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October 15, 2005
Mouse 1 Dan 0
I found the hole behind the stove where the mice enter and exit the kitchen. I didn't actually see them coming and going. I actually have never seen them but I can see the mouse droppings on the stove when they have been in the kitchen. The basic theory that I have is that the mice use the hole in the wall behind where the gas pipe goes into the stove as their entry and exit point. So yesterday I tried to patch the hole with some rudimentary tools. The problem with patching the hole is that the stove is connected with a gas pipe in the back so I didn't want to have to turn off the gas, unplug the stove, patch the hole, and then plug the stove back in. I figured the most likely result of this would be that I would slowly gas Sarah and me to death. Best to leave a task like unhooking the gas for the stove to an expert. But there is a valve for it?
So instead I tried to reach behind the stove with some joint compound that was still very runny. It mainly dribbled behind the stove. I then thought if I could actually join something in front of the hole that might work so I basically spackled a CD from the old VirtuFlex days of images of surfers used for marketing purposes to the wall in the upper right corner of the hole. There was still a visible hole though.
I had nightmares last night of unhooking the stove and having the mice go spilling out all over the street into a big parking lot where me and other people were all stomping and killing them.
Today when I awoke the mouse droppings were all over the stove. I am thinking one solution could be to replace the whole stove while we are at unhooking it. It's a very old stove. I'll be looking today at what a replacement might cost. I could then try not to die of embarrassment when the installation guy looks behind my stove to find a gooey mountain of spackle on the ground and a CD glued to the wall with joint compound. But I think I'm on the right track by closing the borders.
Posted by dhousman at October 15, 2005 01:18 PM