Rodent Wars!

Due to Joan's hip surgery, I haven't been out to the farm for a month.  I finally made it out for a quick visit to address some issues that we've been having.

 The first issue that we had was one of the security cameras went out.  It took a few weeks to get somebody out to address it and what he found was this nibbled coaxial cable in the barn.  He got that fixed and within about 2 hours, the phones went out (that takes the internet out - DSL - with which I remotely view the cameras).  So now all the cameras were down.

 The phone guy found multiple problems but this chewed wire was leading from the jack to the DSL modem.

 The weather station was also offline and this was why.  The dongle power supply had been chewed thru.

 This hard plastic bin in the barn held the birdseed.  Someone nibbled thru the top of the bin.

 Some nesting materials were found in these drawers.

 We've had some issues with mice in the cabin over the years.  It really hasn't been too bad this year but the wire nibbling is a new thing.

 So I've taken the war up a notch.  Perimeter snap traps out on the porch.

 Electronic traps is the next layer of defense inside the barn.  The last layer is snap traps in the pantry inside the kitchen.  I'm starting to feel like Bill Murray in Caddyshack.  I hope those black snakes come out of hibernation soon.

It's been raining for days and the pond was almost overflowing.  I have a month's worth of trailcams to sort thru - maybe tomorrow.

Here's a special post for Leo.  I discovered that there actually are smoke phase turkeys.