for a few moments at the nest made from fibres from Ernie's jacket, with several more babies in it. Then we both looked around as if there would be some sort of solution standing nearby. It reminded me of a couple of guys staring under the hood of a car that just quit, not having a clue what to do next.


We agreed that we wanted Mama Mouse to be able take care of her babies, so we would relocate them. We got a bucket and moved babies and nest into the bucket, but Mama Mouse wasn't so co-operative. She evaded us for a few minutes, but finally we outsmarted her and ultimately she left Casa Drill Press. She grabbed one of her babies and bolted up the wall and out of sight between the wall and the deck. We left her to sort her life out and when we checked back later, she had moved all of them to an undisclosed location.


I wish I could have been a fly on the wall and watched the two of us.





4 comments:

Lauras Garden said...

Caitlin and I relocated a mouse nest years ago when we were working together at a garden centre. We found them in the straw keeping the roses warm for the winter. Our mice were quite co-operative. Mama just sat quietly in Caitlin's hand while we moved the nest. It was so cool. I think they knew we were trying to help (the owners would have killed them to keep them out of the seed). Why didn't you take pictures.

Fiddling Granny said...

Taking pictures didn't even enter my head, we were so focused.

Cherylinn said...

OMG....I think I would have cried.

SusanE said...

I used to find them living in my BBQ as nestled in with pink insulation.