Progress, sort of

[altivo]

Fur successfully applied to one hand paw. Still need pads on palm and fingers, but that won't take long.

NaNo movement too!

NaNo Count: 21,556 words
Chapter 10 has been posted here.

We gave in and set some mousetraps that actually do the little buggers in. Three have been terminated in the last 24 hours.

Ugh, Monday.

Comments

[avon_deer]

I use Mondays to get finished all the stuff I should have finished last Friday. ;)

[altivo]

But I was using Friday to finish the stuff that should have been done on Thursday. XD

[avon_deer]

You see? You're getting the idea! :D

[shadow_stallion]

What's the old saying? Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow. ;)

[shadow_stallion]

I'm guessing that you are trying to deal with a mouse problem in the house as opposed to the barn(s). Barn mice are pretty much a fact of life in my opinion.

[altivo]

Barn mice are a problem too when there are too many, but yes, this is the annual house invasion when the temperature outside drops below freezing.

[animist]

In an unrelated note, I found this nice horse picture while browsing a Chinese history and culture web site.

http://www.chinapage.com/fu01.html

There's a series of four painting scrolls of wild horses I saw when I visited China in 1986, one scroll per season. I keep looking for them...

[altivo]

Thanks for the link. That's a nice one.

My favorite Chinese horse image is an embroidery in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago. I think it's no longer on display, but it was about a foot square, on a piece of silk, and done in what they called "the forbidden stitch" because it was supposedly so fine that women went blind from doing it. The horse is in motion and looks intensely alive. The detail exceeds what you'd see in many photos, yet there is a definite Chinese artistic slant to it. I've never found a photograph of it anywhere, alas.

[animist]

Given all of the garbage that makes it on the web, one would hope much good stuff makes it there, too. So don't give up hope. :)

This is nice, but pricey:

http://www.orientaloutpost.com/asian-horse-art.php

[altivo]

Those are nice. Fortunately for my skinny budget (especially with the cost of MFF coming up this week) I'm out of wall space so I'm not tempted.

[thedeere]

Mouse time (like you said, that time of year when they try to come inside to escape the cold) gets insane. Last year I had a literal herd of them traveling through the house, "thundering" from area to area like a grey furry amoeba. It drove me to setting traps EVERYWHERE. Final rodent death-toll before No Mice Left: 16. The cats were waiting for me to dump traps out the door like Noobs Camping The Spawn. ;) (the housecats ignore mice entirely but the barncats are another matter)

I can hear them again now, which means the same process is repeating itself. I need to set my traps again too!

[altivo]

One of our two house cats is pushing 16 years and probably would cuddle up with a mouse rather than try to eat it. The other is a "converted" barn cat who came in the dog door one day and liked it. He's a mighty hunter but prefers to hunt outdoors and bring the prey in as gifts. That delights one of the dogs but not me.

Some years are worse than others, and this looks like a bad one. In the past we've used live traps, but I suspect many of those mice have come back for seconds even after being dumped a half mile from the house. This year we're trying some new spring traps that are enclosed, and can be set or emptied by pressing a lever on the outside so you never have to handle the squished mousie. So far, four traps set and three mice caught. Not bad. I wonder how long before they figure out how to avoid the traps...

[goldenstallion]

Whinnyhi.

I recall one Winter when I first moved into my 12 by 16 log cabin the mice were so bad I would set a trap in one corner, hear a snap in the opposite corner, deal with that one and set it and hear a snap back in the first corner and it went back and forth half a dozen times. I could not bait and set them fast enough.

Fortunately we only have a slight problem these days, although sometimes mice get into my van and make a mess under the dash and center console. So I have to set a trap in my van as well.

Steed

[altivo]

That sounds as bad as the mouse problem in the film Never Cry Wolf, actually. I've never seen it quite that bad. I've never had mice in a car that I'm aware of, but my boss did. Her engine stalled on the way home once and she couldn't get it restarted. She called AAA and the guy who came out found a mouse tangled in the altenator somehow (I think it was, certainly a mouse somewhere.)

We had an electrical problem here shortly after moving in and had to go into the crawl under the house where we found dead and mummified mice packed into a junction box. Not sure why they kept crawling in there but there were several, all of them quite dessicated.

[goldenstallion]

Whinnyhi again.

Forgot and wanted to ask if this is a full or a partial fursuit of Argos. Of course Steed will be a partial again.

Steed

[altivo]

I'm still planning on full suit. I have three days to make the body jumpsuit, and it's not much different from Tivo so I already have the pattern. There are only four pieces to Tivo, plus the zipper. Argos needs eight because of multiple types of fur, but that's not too big of a deal. I hope to finish hands tonight. Tail and feet are ready. Head needs just some tiny fixes. So I have tomorrow night, Wednesday morning, and Thursday afternoon and evening for the body. When I did Tivo the whole body was made in one evening. ;D In fact, I think it was Thursday night before the con started on Friday.