Secret Places

Not long ago I was beside myself with worry because of the problem that I had with rodents of the largest variety, nesting in my roof cavities and the whole roof had to be taken off and rebuilt. We found five dead rats up there that had come in via a concealed hole that couldn't be seen from outside. It was a crafty way in from next door's side that nobody would have guessed was there. Once settled the squatters had chewed up insulation and nibbled through live wiring and could have caused a fire.

If you look at the first photo, you will see a new hole, discovered only last week, when the men were hacking off plaster from the inside walls. It was a grim discovery as two more dead rats were found in there, mummified. They had obviously fallen in this hole and had been in there a long time. One of them was quite a giant, the grandfather of all rats, I should think! You should have seen the teeth. I didn't take photos so you are spared seeing them. They were quickly bagged up and disposed of.

Not long ago, the back of the house looked like this, and my garden was taken over by the scaffolding and was in deep shade most of the time. It was disheartening to see the disaster that all this caused to my plants.

I am somewhat amazed at how blue the sky looked then because I can remember some bad downpours that flooded the kitchen, even though we had the scaffolding canopy over the top.

This was the strange position I found myself in when there was a new roof on top of the kitchen but the old ceiling was still in place. It had all been cleaned from above and two holes cut because of the roof windows being put in there. The men did the job slowly like this, so that I wouldn't have be roofless while it was being done, as security might have been difficult with so many of us coming and going all the time. It also prevented the mess from coming down into the kitchen, as it was all cleaned away from the top.

However after the men had cleaned and removed the ceiling, I was able to see just how much loftier and lighter it was going to be in there.

My kitchen is still a long way from being normal again and I will have to wait for new units.

The men only ever agreed to get rid of the rats, you see, not to do a major revamp inside!

The outside is now fairly, clean looking and the scaffolding has been removed. I like the cedar wood on top that my son put up. However we decided, round the problem corner in next door's garden, to use brickwork and thick rendering and I would like to know how anything could get in there now. This is not a challenge to any rat reading this blog though!

Looking from the bedroom window upstairs the new roof looks really secure, so I am extremely pleased I decided to *risk* letting the two men in my life take on this task. I say to both of them, " Jolly well done and thank you!"

Slowly But Surely

This is the reason for my kitchen roof being torn apart in the first place! New readers please get more information here.

Have you noticed I have changed something in my blog profile?

The roof work seems to be going on for ever and the plants are struggling to survive the dense shade under the scaffolding.

Things are progressing though, and the end is in sight now. The new roof windows will provide more light in the kitchen.

This is what it looked like before the windows were put in. I am working through the photos in reverse order. Workmen's equipment can make a good study, I think.

The light and shade of the building materials can catch the eye with the sun suddenly shining on it and there are little shafts of light where you least expect to see any.

I was up the ladder at every opportunity with my camera keeping track of what was going on.

The birds have been scared away from their favourite tree where they used to spend time sheltering inside the dense branches. I am so looking forward to hearing them chatter again after this is over.

Since the work started, I have had things from the kitchen packed in boxes on the floor and there is all sorts of clutter to keep stepping over. I am at present in agony with my back problem. It seems one thing gets cleared up only for another problem to set in.

The picture below shows how things looked when the first lot of scaffolders had left.

I will be glad to get my garden back and get rid of it. Maybe in a week or so...........

Are You Squeamish?

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

My garden has been taken over by scaffolding. Most of you know that we have had renovations here on our kitchen roof.

This is the point that I put a warning on this post. If you are squeamish do not go any further.

This is the roof that has held a terrible secret for six years. The roof that has caused me so much misery, often to the point of making me despair. The cause of all the noises, the smells and the frustration of not being able to get to the source of the problem because a pitched roof was built over a flat one, making it impossible to investigate let alone do anything. The cause of rows between Harry and me. The roof that has been the reason for my feeling trapped and not even having the option of moving away from the problem. The roof that has made me feel like running away. The roof that I have blamed for ruining my life over and over again.

And this is the start of the discovery of just what it was that was making my life such a misery. This is the hole that was revealed once the fascia board was taken off the side of the roof, on my neighbour's side. There was no sign of the hole until that moment. This is only one of the holes that was found.

This is my last warning for the squeamish not to look any further.

The men had decided to cleanse the roof from the outside in and took off the tiles and felt and also the flat roof, leaving the kitchen ceiling directly under the scene above. This is what met our eyes..... rat runs. You can see the way that they have chewed up the insulation and they had also started on the wiring and had stripped several wires of their plastic outer casing. Fortunately, the wires were not touching. I hate to think what might have happened if they had been.

This was number one body that was found amongst the chewed up insulation that had obviously been used as bedding. There were five of the pesky rodent bodies hidden away at various points in the roof. No need to show them all, as after you have seen one, they all look the same!

Photostory Friday is hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek where you will find some great entries.

A Happy Event

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

We are expecting in this household!

No, not me, silly, I am a bit long in the tooth for that and even if I were to have hormone treatment, some of my *bits* are not there now. Nor is my daughter in law, Kaiko expecting (as far as I know) and the girls are far too young!

No, the mother to be happens to be a wren! I first noticed a pair of wrens going backwards and forwards towards the kitchen roof. Then I noticed that they were collecting things from the ground. Leaves and twigs, sometimes as big as themselves.

Years ago, I bought these little pouches and nailed them under the overhang of the kitchen roof. No bird has ever taken the slightest bit of notice of either of them before until now, that is. It seems that this dwelling is a wren's version of a superior detatched home and isn't it Sod's law that we were about to take the kitchen roof off and now our plans will have to be put on hold? Wild birds nesting are protected in this country and we cannot move them. Nor would I want to. I am now going to have to Google for information on how long it takes for all this nesting, laying, sitting and fledging to take.

As most of you know, my blog mentor for photography is David Mcmahon from Authorblog and I know that if he visits this post he will not be impressed with these photos that seem to be blurred and not in good focus. The wren looks like a tiny dot under the nest but that is as far as I could zoom in. My camera is lacking in ability to catch moving birds and does not have the capacity to enlarge the tiny creature any further.

However when I saw this tiny pair of wrens, I rushed to get my camera and I had to take the photo through my not so clean window, in order not to disturb them by opening the back door which is right by the pouches.

My camera is a Pentax Optio and has served me very well for ordinary photos and long distance views and snapshots of people. However, the time has come for me to specialize a little more and I am wondering whether to get a Canon Powershot SD990 IS (USA) otherwise known as Digital IXS 980IS in Aus and UK. My son Sam has bought one of these and has taken some good shots of close up creatures that has really impressed me.

Or shall I update my Pentax with the new Optio S12 which has a more powerful and faster lens than my old one and it is cheaper than the Canon?

I would love to know what you all think and which way I should go. Do any of you amateur photographers have either of these cameras?

I wrote this post a few days ago and thought that I would leave it for Photostory Friday and do you know what has happened? The wrens have abandoned ship! Maybe they thought we were too close to their nests or maybe its the four cats next door, who might have had them for their tea. Anyway, whatever it is, we are not expecting anymore and I feel really sad!

Photostory Friday is hosted by Cicely and MamaGeek.

Noises From Above

I recently had a little chuckle when I read a comment that my blogging friend Jackie, otherwise known as Mother's Pride had left in my last post about happiness/contentment.

I had listed things that had hardly cost me anything money wise, that brought me contentment and she wrote "You could have put....... not hearing noises from above."

Well yes..... this would have given me immense pleasure, make me really happy even. Definitely happy. Not hearing noises from above.

Her remark brought to mind all sorts of things though.

"Have I got bats in my belfry?" Does she think I am hearing noises in my head?

"Have I got access to noises from God above my head?" Some people think that thunder is God moving his furniture around!

Well when God speaks to me it is in a gentle way through my thoughts, things I read, especially in the Bible and feelings ....... not by noises from above!

Jackie was of course referring to the rat noises in my kitchen roof, just above the ceiling.

Well, why have I got a squirrel picture on this post and not a rat? You might well ask. Have you ever tried to take a picture of a rat? I might be able to hear the wretched things but I cannot see them. Now that sounds like the bats in the belfry interpretation again!

Anyway, a squirrel is the best I can do for now. Some say they are as bad as rats anyway. If they were in my roof they would do just as much damage, so I have been told. The smells would be just the same, though squirrels do seem more respectable than rats, don't they?

I was not going to say anything until May Day! That seemed a perfect day to announce one way or another whether the underpinning has worked and whether we have still got rat problems or not.

I was too hasty when I wrote telling you about The Empty Silence some time ago and that didn't have a happy ending.

I will not tempt fate a second time by saying that nothing more has been heard. I think Cath was right when she said in a comment that she thought the rats read my blog and that they like to wind me up! All I know is that the one we heard that night, died! How do I know that? Don't even ask. All I am saying is that the incense sticks that we had left over from the last mass death above the ceiling, came in mighty handy.

Nothing more is being said on the subject then till May Day! Do you get that all you readers! I am NOT BOTHERED one way or the other!

The kitchen roof is coming off in the summer, ANYWAY!

Wordless Wednesday.

Brave Snowdrops

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Just when everything looks bleak and dark, I notice the little snowdrops pushing up their delicate but obviously strong shoots with buds opening, in the most hostile of places. It never ceases to amaze me the way they keep appearing year after year.

This winter we have had more severe weather than normal, with lots of frost and some snow.

I have been feeling pretty fed up with the kitchen excavations and the way things have been going wrong.

At first, I was filled with hope that we would get to the bottom of my rodent problem. I kept thinking that the men would find a rat run and be able to put it right. Son hurt his arm and we had to spend a good deal of money on a CCTV technician who searched a strange pipe under the kitchen. We were excited that maybe there was a crack in it that could be repaired and that would be the end of the problem. What did we find? Nothing. The pipe was disused and blocked off and no cracks or sign of any thing unusual at all.

We are back to square one. The underpinning has to be finished and now it looks as though we will have to dig up the floor and take off the roof to find where the pests are coming in. Only we will have to wait for Spring. In the meantime the rats ( who are probably laughing their heads off) are partying like mad in the roof space and the poisoning continues and the incense sticks are burning almost continually.

I am aware that there are so many terrible things going on in the World. The fires in Australia, the crisis in the Middle East and the fact that two of my blogging friends have died and left people who will miss them, not least their relatives.

I realize I am letting rats make me depressed.

I am annoyed when my husband and son tell me how lucky I am. Is it lucky to have rats? 

I do know what they mean though, but it doesn't help one bit to be told this everyday. I think of all the people I know who don't have this problem. They are the lucky ones.

So I go back to the snowdrops that have pushed their delicate heads through that hostile earth. I look at them and realize that I must face my challenge too, but it is getting harder as the time goes on.

Photostory Friday is hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek.

Thinkin' of Ditchin' the Kitchen!

This kitchen looks an ordinary type of kitchen. A bit on the small side but adequate. However it holds a horrible secret.

Those of you who have known me a long time will know that secret. However those of you who have only recently started reading my blog will not.

Funny how I can tell this secret so easily to you all through a blog, but how difficult it is to tell friends in the flesh. I just can't. Only a trusted one or two know..........

If you really want to find out, new readers click here for part one and here for part two.

I watched the recent programme on TV,  Swarm....... Nature's Incredible Invasions. I really wished that I hadn't, as last week, there was a huge swarm of mice of immeasurable proportions. Apparently, just one pair of mice can produce three thousand by the end of the year and that is mice, not their larger cousins. 

When I recently wrote a true account of my childhood The Tale of the Two Bad Girls I received a comment pointing out that my profile stated that I had a pet rat and the writer indicated that I may still have a preference for rodents from a young age. Oh how I wish it was a pet rat!

Well, after the on going problem we have, I have recently made up my mind. I want the kitchen pulled down and rebuilt with new, deep foundations put in. I want a concrete dividing wall put up between my house and my neighbour's and I want it to be totally rodent proof.

Well what I want and what I get are two different things! That would cost an extortionate amount! In fact I have heard that I could buy a house for that amount in the Shetland Isles! Not that I am thinking of moving there!

I have recently had experts look at the kitchen and I am told that I need to put in deeper foundations (underpinning). Well my husband used to do that sort of work for a building company until he got to retiring age. He has the expertise but has not the strength to do all that digging.

The quote the firm gave me for underpinning was still very expensive, especially as the roof might also need altering later on.

My son, Sam, thinks he is strong enough to dig the holes out and fill with concrete and now the two of them are thinking of working together on the project. It will be a darned sight cheaper cutting out the middle men and paying Sam for the work. I am wondering whether to let them go ahead with this idea or whether they would kill each other after a day or two of working together! They are both quite opinionated and have been known to have disagreements! 

Mmhhh! requires some thought, but I am tempted. What do you think?

Footnote:- In case any of you are thinking that you will not drop round for tea ever again..... there have never been any rodents in the kitchen..... just the roof space and the cavities, which is more than enough!