This Old House......has mice!

As many of you know, we just bought an old home (1919) this summer. It's a fixer upper and needs lots of work but it has good bones and a lot of potential and charm. We'd been looking for a couple of years to find just the right place where the boys could run around and play. We knew we found it when we saw this place with over 6 acres of wooded, rolling hills with creeks and ponds. Every day we've been here I've been falling in love with this peaceful place more and more. However my latest discovery has left me feeling like a bit of a sissy.

Saturday night I was up reading to the boys when I heard Aaron call up to me from downsteairs saying that he needed me "right away". I was thinking to myself, "what is so important that it can't wait?" Well when I got down I soon found out. He was crouched down in the back of the walk-in coat closet holding a baseball bat while calmly informing me that he saw 2 mice. He needed me to baracade the entry so that they didn't run out while he "got" them.

So for the next 10 minutes I watched while my husband cornered and killed the 2 mice with a baseball bat. DISCUSTING I KNOW! The missed swings of course got the attention of the boys and pretty soon they came downstairs to be spectators in the main event. I do not like the idea of little mice being in my house but I also do not like killing things. Jacob (my oldest) could see that I was disturbed by this brutal process.

Well, that wasn't the last we saw of the mice. We found a baby mouse a couple days later and another one the day after that. Yesterday when I was in the office (Aaron was at work) Jacob sounded the alarm and informed me that there was a baby mouse on the stairs. I think he could see that I was nervous and scared to get it by myself because he bravely stepped in my way and said, "Don't worry Mom, I'll get it, you just go bring me the bat." I was shocked! My brave little 6 year old was going to handle this for me, and I was going to let him!

This morning, while I was down in the basement running on the treamill, I noticed another little mouse scurry across the floor in plain sight, GREAT!!! Aaron had already left for work and the kids were still asleep upstairs. I decided to ignore it and continue with my run. Then I noticed that the mouse was defying gravity by climbing up the wall! (Did you know mice can do that?) This worried me a bit more because he went onto a ceiling beam and then I lost sight of him. My mind started racing as I imagined looking up and finding it above me just before he dropped down onto my head or something crazy like that.

So that's it, we have a mouse problem! We put down some sticky traps but that still doesn't make me feel any better. Any ideas on how to get rid of them......for good? I guess until we figure this out I'm going to have to get tougher and not be so squeamish around these little rodents. I guess I can't be a sissy anymore if I want to live in the country. Atleast they are not rats, or rattlesnakes that would freak me out!