There were 27 of us at our house for Thanksgiving dinner. After everyone had gone, Larid was coming out of the bathroom and there his eyes connected with the eyes of a small, gray rodent. Just where had he been during all the hub bub?
He alerted me and told me to get the broom, which I did, along with pulling out 6 sticky traps and placing them all around the house. Of course, the mouse disappeared and we retreated to the kitchen. He seemed to be a social mouse because he joined us shortly and went under the table. Larid then told me to get the cat. She was thrilled to come in. However, when the mouse made a move and I tossed her at it, she just gave it a glance, watched it go behind the stove and went on her usual trek toward the staircase. I instantly retreaved her and held her on my lap, waiting for the mouse to come out. We sat on the stool by the microwave. She loved sitting on my lap and purred and did the alternating flexing and relaxing of her paws and showed me what a good house cat she would be. She mouse made a run under the sink and the cat just ignored it.
That was it. She was back to the garage. I went back to the chair by Larid who had already set two new peanut butter inticing mouse traps plus one normal snap traps around the stove/sink area. Again the mouse ran under the table.
At about 10 p.m. we tired of watching all the drama and decided to let the traps do their job and went to bed. At midnight, Larid got up, went to the bathroom, turned on the bathroom and hall lights (so uncharicteristic of him), got a pair of my shoes out of the closed and said that the mouse had RUN ACROSS THE BED minutes earlier. He could hear it scratching it's way up the comforter and blanket. AAAAAAAAH! He hucked both shoes at it, missed both times and sent the mouse running again. Back to bed, and 8 minutes later, I swear I felt something on my finger. I yelled and threw blankets everywhere. Despite Dad's new incision, he moved out of bed rather quickly. I guess it must have been a phamtom muscle reflex, I don't know, but the bedskirt was then tucked up between the mattress and box spring. The comforter had earlier been taken to the sofa in the living room. Finally, 30-45 minutes later we fell into a fitful sleep.
At 5:00 a.m., I arose to prepare to head out for Black Friday bargains and Larid got up to check the traps. From the bathroom, I heard whap, whap, whap. There on the red, kitchen rug, surrounded by 3 traps, sat that little rodent defying us, not to mention the traps. He had pushed us too far and Larid got the waste basket wherewith the rodent met his demise.
This is the truth. Even I could not make something up this good.
Ryan and Valerie quite often bring the dogs on an outing to the farm.
This is what we woke up to this morning-not quite as serene as Ryan and Val's sunrise!
Sugar City had the distinction of being Capitol for a Day last Friday and flags lined the street to greet Governer Otter from the freeway to the high school where he met with citizens. It was an impressive site.
These are a few of the Sweet Retreat attendees. We made bracelets, aprons, pillowcases, cards and grazed and grazed. We loved being together and missed all who could not be with us. 
Whitney, Debi and Deidre Wilson working on a bracelet. What a great time!
Ryan and Valerie made a new purchase of Pudgy Pie Makers from Cabellas and we made pizza bombs and chocolate/cherry/marshmallow/cream cheese tasty dessert treats over the fire. Great sport and yummy. This three generation photo says it all.
This is Dad after removal of a 7-8 mm kidney stone. Not much different than the before photo.
This bypasses the old mainline. HURRAY!!!
Beddes' hauling the straw on #1
