Fighting with Nature

For the past few weeks, I have been battling ants. I have 6 traps in the kitchen, 8 in the food pantry, and 1 in each bathroom. Now and then, there are none visible. Some days, they have returned.

This morning I took a big box of crackers from my pantry and opened it to get the crackers (stored in zip locked bags) out to take to work for our pot-luck. I was going to serve them with spinach/avocado dip. Immediately I noticed the box was crawling with ants - probably a hundred of them. Not only were they in the box, but they had chewed little holes in the zip locked bags and were crawling all over the crackers. I knew I had to get rid of them quick, so I opened the porch door and threw them out, knowing the ants would freeze. I went to plan B and got the chocolate chip cookies I had stored in the porch to keep frozen. I knew this would be a good addition to the pot-luck.

After work tonight, I returned home and per usual, I opened the porch door to let Nels out for a few minutes. He went toward the cracker box, so I snagged my broom and began to clean up my mess from this morning. Then I discovered something — or someone — had been in my porch. The cover to my rosettes was off and most of the rosettes had been eaten. Also, a cover of one of my tin containers with left-over Christmas cookies was off and the entire can was empty! What on earth?! I went in the house and got a flash light to shine on the porch to see where a creature could have gained entry. Sure enough, I discovered a hole the size of a grapefruit – in my brand new screened porch! It had to be a squirrel. It's too small for a raccoon and too large for a mouse or a rat.

After bringing all the food containers in the house and thoroughly sweeping up the porch, I put a tray in front of the hole and placed a metal table in front of it. This is my insurance to keep Nels from escaping. For sure, I will have to have that section of screening replaced and store no more food outside.

I'm not done with my fight with nature yet. Here's the last straw: after cleaning up this big mess, I put on my coat and left for the Weight Watcher's meeting. Not even 15 feet from my front door, I fell on the ice, landing on my back and hitting both my elbow and the back of my head. Did I mention it is raining here today? 34 degrees and raining! I arrived at my meeting with a very wet coat — all the way through to the lining, wet pants, and a very sore elbow.

I'm home now, in my pj's and wrapped up in a very warm, cozy bathrobe and slippers. I'm tired of nature tonight. I'm taking a break.