Walking into my country house on Friday evening, I was greeted by my old friend Mickey. He really should be referred to as Mickey IV since I have killed off earlier generations of his mouse family. One of the many joys of having a house in the country with a VERY arable basement is the occasional visitors who stop by. I've gotten more comfortable with these renters and find that after a few weeks of bait, they generally disappear for a while. With the coming warm weather, they should be migrating outside shortly anyway.
The weekend continued with the tearing down of the family room wall. The family room is going to be converted into a new kitchen sometime in the future. Not much of a surprise, there was no insulation in the wall that was built in 1937. Given that temperatures routinely go below zero in my village, the lack of insulation makes things slightly cool. More of a surprise was the dead snake lying at the bottom of one of the posts. He was only a little 4 inch snake so nothing to fear. Next to him was his old skin that he must have shed shortly before dying. The old skin was in such good shape that you could see where the eyes were in the skin. A few years ago I would have been petrified of the mice and snakes but I have learned to shrug them off and appreciate the beauty that they present.
Lastly, I decided to take down a second wall this morning because the snow was coming down rather heavy and my 8 lb. car doesn't handle the slippery roads very well. In the wall next to my sliding glass door, I found a beautiful, two foot wide beehive. It was dormant and the layers of honeycomb were in perfect tact. I will try to add a picture of the hive to this post. The hive was donated to my neighbors for science class.
All in all, a great weekend communing with nature.
The weekend continued with the tearing down of the family room wall. The family room is going to be converted into a new kitchen sometime in the future. Not much of a surprise, there was no insulation in the wall that was built in 1937. Given that temperatures routinely go below zero in my village, the lack of insulation makes things slightly cool. More of a surprise was the dead snake lying at the bottom of one of the posts. He was only a little 4 inch snake so nothing to fear. Next to him was his old skin that he must have shed shortly before dying. The old skin was in such good shape that you could see where the eyes were in the skin. A few years ago I would have been petrified of the mice and snakes but I have learned to shrug them off and appreciate the beauty that they present.
Lastly, I decided to take down a second wall this morning because the snow was coming down rather heavy and my 8 lb. car doesn't handle the slippery roads very well. In the wall next to my sliding glass door, I found a beautiful, two foot wide beehive. It was dormant and the layers of honeycomb were in perfect tact. I will try to add a picture of the hive to this post. The hive was donated to my neighbors for science class.
All in all, a great weekend communing with nature.
