Camp Miksic

not a creature was stirring....

except for the mice that inhabit our house.
the death toll is currently two.
i have mixed emotions about our battle with the mice. i like mice. hell, i used to have around 60 of them when i was a kid. started off with two, ended up with 60...in under a year.
this is my main concern...i've got no problem with a mouse or two living in our crawl spaces, raising their little family. you can't knock'em for wanting to survive this winter.
but a few turns into many very quickly. and they scurry across the kitchen counters where we cook and prepare food. this thought makes my skin crawl a little. the first two put up a good fight. they cleaned out one trap of its bait 3 times, were killed(we thought) once, escaped the trap before we could dispose of them, and then, finally were killed 'for real'. how does one survive a neck/head crushing by a spring loaded metal bar?
so, sadly, we have begun the battle.
saatchi, the cat, has proved herself to be a disappointment so far. today i caught her playing with(aka torturing) a mouse. chasing it, catching it, carrying it to a new spot then releasing it to repeat this process. i would love it if our cat took care of the mouse problem for us, but honestly, a quick snap of a trap across the neck is more humane than being toyed with for hours....so i saved the little guy from saatchi's clutches and released him into our shed. a fact brian will probably be a bit pissed about....like i said, i'm torn about this mouse conflict.
tonight we will be setting more traps... if the mice choose to walk into them, so be it.

posted by Editor @ 8:54 AM 0 comments

30 seconds in the life of Ferris Alastair Miksic. Now with even MORE action!!

another snibble of the action packed life of Ferris!

posted by Editor @ 7:56 AM 3 comments

Eureka!!

Ferris has found a fist. His right fist and only a fist. We're not sure if he actually has any conscious control over it yet, but he certainly looks like he's trying to make something happen, like a little freak trying to bend a spoon using only the power of his mind.
This is the young man's latest major accomplishment. He is completely absorbed by the flailing ball of flesh waving in front of him. So now he is aware of 2 areas of his body. His right fist and his tumultuous belly. Oh, 3 body parts, I almost forgot the most important one, his mouth. We look forward to full body realization. How weird it must be to not have control of your body, to not even know that it is there to be controlled.
December has been good to us so far. We spent the last weekend getting our Christmas tree and finally putting the house back in order. We went with our friends, Dan and Sarah, out to a tree farm in Pownal, Vermont and picked our tree and chopped it down with an ax... my mother (jokingly, i hope) asked if the tree screamed.
I kind of wonder, is cutting down a tree that is grown as a crop for this specific purpose any worse than ravaging a crop of lettuce? Okay, so there is the whole water and energy waste that comes with growing the tree for so many years, just to decorate it for a month and then mulch it. Or maybe the problem is that it's being grown for decoration instead of food, like the botanical equivalent of a moose head hanging above the mantle.
I don't know, but I don't feel terribly torn up about it. It is a tradition that I love. One of the best parts of Christmas. Hey, it's a big step forward from sacrificing livestock and loved ones in annual celebrations.

posted by Editor @ 8:30 AM 1 comments