This weekend was spent almost entirely in the backyard. We did tons of gardening and moving dirt around other things that will make our backyard eventually more usable. I don’t understand some of the things that the people before us did, but we are slowly correcting their mistakes and creating a very pleasant space.
Since we won’t be going camping anywhere this summer, we set up the tent in the backyard and yesterday morning we had a campfire. With money saved from cancelled trips, I bought a fancy fire pit. We just got it and have only used it once, but I already love it. Hardly any smoke, beautiful flames, and it will be perfect for roasting marshmallows.
Part of our gardening adventure this weekend was planting seedlings that we had started from seed inside the house. We got creative with finding spaces for things. It was only after coming in that I realized that we had planted 14 zucchini plants. If they all survive and all produce we are going to have to do with the ring the doorbell and run thing with bags of zucchinis.
Short and sweet story - sealing up the hole in the ceiling worked and there is no more smell. Hallelujah!
Long and drawn out story of relatively few words: Linden has been getting four molars at once for weeks. Her gums are still all red and swollen, and all four have poked through but they are definitely not all the way through yet. The best analogy I can think of for her teething is that it is like an American presidential election - painful and seemingly interminable. We are incredibly tired.
Dead squirrels have been consuming our lives for the past couple of weeks. Long story short:
The squirrels chewed through wiring, an electrician came and found another dead squirrel (possibly electrocuted) and some extensive wiring damage that was an extreme fire hazard so we had to turn off the power to that part of the house until someone could come back and get the dead squirrel out and then the electrician could come back and fix the problem. It turned out that the squirrels had used almost all the insulation up there to build a nest, and it all had to be removed because it was in contact with dead squirrel/squirrel urine/squirrel feces. So then we had the area insulated with spray foam, as well as having a complete inspection of the outside of our house and a bunch of remediation work done to keep animals from getting in again. Somewhere during all of that we had a plumber come, and he believes that sewer gas is coming into our house through an air intake in the sewer vent, because cutting a hole in the ceiling changed the airflow up there, and that the only way to solve the problem is to seal up the hole that was cut in the ceiling in order to get the dead squirrel.
The smell has not gone away. So the big question is whether sealing up the hole will get rid of the smell. If it is sewer gas smell and the plumber is right, then that should fix the problem. If it isn’t, we may be sealing a dead squirrel into that space. But with the spray foam insulation that might have already happened. So we have someone coming on Tuesday to seal up the hole and we have our fingers crossed that this solves the problem.
Meanwhile, we have very cute children, which helps. It doesn’t so much help that one of them is getting four molars at one time, plus possibly other teeth, and the other one is trying to hold our attention 100% of the time and also testing a lot of limits. But generally they are both very likeable and enjoyable and in some ways are helping keep us sane in this crazy time.
We have been spending lots of time outside in the backyard:
The big exciting news this week is that Linden started walking. She took her first wobbly steps on Tuesday, and has been practising lots and lots ever since.
The not so exciting news from this weekend is that a squirrel went up into a completely inaccessible crawlspace above our laundry room and died. We had actually been smelling it since Tuesday, and kept trying to find the source of the smell. Finally Friday night we figured it out – it wasn’t the washing machine, it wasn’t the litter box, it wasn’t the compost, and it wasn’t any other possible source. We had been hearing squirrels up there for a while but haven’t heard any lately. we finally put it together and suddenly the smell was much worse.
I had no idea what to do, but I asked a moms group that I am part of through a messenger chat, and I was told to call a company called “Critter Gitters.” Yes, that is what they are really called and yes, they got the dead squirrel out. Our laundry room is currently off-limits due to extensive squirrel excrement having fallen from the ceiling after they cut a hole in the ceiling to get at the dead squirrel. They will be coming back tomorrow to clean up.
I am so grateful that I have a community here even in isolation. Without that moms group I really wouldn’t have known what to do, but within about five minutes of explaining my situation I had a plan. And I can tell you, without a recommendation I never in 100 years would have called Critter Gitters. Because holy moly, that name!
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