October Already?!! Where has September gone.....

Here it is - October and we aren't near ready for fall yet. We went out yesterday to collect our first batch of firewood. Nothing like putting it off, is there? So here we are, out minding our own business getting a load of wood, when I saw this mouse run away from one of the logs we cut, with the dog in hot pursuit behind. No sense calling the dog, as it won't listen to a word you say when it sees a running meal. Yup, my brother's dog loves to eat rodents. Well, off we go toting these logs to the trailer when I notice a tiny pink body laying in the trailer. OH NO!! Daggonit! It's a teenie tiny baby mouse, still alive. Crap - we must have hit a nest. Sure enough, on further examination, there was a nest with 4 more babies besides.

Now, I think mice are cute, make great pets, but I also know that they are nasty little creatures when they're in your house or garden. So here we were with 5 innocent baby mice that were in their log minding their own business when we chopped up their home. Mom was long gone or eaten, and there was nothing I could do with them except... give them to DD to see if she wanted to take care of them. What's the chances of pink ones living? Slim to none, but right now we have made it through 24 hours of feeding every hour. Yeah, you did see we. Since DD is still young, I'm not making her stay up all night. That's what mom's are for.

DH isn't very happy about the situation, and he's hoping they all die, which means they are sure to live :-) I was about DD's age when a friend of mine came to me with a bundle they found in their stove pipe while cleaning it out. She said her parents were going to kill them, and she talked them out of that because she knew I'd take care of them. She brought me 8, and out of them, 5 survived with the help of my mom. So, I'm honestly expecting a couple out of this batch to live.

DD is already feeling the pinch of motherhood, as she has to take care of them during the daytime, and with hourly feedings, she's not able to do much. In less than 3 weeks they'll be weaned, but right now, 3 weeks will be like 3 years. :-)

Since I was up last night, I pulled out an old cross stitch piece to work on. No way was I going to get out my knitting as tired as I was. I hate ripping out knitting mistakes. I'm intimidated by all those loops that can get lost. Being so tired though, I didn't stitch much. Seemed like what I did do took forever.

My pantry shelves look pretty good. Not as full as I would have liked them, but darn good for our growing year. They are calling for frost early this week, so I should head out to the garden and pull the bean plants that we were saving seeds from. They aren't dry yet, and at this point I don't know if they will get there. I've never pulled plants like this before. A new experience for us, but one that will be a learning one!!

Our friend gave us some hot peppers on Friday - so I have to can them yet. And here I thought I was done :-) We have them canned, BBQ'd, pickled and dried. So what should I do with these ones? I'll have to dig out my canning/freezing books and see what looks good.

Well, that catches up with what's been going on for the last couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to things calming down so I can have some knitting, crafting and PC time.