GimletBlog

We’re happy to report that the Gimlet residence has officially been rat free for one week!  Hooray!  The exterminator caught six rats, we rat-proofed our house as per the exterminator’s recommendations, and we are ready to move into the cleanup phase.  For now we try not to think about how many pounds of rat droppings are just over our heads in the attic.

Christmas is a busy time for churches, and in addition to the expected holiday festivities and charity for families in need, it was also necessary to coordinate another memorial service (that makes two in two months for my tenure).  As our congregation meets in a different building now, and we’re still getting used to where things are, the Sunday before the service we planned to check out the resources in the kitchen and cultural hall.  At the entrance to the cultural hall we stopped, stunned by the sight of a massive Meso-American-style pyramid which took up almost one-third of the space in the hall and reached almost to the ceiling.  The ward council was of one mind in calling it a Rameumptom.   We soon found out that it was actually Samuel the Lamanite’s wall from the other ward’s Book of Mormon-themed Christmas party, and as the party had already taken place, the Rameumptom/Samuel’s wall/ziggurat could be removed before the memorial service.

Fortunately the very impressive structure was still standing the following day when we were doing some preliminary setup, so it was possible to take a photo:

Before the (Rameumptom-free) memorial service, we attended the annual ethnic brunch at Thing Two’s school:  a holiday party for all the first grade classes to celebrate world cultures and friendship.  The children sang several holiday songs, and then Thing Two played his violin.  Earlier, when the children were practicing for the brunch concert, Thing Two told the music teacher that he played the violin and volunteered to participate.

Thing Two was eager to perform and enjoyed himself immensely, playing a set of three tunes from Denmark and Sweden.  We seem to have a showman on our hands!  (Meanwhile, Your Humble Narrator was probably nervous enough for both mother and child.)  Long time GimletBlog readers may recognize Thing Two’s festdrakt, or Norwegian folk costume, as the one that Thing One wore when Thing Two was a baby.

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Late one night after Thanksgiving, we heard a scratching sound inside the bedroom wall.  Not a good noise!  The next day, The Gimlet inspected the roof and couldn’t find any holes.  We had pretty much justified the scratching as cat noises that echoed strangely in the house as if they were in our wall (but of course there really wasn’t anything in our wall, right?), but The Gimlet figured he’d better check the attic just in case.  As he opened the trap door, he was greeted by a shower of droppings:  we had houseguests.

A little reggae soothes the nerves

A second outdoor inspection turned up a very small, hard to find hole in the roof … but it was big enough.  The exterminator confirmed that we are hosting a thriving population of rats in the attic, who have depleted our insulation and filled the space with their droppings.  He did not tell us how many rats he estimated were in the attic, but he set ten traps and made an appointment to return in one week.

Recommended Reading:  The Church Mice Adrift from the Church Mice series by Graham Oakley.  This children’s picture book series about Arthur, Humphrey, long-suffering church cat Sampson and all the other mice who live in the Wortlethorpe Vestry is packed full of adventure and humor.  The super-detailed illustrations are a hilarious treat.  In Adrift, the mice and Sampson are forced out of the vestry by a pack of rowdy rats and must think up a cunning plan to get rid of the squatters and win back their home.

Meanwhile, Chinook and Nanaimo have been oblivious to the party in the attic, focusing their attention on the Christmas tree.  They compete to sit under it:  usually Nanaimo is clever enough to lure Chinook away from the tree by playing with a squeaky toy, and when Chinook runs over to investigate the noise, Nanaimo quickly takes his place under the tree.  Lately Chinook has been taking the low road to secure his territory:

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This year we gave Thing Two’s garden boxes a summer off to rest and recover nutrients for next the growing season.  There were still plenty of chives to harvest, and the mint is still going strong.

As the summer progressed, we observed what appeared to be carrot tops … very large carrot tops, in fact.  Finally, as the weather was cooling, it seemed like a good time to dig them up and see what we had.

Mutant carrots!  Just in time for Halloween.

Thing Two was delighted with his surprise harvest.

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This year’s vegetable garden has yielded countless tomatoes, and there are still plenty ripening on the vines.

Two years ago I stitched a lovely little Hardanger doily from a pattern in the 1997 Diana Craft Journal, and took the pattern up a notch by stitching it on 32 count linen with long filament silks.  That doily was given away as a gift, and this summer I got around to stitching another one to keep.  I managed to finish it in time for Puyallup Fair, where it won a second place ribbon!  The rest of Team Gimlet (and Team CurlyBee) were forced to linger in front of the display cabinet in the Home Arts building until it had been sufficiently admired.

This is the first time I’ve submitted anything to the fair, but it won’t be the last.  Those ribbons are addictive!  Usually a commemorative refrigerator magnet or mug comes home with us from the fair, but this is a much better souvenir.

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Since we last looked at Thing Two’s garden, a few tomatoes and radishes are now ready to be picked.

Thing Two is also excited because he recently completed his set of series 4 Lego minifigures.  The mad scientist was the most difficult one for us to find, but we finally did it!

The Team Gimlet: At-Home Unit probably needs to get out more.

But until that day comes, we’ll take it easy for these last few days of summer and watch the honeybees buzzing lazily around the peppermint blossoms.

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The garden is looking very green these days, with occasional glimpses of red.

It looks like our mystery tomato plants are producing small “grape” tomatoes.

More radishes are doing well.  Thing Two is looking forward to picking them.

The mint has grown quite tall, and the peppermint has blossomed.  Walking between the boxes or watering the plants is an easy, quick dose of aromatherapy.

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We thought last summer was dismal for gardening, but this summer has been so dark and damp that the best growing crop in Thing Two’s planter box is mushrooms.  The mint and chives are also thriving; in fact the peppermint is nearly as tall as Thing Two.  A few of the tomato blossoms took, so we’re watching the tiny green tomatoes and hoping for more sun.  Thing Two has also been watching two radish tops, and this weekend we decided that the larger of the two wasn’t going to grow any bigger, so we might as well harvest it.

After posing for pictures we had to sample our garden’s bounty.  We managed to cut the radish into three pieces to share.  Thing Two decided it was “very spicy”.

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Yesterday’s long day of sunshine must have done the trick:  after today’s end-of-preschool picnic, Thing Two headed out to the south forty the back yard to check on his garden.  He ran back to the house, shouting, “I have tomatoes!”  When we last watered the garden we hadn’t noticed any blossoms, much less tomatoes, so we thought Thing Two was being overly optimistic.  However …

The plants are now covered with tomato blossoms!

Thing Two’s great-uncle, an avid gardener and Thing Two’s inspiration in all things horticultural, toured the little planter boxes two weeks ago and suggested that Thing Two’s five year-old attention span might be well satisfied with growing radishes.

As you can see, the radishes are looking great as well.

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