Sep 14 - ants yes, bats no

Well, the bats seem to have left. I'm not sure if it's the ingenious method that I employed of stapling socks over their entranceway giving them an exit but not an entrance (the sure-fire way to eradicate bats) or their aversion to my old work socks ... but whatever, they seem to be gone ... or perhaps in early hibernation due to the socks ???

Anyway, yesterday I went up the ladder and closed the end of the socks with an elastic band. They thus have an easy way out -- chew through the socks (they are clean after all) which would be easier than chewing into the cottage though lots of wood. There does not seem to be any more poop (technical term, must be an acronym for Pests Out Of Property ... ha ha ha, just made that up !, my kids would kill me for that one) on the front step, but we'll monitor for another couple of days to make sure. Sunday, before we leave, I'll take down the ladder, but only after caulking the spots where I think ... I think that they have been entering the eves.

Ants are not as easy to get rid of -- is that a dangling participle ?? I am not as sure of my English any more since it gets sloppier every day, as does English in general with online posts etc. that you read. Although the ant-man came on August 14th and did his thing, baiting them in small cracks in the wood (and I've seen them feasting on the bait) they are still cruising around during the day in the house. Now -- they could be just coming in from outside and foraging -- there is no way to stop ants from coming into a house -- but we want to make sure. We got hold of the ant-man today and he is going to come back next week (part of their guarantee) and Bonnie Mathews will let him in. I'm also finding dead ones, and twitching ones, on the floor, so their stuff is working ... but he said that if we were still seeing ants in a month, to let them know.

Other activites -- Sandy is working away at the second and final batch of 4x8's. It's quite a process. Once we are back, a month from now, I expect that the 8x8's will be in and I can start to work on the gazebo. What did I do ? -- I unpacked some of the books boxes downstairs and sorted through some of that, throwing away a couple of boxes of crap in the process and putting some things on shelves. I have 8 moving boxes full of paperbacks that I'm going to take into North Bay, Alison the Book Man who sells used books. Before that, though, I'll have Dolores Robinson over to see if she wants to grab a few books for her winter reading as they travel to Vancouver Island and winter there. We went over to their place yesterday afternoon for a visit -- Bonnie was there along with their daughter Lynn.

Jason is supposed to arrive tonight, along with Lorraine, Gavin and Kyle. I expect that he will be late, so we will not see them until tomorrow a.m.

I finally got hold of the Ontario Firearms officer today and was able to extend my permit for another 60 days, so I'm good until November 26th. That will keep me through deer hunting.

I think that's it ... oh, we got a lot of rain today so indoor activites were the order of the day (thus the unpacking exercise) -- also, first thing this morning I made a trip to the dump with the ATC and the trailer with the old rototiller on the trailer -- yes, it's long past retirement age. It was time to put the old thing to sleep. This past spring Sandy rented a tiller from Buchanans garage for the day -- we would have to rent a machine for 10 to 15 years to pay for a new one ... so guess what ? -- we'll rent.