One thing most food bloggers won't EVER talk about

I live in a field outside of town, in a valley with no neighbors and plenty of wildlife. Most of the time, I post about the beautiful deer and my wonderful dogs/splendid cat.

Trust me, it isn't all wine and roses. We have mice.

Yes, I know this isn't the most appetizing topic (particularly when blogging about food), but this past three weeks has been a testament, a serious test as to what a human can handle when faced with blood sucking rodents carrying nasty diseases.

I'll start with this: we have one electronic mouse trap, 12 (some gone once bitten, some still waiting) glue traps, two plug-in noise emitters (worthless) and two bait-and release traps (also worthless because we have to kill the mice ourselves once they're caught). We have plastered, steel wool-ed, and cemented every last inch, and they still keep coming. It's like Arachnophobia for mouse phobics.

We've had mouse infestations in this house in the past, but this year has been horrible. To all food bloggers, a warning: scroll down or risk reading the dirtiest, most disgusting details EVER.


They got into my stove. While working in the living room one day (otherwise known as my impromptu office) I noticed a tiny mouse head poking through the burner on my stove range. It popped its head out and *raised its ears* (an image that still makes me shudder just thinking about it). After screaming, jumping up and down and taking a shower, I set traps that led to the demise of NINE mice in three days. Nine. That's not a minor infestation.

Needless to say, now that we've pretty much gotten things under control (we think, fingers crossed) I can return to my kitchen temple and sanitize. Stay tuned--I've really missed cooking and blogging!