City:
Rumncoke: I am listening to you. I just do not know what we can do. This is one of those situations where one simply carries on because there do not seem to be any options. The reno that I have been expecting and which is critical to the situation has been derailed, perhaps until spring. Rat only arrived last spring, when I thought the reno would get started and solve the problem. Your comment has really kicked me into a state of "There must be something we can do". I have been "using band-aids" for so long, I just got used to it. Your concern for disease has been in the back of my mind all along; I just try to keep things clean. I have to admit my feelings for all creatures great and small does include rats --- although I would prefer not to live with them, or mice or any of the other critters we do not really want inside our homes. But I cannot kill them. .... OK, I have thought of two possibilities. Each requires paid labour. I will broach the subject to R. with a firm recommendation that something MUST be done. B told R that his wife would have left a note.

Work to exclude the rats would also mean my having to go to the mill for the duration. Such a nuisance.

Well, on the lighter side, my car is legal for another year and my bank account smaller. I picked up lots of veggies at the Market and a big basket of Quebec cranberries and a lovely jar of honey to use in cranberries. I sent off the mail-in rebate re the new snow tires; it was all in French so R had to fill it in. Clothes are in drier. Long John season has begun. And I am ready to hibernate!

B is ripping out the old, rotten sills of the upstairs windows and putting in concrete ones. Too bad we do not have new windows to go in. This was not part of the plan. (WHAT PLAN!) I suggested he put heavy clear plastic on the exteriors for now. At least something is getting done.