I live in the Wilderness!

You'll appreciate this dad!

Check out what I saw outside my window just an hour ago!
(click on the pictures to make the BIGGER!)

I'm pretty sure that's a WILD PHEASANT!

If it's not wild, then it has escaped from somewhere, but it's in my yard!

How cool is that?!

I tried to take a picture when it was still close and in the open, but

of course the camera focused on the rain/snow spots on the outside of the window, so I had to sneak outside.

By the time I got outside, he had moved into the taller

grasses.

When he left, I took these cool pictures.

When I was interrupted by this:

Yeah, that's a wild deer! Haha.
S/he just stood there and looked at me for a little while while I took pictures of her.

Then she walked away and either started jumping or stamping at something--I couldn't see, but HOW COOL!

And just one more picture of the beautiful cool fall/winter morning here outside my front door!

It's a FLOOR!!!

It's not over, but the entry way floor is complete!!!!

This is us laying down the first of many squares! We used self-sticking vinyl. It was really easy to use and looks pretty good in my opinion. We'll see how it lasts.

This doesn't really fully reflect the true glory of the now finished (minus the molding--it'll be done in a few more weeks) floor, but this is a small taste. I'll amend the situation when I get home again : ) You can also see a bit of our painting job in this picture.

So, Tuesday night, at about 8 pm, we started and worked on laying the tiles together, but we weren't able to finish before 11pm. So we called it good and cleaned up for the night.

Wednesday evening while I was at work, Peter FINISHED! He was responsible for cutting all the edge pieces to fit perfectly against the wall--much harder than just lining up 2 already cut squares.

This is Peter cutting out a cardboard guide for going around a door frame:

And some pictures of progress!

Mouse Found!

After Mel came home from work, I was just trying to read in bed, when Melanie yelled, "Peter, come here!" I grudgingly went to see what the matter was when she said she heard something in the snack basket.

I heard it too! Something was in there, but we didn't want to find out. Finally, I manned up and took the basket out back and when I set it on the ground, the mouse leaped out and ran across the deck. How did it get up there in the first place?

Mouse in Our House!

Monday night I fell asleep before finishing my homework, so, not surprisingly, I naturally woke up in the middle of the night to finish. Walking into the kitchen for some water, I saw a blob float across the back and down the side of the counter. I'm used to seeing spiders do this, but this blob was bigger than a spider.
Being the big girl that I am, I got a flashlight and started looking around the fridge where I saw the blob fall to.

I found a mouse standing on one of the wall logs looking strait at me beside the fridge!!!

I did not scream, but I did wake Peter up at 3 am to console me.
So, ever since Monday night we have found "evidences" of the mouse in more and more places. We've set traps with peanut butter, but nothing yet. Each morning the mouse (I certainly hope it's only one) has explored a new part of our house. I feel like nothing is safe. I don't know how, but he manages to reach all sorts of seemingly unlikely places.

So, how long should I expect to wait for this mouse to be trapped? Am I doing something to encourage the mouse to stay, or to stay away from the traps--besides the obvious and inherent danger of traps?

Storm!!

We had quite the wind storm today! Good thing we had nothing planned tonight but to sit inside. Check out our wavy trees in the video. This is life and "The Lake".

Swarms

Since the thunderstorms, our front yard has been the choice for swarms of "midgees". What are they, you ask? All I know is that they look like mosquitoes and swarm like mosquitoes, but don't suck blood (thankfully). They are so annoying though! Chack out this picture; you can barely see through the thing!

From The Lake