MOUSE !!!!!! IN THE HOUSE

 It is no big surprise that there are mice living here.  It is a farm, we have a barn, a milk house, a garage and a house.  All of these buildings are packed with "crap" that has accumulated over the years.  The barn is empty except for the straw on the floor and a pen or two for sheep. (The sheep have been long gone from this residence but their memory remains.)  The barn is dark so a great number of creatures have taken up residence there.  The milk house has 2 large garbage cans filled with the corn we feed to the deer, a large bag of bird seed for the bird feeders and a large bag of sunflower seeds that are fed to the turkeys. The garage is jam packed with junk and furniture, all of which are perfect places for small critters to make them selves comfortable.  As for the house . . .  well you got to read about the red squirrel incident a few months ago so you know all the other critters are looking for a nice warm place to call home.  The 3 bird feeders right outside the back door are an all you can eat buffet for anything that flies or walks.  Because birds do not have very good manners they spill more seeds on the ground than they get into their bellies.  As a result this "Golden Coral" style buffet we have attracted 2 chipmunks, a ground squirrel, (which looks like a chipmunk but has different stripes), 4 rabbits and the 6 turkeys who will come right up onto the steps outside the sliding glass door.   

So is it any surprise that we have mice ?

The Man hates mice !!  Every summer he starts out with a plan to kill all the mice.  I personally have only seen about 2 mice since I have been coming up here the past 7 years.  To me that is not a panic situation but in The Man's head it is armageddon.  Man the life boats and batten down the hatches, there are mice in the neighborhood.  He has traps, poison, sticky paper and anything else he can think of.  He is armed and ready to go to war.  

We have seen NO mice all summer !  Not even one little one.  Nada,  None !!!!!

Until yesterday . . .    As is my routine after dinner, I went out into my favorite room, aka the parlor, aka the living room.  I am the only person who takes advantage of this large cozy room. I have my crafts out there, my books and my newspaper puzzles.  Each evening I leave The Man sitting at the kitchen table watching the news and I escape to my inner sanctum.  Last night I was reading in the big blue armchair when You Know Who popped in to say he was going to shower and then head for bed. We chatted for a few seconds when he said, "Do you have a rag? Or something??"  I had no idea why he needed a rag and I did not have one anyway.  He is now getting rather agitated and once again tells me he needs a rag.  I realize something is going on so I put down my book, get out of the chair and walk across the room to where he is standing.  By now he is practically dancing up and down but can't go further into the room because he is at the end of his oxygen hose.  He is now yelling about get a rag, get a rag !!  As he is pointing toward the far wall.  I look over and see the smallest mouse I have ever seen just sitting there. I swear this mouse was as small as a new born babies fist.  It was ADORABLE !!!  (At least I thought it was).  I turned back to The Man and asked him what he wanted me to do.  "Throw something over it" he says. I walked toward the mouse and it started to walk, not run, along the base of the wall toward a. large pile of crap that is piled in the corner.  All the The Man can say is, "Get it! Get it !!  Don't let it get away!"  As if this tiny little thing is going to go anywhere or do anything.  From the panic in The Man's voice you would think we were dealing with a 300 pound wombat !  (I'm not sure what a wombat is but I like the way it sounds.)

I carefully unload the corner and there is the little mouse curled up in the corner hoping no one will see him.   I reached down and picked him up by his tail and took him outside where I left him in some tall grass so he wouldn't become a snack for an eagle.  I honestly doubt an eagle would even be able to see the little guy, he was tiny.  When I returned into the house The Man wanted to know what I did with the mouse so I told him it was out in the woods.  

Fast forward to this morning when guess who was up on our patio steps looking for food.  Yup, Little mouse, even more adorable than he was last night.  We had to go out for the morning so mouse was put on hold and was soon forgotten by Mouse Killer.   After we returned home The Man went in for his afternoon nap and I went out into the garden to tie up some tomato plants and water everything.  I had left the hose lying on the ground so as I bent down to pick it up guess who was all curled up between the layers of hose?  Poor little thing !  He looked scared and hungry and I really just wanted to pick him up again and bring him in the house to I could take care of him.  But I know better.  So I did the next best thing.  I put a large open glass jar on the ground up against the house in back of a tomato plant.  I put some corn in the jar and left it right where little mouse had run to after being evicted from the hose.  

I have no idea if the little guy will make it but at least I know I tried.  Of course if he does make it and grow to be a big mouse The Man will only end up hunting and killing him.   Poor little mouse !!!

IT MIGHT BE A MITE

 Living in the country for the summer presents me with a lot of "free" time.  I LOVE that !   But being the type of person who always feels the need to be doing something I find myself involved in some crazy projects.  I have cleaned off the work bench in the garage, sorting tools and rearranging lots of junk. There were the 2 summers I spent "organizing" all the crap in the small garage so that The Man could have a yard sale. (That never happened).  Then there was the summer that The Man decided he wanted to sell a bunch of stuff so I took pictures and posted them on Facebook Market Place.  That was a HUGE pain in the butt thanks to all the dealings with crazy people and having to ship all the crap once it was bought. The Man finally decided that it really wasn't worth all HIS time so that project was scrapped. 

This year is the Year of The Turkey.   For the last several years I have entertained myself with collecting feathers that the wild turkeys, sand cranes and numerous small birds have dropped.  It is incredible how many feathers I collect on any given day.   The turkeys should be totally bald considering how many of their feathers I have collected over the past 3 years.  It's been a great way of getting myself out side and  wandering all over the property.  But there are only so many feathers that I can display in vases, cups and glasses before the house is over run with them.  I have taken a bunch to Florida to display down there. We had feathers in every room of the house and I still had bags and bags full of all different colors and sizes.  I couldn't just throw them out so I decided I was going to make a turkey feather wreath.  The wreath is almost done but I have NO idea where I will put it since it turned out to be MASSIVE.   I think it's pretty awesome but that's only because I made it. 

Getting back to my collecting of feathers . . .   We will be sitting in the kitchen looking out on the back of the property and Eagle Eye Man will spot a feather way out in the field.  He has the eyes of a hawk.  I can't see the field no less a feather lying on the grass.  But out I go as he directs he toward the feather.  It's a fun game.  Each day I take a long walk around to see what I can find. Some days there are no feathers, some days I need a bag to put them all in. 

 The turkeys have a set route that they take each day so I usually start there. Another good spot to find feathers is on the driveway out to the mail box.  It seems that the turkeys walk back and forth through the woods crossing the drive way in a couple of places. I usually find at least one feather along there.

The other day I was walking out to the mail box late in the afternoon when I say a big feather right on the driveway.  As I picked it up I noticed a beautiful white feather in the woods, just a few feet from where I was.  I don't normally go into the woods because of ticks and snakes and bears but this feather was too good to pass up. I walked the couple of feet into the woods, picked up the feather and then continued on to the mail box.  When I returned to the house with the mail and my 2 prize feathers I put everything on the. kitchen table where The Man was sitting.  I sat down opposite him as we went through the mail. Seconds later my arm started to itch, then my neck, then my head and back. I looked down at the table and saw a bunch of teeny tiny dots moving around on the table surface.  I told the man we had bugs on the table and he of course told me I was wrong.  I started trying to squish the little buggers but they wouldn't die no mater how hard I pressed on them.  That made me start thinking maybe they were fleas.  But where would fleas come from?  I finally got old Eagle Eye to see the bugs and he pronounced that they were fruit flies.  The facts that they were tan and fruit flies are black,  these bugs had NO wings so they could not fly, and there was NO fruit anywhere that they would have come in on, Sherlock Holmes still insisted that the bugs were fruit flies.  All this transpired while I continued to itch and scratch. I got some rubbing alcohol and tried killing them with that.  No luck !  So I went for the big guns and got the can of insect spray. As I was spraying the table and chair The Man said, "Maybe they came in on one of the feathers."   DUH !!!!!   Sure enough, the. beautiful white feather was teaming with little bugs.  I grabbed the feather and threw it out the door and then sprayed the hell out of it and the rest of the kitchen.  Next I went into the shower and got all the bugs off me while The Man took my clothes and washed them in a HOT water wash in the washing machine.  

Thankfully we seem to have killed every last one of the little buggers but I couldn't stop thinking about what they were.  I went on line and googled Bird Feather Mites and sure enough there they were looking exactly like what was crawling all over the feather.   How I ever thought of the word "mite" is beyond me.  Thankfully out of the 3 types of bird mites these were the least problematic.  They are harmless to humans and were easy to kill.   Why this one particular feather was crawling with them I don't know.  Maybe because it was in the woods ?  Who knows !  But now every time I pick up a feather I look at it VERY closely to make sure it doesn't have any hitch hikers on it.  

As for the lovely white feather . . . I burned it in the fire pit !

DOG DAYS OF SUMMER ?

 Today is August 20th and I am freezing.  If it is supposed to be summer then the dog is a St. Bernard and I want him to show up with his cask of Brandy to help warm me up and cheer me up.  

As is typical of the UP the weather is insane.  It has been a VERY strange spring and summer and I'm quite tired of it.  Good thing I have my winter wardrobe up here because I have gotten a lot of use out of my jeans and sweat shirts.  Don't tell me it is because of climate change because the climate up here has apparently ALWAYS been like this.  Boiling one day, freezing the next. All that this has done for me is that I just want to stay in bed with a good book and nap. 

We started out our "summer" in Michigan with days and days of pouring rain.  May here was mud month. It was too cold and wet to even think about a garden. I was anxious to get my tomato and pepper plants started but the weather just wasn't cooperating.  I finally decided it was now or never so I got 2 tomato plants and 2 pepper plants at Home Depot.  Last year I bought my veggie plants at Home Depot and they went bananas !  I had more peppers and tomatoes than I could ever use.  I shared as many as possible with neighbors but we were still over run.  Even with the bunny nibbling on them I still had way more than I needed or wanted.  So this year I had high hopes of another bumper crop.    NOT !!!!  I planted my veggies in pots of new potting soil outside in the sun. I put some plant food in the soil and sat back to wait for my vast harvest.    The tomato plants grew but only had a few tomatoes on them.  The pepper plants never increased in size more than an inch or two and only produced ONE pepper on one plant and  whopping TWO peppers on the second plant.  The peppers are just hanging there, not getting bigger or turning yellow like they were supposed to.  My " garden" was a total flop ! With the exception of the tomato plants that are growing out of the foundation.  Last years bountiful crop reseeded itself along the foundation of the house and those plants are producing more tomatoes than the ones that I have nurtured all summer.  

So much for gardening this summer.   I think we had too much rain, not enough sun and it was too cold at night for the plants to flourish.  Even June and July were grey, chilly and windy.  Every so often God would give us a wonderful sunny day just to give us hope.  I have worn more flannel and sweats this summer than I did for the entire winter in Florida for the past 10 years.  

And then it was August and my son and his 3 kids flew up to MI from their home in south Florida.  It was such a brutally hot summer in Florida I thought they would really enjoy some cool weather.  Funny joke ! The 3 days that they were here at the farm the temperatures were in the high 80's and it was sunny and humid.  Me and my plants were burning to death.  It was so uncomfortably hot that we had all the air conditioners in the house cranking full speed.  Then on the day my family left the temperatures dropped and the clouds rolled in again.  Since then we have had days of clouds that tease us with a peek at the sun every so often.  The sun pops out and I think, "Hooray ! I'm going outside!"  Then just as I walk out the door the clouds gather and I find myself in a rain shower.  Just enough to make me wet and cold but not enough to water my plants.

All of this crazy weather has only added to my desire to crawl into bed and read and sleep.  I have ZERO ambition to do anything.  Because I am feeling so washed out I have read about ten books so far this summer.  I have my favorite spots to read and I have given equal time to each of them.  My one favorite reading spot is outside under the huge Maple tree. Sad to say that I have only sat there about 3 times this summer.  It is either too cold, too hot or too wet to want to sit out there.  Also all the rain has increased the mosquito population so even when I get a few hours of sunshine the mosquitoes are too much to want to put up with.  

The dog days of summer this year are pretty mangy.  Think of the old, scruffy mutt that is lying in the gutter of a city slum.   That's what this summer looks like.  I'm ready for summer to be over. 

CAPPUCCINO CHAOS

 I am tired today.  I have been getting lazier and lazier by the day. I am blaming it on the weather.  One day it's 80 degrees and the next day it is 63.  I get up in the morning and have no idea what to wear because no one knows what the weather will decide to do each day.  Forget the local news station. The weather guy has charts and graphs and all sorts of illustrations. He talks a million miles an hour so that by the end of the weather report we are even more confused than before.  It makes for interesting times.  Luckily we have very little to do that requires us to be dependent on the weather.  If it's raining hard we just stay home. If it's too hot we stay home. If it's too cold we stay home.  We stay home A LOT !!!

But today was a pulmonary therapy day for The Man. I have to set my alarm on Tuesdays and Thursdays so that we can leave the house by 9:30 AM to drive 40 minutes for an 11:00 AM appointment. (Do the math) I get up at 8:15, The Man's alarm goes off at 7:00.  We drive the 40 miles to the PT class but since we are ALWAYS 45 minutes early we stop at the beach to check out the lake and The Man stops to pee somewhere along the way.  Hurry, Hurry Hurry and Wait.  Whatever !!!  It's only twice a week so most days I can talk. myself into getting up and going out.

This morning was an exception.  I spent a good part of last night doing battle with my C Pap mask.  I HATE the damn thing. It drives me NUTS !!!  Every time I move the mask shifts and the air starts to leak. That causes the machine to blow even harder so I wake up being slapped in the face with twenty mile and hour winds.  Of course it is dark in the bedroom so I can't see what the hell I am doing so I just rip off the mask. Get out of bed, walk into the bathroom and turn on the light so I can figure out where the problem is.  By then I'm half awake so it takes me a half hour to get back to sleep.  Only to have the mask do the same thing about an hour later.  As a result of this ongoing battle I was TIRED when my alarm went off at 8:15.  I never hit the snooze button but today was an exception.  That snooze button is a cruel joke.  You think, "Ahhhhh, I've got ten more minutes to sleep" when in reality it takes you 5 minutes to fall back to sleep because you keep thinking about that alarm going off again.  As a result that 5 minutes of sleep is just a tease and you feel worse when the damn thing goes off again.  

This morning, as a result of all this, I turned into the creature from the Dark Lagoon.  Washing my face didn't help. Eating some breakfast didn't help, sitting in the car for an hour didn't help. In fact the car ride this morning made me just want to tip the seat back and take a long snooze.  But that doesn't happen because The Man is chatting away about what ever is aggravating him today or he has the radio turned on to the country music station and is singing along.  Yeeeeee Haaaaaaa .   

By the time we got to PT I was ready to park the car and crawl into the back seat for a little nap.  But then I got thinking that I really should go to the beach and walk, except it really wasn't that great a day for beach walking.  Second choice is to go to Jacks Grocery store just down the road and walk around the store.  There is always something I need to pick up so the time won't be wasted.   Next to the bakery at Jacks I love their French Vanilla Cappuccino. I had been treating myself to one every time I went to Jacks but for the past month I just wasn't in the mood.   TODAY I NEEDED a Cappuccino !!!  That will wake me up for sure !   I bought a large cappuccino and was feeling pretty good walking around the store taking small sips as I  picked up a few items. When I checked the time I realized I hand better get back to PT to pick up The Man.  The store was unusually crowded today so I went to the cigarette counter check out.  I only had 6 items which they were happy to ring up for me.  I had gotten one of the small shopping carts so as I went to move my cappuccino out of the cart for the packing boy to put in my groceries I picked up the foam cup and the cap came off in my hand and the LARGE, almost full cup of hot, sweet, sticky Cappuccino started to fall. I naturally tried to catch it which resulted in me being covered in hot, sweet, sticky liquid as it fell to the floor and spread across the aisle. My purse was soaked, my shirt and pants were soaked, my phone was dripping and my credit card that was in my hand would no longer work in the machine because it too was covered in hot, wet, sweet, sticky cappuccino !!!    A good time was had by all who witnessed my acrobatic act. I got a standing ovation and won a gold medal.   There was nothing I could do but apologize over and over as the cashier handed me a roll of paper towels.  The packing boy was super sweet and kept telling me not to worry as he was on his hands and knees wiping up the floor.  I refused to make eye contact with any of the people on line in back of me.  I paid for my stuff, grabbed it all and headed for the ladies room to take a bath in the sink. After that I went back to the deli and ordered myself another cappuccino. It was delicious and worth every penny. And it woke me up for sure!

Once I got home I had to really wash up and change. My sneakers are still squishy and stick to the floor as I walk.  But I do smell good . . .   if you like cappuccino.  

THE LIGHTS ARE ON BUT NOBODY IS HOME

 If you have ever been married you are probably familiar with that blank look on your spouses face when you are talking to him.  You know he is standing there but you also know that nothing you are saying is getting through to his brain.  You might say that the lights are on . . . he is alive,  but no one is home. . .  his brain is dead.  In my vast experience, (not really), I have found this to be true of most men.  They are like Pavlova's dogs . . .  the minute they hear your voice they shut down. Nothing gets in.  I find this to be most aggravating and frustrating.  

Think back to when your relationship was new.   Remember when you could talk for hours with this person You would speak, they would listen.  They would speak and you would listen.  Well forget it !  Now you can speak all you want but no one hears you because the light may be on but NO ONE IS HOME !

I guess it really isn't fair to complain about men not listening. After all we women have also learned to "not listen" or rather I should say, we have learned how to not react.  I can go all day just saying "really" or "how about that" or even "Of course dear" when I have absolutely NO idea what the hell The Man is babbling about.  We hear them talking but we choose not to react verbally.  This happens for 2 reasons.  First is that we usually find that what they are talking about is either not important or boring.  They can go on for days telling you about something that you have absolutely no interest in.  Do I REALLY care about how to catch a fish, what bait to use, what sort of lure to use, how to know where to fish for a particular type of fish?  The second reason we do not react is that we are too busy in our heads screaming, "SHUT UP YOU MORON !", or what ever your usual choice of name calling is for your particular person.  I will not share my preferred "in head" screams.  Just know they are not nice.  

I will say that I do not get as aggravated at The Man as I used to with Husband. I think I have matured, mellowed and medicated with pills that keep me from reacting to the idiotic things that men do. 

I have also found that the older we get the more we realize that the lights are getting dimmer by the day.  It is super hard to have a conversation with an eggplant. They just sit there.  It is harder to have a conversation with a man because he is usually talking nonsense or can't remember what he was talking about.  The worst is when The Man is half listening and goes off on a tirade about something that he thought you said.  In this instance I just sit quietly and chuckle to myself. If I try to straighten out what I said and what he heard it just becomes impossible because he really doesn't remember what I said.  It's an endless circle of confusion.

I would like to think that my lights are still on and shining brightly but then I do something totally stupid like forgetting to bring in the groceries from the car for 2 days. That's when I know that I am dimming at just as fast a speed as he is. That isn't usually a problem except for the meat and ice cream.  It is pretty chilly up here but not quite cold enough to keep ice cream from melting. 

TURKEY TROT

 When my 2 youngest kids were in college the school had an annual "Turkey Trot" race.  I remember both of them participating in it, getting tee shirts and who knows what else.  I believe it was a fund raiser for something but I can't remember what.  

I now have my own "Turkey Trot" but thankfully it is not a race.  Any day that I have the least bit of extra energy I head outside to circumvent the property to collect more turkey feathers.  I have quite a collection right now after collecting them for the past 3 years.  I don't know where the turkeys were hiding before that but the flock is certainly growing.  Yesterday we had 8 of them running across the field to get up here for the corn and sunflower seeds.  On today's journey I found a half of a grocery bag of feathers.  All sizes and all colors.  On a really good day I might even find an eagle feather to add to the collection.  

My collection is about to get unruly . . .  I have filled all the vases I could find with the large feathers.  The smaller and fuzzier feathers are in a large box which is just about overflowing.  It's time to get serious and start my wreath.   I went to You Tube and could not believe the number of videos there are to teach you how to make a turkey feather wreath.  Here I was thinking I was the first person on earth to think of this. Apparently not.  The videos are actually pretty interesting. The major dispute of creators of this craft is what to use as a frame.  Some favor grape vine wreaths, others prefer styrofoam.  There was even one video that had a very talented person draw out in detail exactly what they wanted their wreath to look like. I don't see myself doing that !   I was just planning on a styrofoam circle and a glue gun and let my "creative" talent flow.  I expect the end result will be something we will either throw out or hang in the garage.  But then again, I hope I will surprise myself.  Just think, I will be the first person in my Florida neighborhood to have a home made turkey feather wreath. 

I enjoy my daily walk around the farm looking for feathers.  Today I needed to push myself to get out there and move.  We had a busy weekend and I am pooped. Youngest son, Kent, flew up here with his 3 kids.  I had a ball and I think the kids enjoyed themselves.  The big hit of the weekend was the side by side. All the kids had turns driving it all around.  There were a few tense moments on Friday afternoon and Saturday when Dwayne had to tell the kids to slow down and be a bit more aware of what they were doing.  It wasn't a big deal for us or the kids but I think my son had a problem with it.  Tough ! Grandma's house, Grandma's rules.  The kids were great and a huge help.  They fed the animals for us, corn for the deer, turkeys and sand cranes.  Sunflower seeds for dessert for the turkeys.  Even the chipmunks got fed some corn.  Grey,(10), helped me cook dinner Friday and make breakfast pancakes on Sunday.  Wynn and Smith were great and went all out gathering wood for the bon fire on Saturday night.  They even cooked some marshmallows for grandma and The Man's s'mores.   It was a fun weekend but I plan on taking a nap every day this week to recover. 

As for The Man, he was a very gracious host and did a great job staying calm.  Once he got over the idea that there would be 4 air conditioners running he settled down.  I may get his electric bill handed to me once it arrives.  Naturally this weekend was the hottest day in the history of the UP.  Hazy, HOT and Humid.  It was very uncomfortable so I took my family to an iron mine for a tour where the temperature is 47 degrees.   It was wonderful.  From there we went for a swim in Lake Michigan which was quite delightful.  The Man just stayed home in the air conditioning where he could breathe. By the time the kids left yesterday the heat broke, a cool breeze started blowing across the farm and we were back to normal UP weather.  Today was cloudy and cool, perfect napping weather.  

Tomorrow I will take all the sheets, pillowcases and towels and head for the laundromat for a couple of hours of laundry therapy.  I've got a good book, $40 in quarters so I'm ready to go.  The cleaning girl will arrive on Wednesday to do damage control on the house so by Thursday we should be back to normal. 

I hate to admit it but we are getting old.  Any change in our daily "routine" sets us back for days. I can't wait for the day when my kids are old and they realize just how tired their parents were during these "Golden" years.  Luckily I have a good supply of Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Tylenol and Excedrin.  I like to switch it up to keep my body pain free.  

OF MEN AND MICE

 For the past 2 days I have been walking around muttering, "Are you kidding me?".  I will not speak these words out loud because you know who is the reason I am muttering.  Where to begin . . .  

I guess I'll start with 2 days ago when I started getting ready for my youngest child, Kent, and his 3 kids to come visit from Florida.  They are only coming for the weekend but beds need to be made and food needs to be bought.  Actually the beds need to be blown up before they can be made.   The house has 3 bedrooms. One of them is up stairs and has nothing in it.  Apparently The Man and his wife emptied it out when the kids left and have not gone up to the attic since.  That leaves 2 working bedrooms.  One is the one we sleep in and the other is my "closet".  Because The Man has his closet and dresser filled in the "master" bedroom I have taken over the dresser and closet in the second bedroom.  There is a bed in this room which guests have used but usually what we do is blow up 2 queen size beds in the parlor so our guests can have a large space to spread out in.   

But today we have 4 guests.  Kent, the ten year old twins and 14 year old Smith.   I offered "my Closet room" to Smith because I know how teenagers like their privacy.  The Man was not happy with this decision of mine because it meant one more air conditioner would be running.  Of all the all the days I have ever spent in the UP I have never felt 2 days as hot as these past 2 days.  Usually it might be warm for a couple of days in the summer but most of the time it is in the mid 70's with that wonderful cool breeze coming off the lake.  Yesterday and today were like living in South Florida.  Almost 90 degrees, not a breath of air moving and HUMID !  It is air conditioner weather for sure.  All the rooms have an AC unit up on the wall that is controlled by a clicker.  You can have just one running or all 4 cranking at the same time. Option number 2 makes the most sense to me . . .  get all four working at minimum power and the house stays cool.  The Man wants just the AC in the room he is in to be on.  That means closing doors.  Have you ever lived in a house with 3 kids who never closed a door in their lives ?????  

But I have gotten ahead of myself.   Returning to the blow-up beds.  I blew up bed #1.  No problem.  I turned on the motor for the pump on bed #2 and it ran for 2 seconds, started to smell like burning rubber and it quit.  Now I have a blow-up bed with no blower.   No worries.  I got out the vacuum. This is the point that The Man walked into the room "TO HELP".  I explained the problem and told him I was going to use the vacuum to blow up the bed.  I was told that can't be done. "The vacuum sucks IN and I need it to blow out."  I just ignored him because trying to explain what I was doing was fruitless.   I opened the vacuum, too the hose off the outside of the machine and connected the hose to the exhaust.  The Man was silent.  Unfortunately it did not work because I couldn't get the hose to match up with the bed valve.  It was then that The Man actually used his brain and suggested the small portable motor we bought to inflate beach floats.  I had forgotten we had one in MI but knew exactly where it was.  Voila !!!!  Instant bed blowing.  The entire time I was inflating the bed I was being "assisted" by you know who.  I wanted to blow him up by the time we were done.  When we finished I was ready to sit and recover for a bit but I still had to make the beds, get the pillows and blankets and set up the room.  The Man went to take a nap.

Fast forward a couple of hours and I am rummaging around in the pantry closet for who knows what while wondering what the odd smell is emanating from the pantry.  The Man walks by and says, "I noticed a smell in the pantry earlier today. WE need to find it."   OK, "WE" all know what "we" means.  And so I began to dig.  Now earlier that day I had rummaged around for something quick to eat for breakfast as we drove to Manistique.  I found an old box of Pop Tarts and took out one package of them.  The package was sealed and intact and the Pop Tart was toasted and tasty.   Now the same day I am looking for something that stinks and it seems to be coming from the Pop Tart box.   Sure enough when I look at the packages in the box several of them are CHEWED OPEN.   YUCK !!!!!  A mouse has been in the box eating the very same pop tarts that I ate for breakfast.   Not only that but when I took the box outside to toss the tainted breakfast treats guess what I found in the bottom of the box ?   A DEAD MOUSE !!!!!! He was quite cute but also quite dead.  Thus the stink !!! 

The thought that I had eaten one of the "poisoned" treats almost made me throw up.   The only thing I could think of to do was to come in the house and have a shot or two of Jack Daniels.  Which is exactly what I did !!!  Alcohol to kill any nasty whatever that may have contaminated my breakfast.  After a couple of shots I didn't care what I had eaten or what The Man had to say.