Roof Leaks

   I don't know if you have heard the expression, 'when it rains it pours?' Well sometimes that seems to happen over here in my corner of the world. We have a new baby coming into our house any day now. At least it feels like it should be any day but I guess the real truth is that I could potentially have to wait until March 14 to be induced if I go over my due date as here they allow you two weeks over due. I can't imagine having to do that but if I must I must. Anyway! A new baby is coming and I have been trying to prepare for that. We don't have the space to give the baby its' own room so the baby will be in the master bedroom and there are little spaces created through the house for nursing and changing diapers etc. Having a baby in the house involves a lot of preparation and planning! So through out this, life doesn't just slow down or stop. There is still all the appointments to get to, the activities to drive to, the cooking, grocery shopping, laundry and cleaning to do and that seems like it all should be enough. Well let me tell you...it isn't.

   About a month ago I was sitting in my dining room and suddenly I could hear that there was something alive in my floor. It was rolling nuts along, or something that sounded like nuts, and it was not doing so quietly. It sounded like it was right beside me. There is no access to under my floor and I did not know how whatever rodent it was was getting in. It was not the best feeling. Night after night I could hear the animals storing up food for the winter in my floor. We have people renting in a suite in our basement and they have two cats, we have one cat upstairs in ours, so this house has a total of three cats in it. You'd think that might possibly exempt us from a rodent invasion. Apparently not! A week or so after I heard the scurrying in the floor I saw a mouse or rat in my living room in the middle of the day. It ran quickly, but it was there. I knew they were also in my kitchen as my cat was showing all the signs that there were visitors of the worst sort (in my mind). I have this phobia of mice and rats...That meant putting all the food in cupboards in a large tote that now sits on my floor, trying to keep all food off the floors and counters and begging my husband to call an exterminator. He did call one and the person that came proved to be completely helpless. I was left with about six traps in my living room and that was it. It did not help. My husband eventually put out poison in every safe spot he could in our kitchen, living room, dining room, and traps everywhere and we caught one mouse. Just one. Lately the inside of our house has seemed quieter and our cat has been less on the prowl. However the other night my daughter was coming home from a dance class around nine in the evening and the door was locked. She started screaming and I am heavily pregnant so getting to the door took me a hot minute. It turned out there was a mouse on the front porch with her. When I let her in and shut the door I realized it was no mouse but a large black rat. It boldly came to the glass floor length windows beside my front door and put its' nose to the glass seeming to actually asking to be let in from the cold. It had no fear!! My husband tried to go outside and catch it but it was fast. It, however, did not leave the vicinity of the front of our house and spent the evening running around our porch, driveway, and gardens. So the rodent issue is ongoing it seems. We shall see what becomes of it.

  There is also the issue of our roof. We bought a forty year old house with a forty year old roof. This past Autumn we payed a pretty penny to get the roof redone as it had been leaking in our bathroom for over a year. It was not easy to get the roof done as there just was not an availability of roofers in our area. We waited for months to find someone.  When they did come they did a wonderful job. We have a complicated roof with multiple skylights and fans and all sorts of things. However the other day we had some snow fall. This was the first snow fall of the year. I felt relief that our roof was re done and I didn't have to worry about the roof leaking all over the house in random places like it had last winter when the snow fell. Well! I was wrong. My daughter came to tell me the roof was leaking and it was no subtle leak. Water was aggressively entering my house through one of my skylights and the leak was spreading. I put out buckets and tried to not get too panicked but I did not take it well. My husband, bless his soul, risked his life to go out on the roof and assess the situation and somehow managed to temporarily slow the leak so it was not pouring in. However this weekend he will be up on the room trying to once again, fix a leak. I am sort of sick of trying to fix leaks.

   So these are two small stories and honestly they are not big deals at all really! It is just that sometimes when there are a lot of small things that are annoying or troublesome or overwhelming every little thing becomes big.

  The reality is....I have a cat who kept the rodents from going onto my counters and my cupboards. They stayed under the fridge stove or in my fire place.They did not enter bedrooms and that felt less invasive than it could have. The roof is not leaking in the bathroom anymore and we tried so many ways to fix that leak...at least IT is fixed :) We had a couple snow days that were magical. We have a slough near our home that also froze thickly which does not often happen. There were hours spent sliding, sledding and laughing in brisk cold air. This is so good for every part of the body. Happy memories were made. One of the best things as well is that every day I feel the baby moving inside of me. As it grows bigger and I feel little limbs poking out every day I am so thankful he or she is still alive. SO taking those things and trying to at least let them hover at least in the outskirts of my mind helps me stay a bit more sane than maybe I would be.