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OK, remember a month back we showed you disturbing photos of 'stone henge' like piles of rubble that had been positioned on top of mouse poison by.....MICE. Well, after a long time surfing to hopefully find that this is quite normal, we came up with diddly squat so operation KILL KILL KILL came into effect. Enter an enormous pot of 2nd generation mice and rat killer and a substantial number of sprung traps located everywhere.....

.....Dave spent some time in the vermin aisle at our local garden centre choosing from the large range of mouse and rat pellets and traps. I wondered off just as he was fiddling with 'The Big One'. This spring loaded RAT trap almost needed a jemy to lever it open but he was determined to see how it triggered. My parting comment to him in maternal mode as he was gingerly prodding it with a SHORT stick was 'I wouldn't do that if I were you.' I returned a few minutes later just in time for a resounding KERTHWUNK as it went off. Credit to him, he didn't scream. He did whinge though. He is hoping that the bruise on his thumb will go down soon and I am hoping that this will mean he can hold a paint brush again. I basked in the 'i told you so' glory for most of the day.

We now have traps located liberally around the house and poison everywhere and so far, no takers. Looks like we have beaten them...for now. However, it seems the critters have been in touch with their friends the mole mafia and they have conducted a rather efficient bombing run on our front garden. Click the pic to see in detail, this shows ONLY out the front of the house, the mole hills continue around the field side of the house to the stables. On the bad side, I feel a like colonel custer - surrounded, but on the good side, I was planning on digging a border all the way round their anyway and they have done it for me.....!

Well we still haven't fully moved from Hemel, due to some mortgage complications with our buyers its all taking a bit longer than expected. Current predictions are maybe 2-3 weeks but that could be optimistic...

Packing has gone well, a little too well as 98% of all our stuff is in boxes and has been since 31st Jan! Have had to build a container for my final year project wine rack, ended up being about 4ft x 4ft and 2ft high. When seen in the flesh it actually looks like its taking up half the garage!!

Dave is basking in the glory of discovering the modern day version of Master Skywalkers light sabre. You neen to try Heinz's "stay clean cap" sauce bottles - it is the closest you will ever come to owning your own light sabre. As of yet he has not challenged me to a dual with the equally powerful Squeezee Mayonaise, but I feel a 'sauces at dawn' showdown is due soon....may the sauce be with you....

Having gone through the turmoil of 'non-insured-non-taxed-scummy-pikey' boy crashing through our hedge in December, I was almost pleasantly surprised by the sight of a rather nice W reg Range Rover in our hedge this February. It was the morning of the big snow fall - all 1 inch of it. He apparently crashed at about 4.30am , but I only saw him at 8.30am when we got up. He had taken virtually the identical path that pikey lad had taken, but with a 2 ton vehicle had managed this time to do a lot more damage and as such we have a rather bigger hole in the hedge this time. The bleated I wasnt going too fast neglected the fact that obviously he was too fast or he wouldnt be in our hedge. He's offered to sort something out about the hedge which is cool, so we're not too annoyed. However, operation super ditch has been initiated, and next time someone looses it on the bend, hopefully they wont actullay make it as far as the hedge....

The plans are now approved for our raised veggie patches (to keep the vermin rabbits at bay) and we have sown our first cropin our new toy - a heated propagator. A hearty collection of carrots, courgettes, turnips, lettuces, taragon, cabbages and peppers abounds, with the turnips first out the box after just 2 days! Lettuce and cabbage are quickly catching up though. Just call us Tom & Barbara.

Priming the carlton for sale (yes, we are downsizing are automobile fleet!) required the head gasket to be done, and not being in the earning sect any more, we did the work ourselves. I may have to shoot any engine layout designers for the inexplicable and inextricable location of some of the parts...