What a gorgeous Spring Day! After church and grocery shopping, Amy and I spent the day planting our new expanded garden. I certainly cannot name the plants (that is Amy's specialty), but I do know that they are perennials, so hopefully, this garden work will not be an annual monumental task. A day later, my fingers are still dirty and my muscles are aching. Still, it was worth it. The day prior had involved similar manual labor, including slaying a few trees to provide more sunlight for the new garden.
Anyway, yesterday we finished off with beers on the deck as we admired our weekend's handiwork. As the dogs whined for their dinner, I figured it was about time to cook the hamburgers on the grill for Amy and I. That is when the real adventure began. I pulled off the cover of the grill and opened the hood. As I glanced into the grill I noticed what looked like a bird's nest under the grate. So I opened the bottom of the grill and pulled out the drip tray. Sure enough, it was a large nest. I did see a few bird feathers, but no eggs, unless they were buried deep in the nest. I dumped it into the trash can, returned the drip tray, turned on the gas, and proceeded to light the grill. As I watched the burners light I saw what looked like a foot through the grates. I quickly turned off the gas and opened the doors under the grill. Looking back at me with bright wide eyes was a MOUSE! I probably jumped back several feet as the mouse just stared at me. I began to shoo him away with a spatula and he scampered out of the grill and somewhere under the deck.
I then proceeded to re-light the grill. I went inside to get the hamburgers while the grill warmed up. After a few minutes, I decided that the grill was plenty hot, so I reached into the bottom of the grill to grab my grill brush. Sure enough, as I peered in, the mouse was back looking at me. This time, he quickly scampered away, so I proceeded to brush the grates of the grill. Out of curiosity, I decided to look around to see if the mouse was still lurking around. I jumped back again when I saw him clinging to the gas line hose on the side of the grill. At this point, I should probably call it "her" since she is obviously looking for her baby mice.
Not wanting to play this cat and mouse game all night, I decided I need to get rid of the mouse. But how to do it? I guess I could have whacked her with my spatula or grill brush, but that sounded pretty brutish. As I have become an avid hunter of scavenger birds, I quickly thought of my pellet gun. I ran off to get the gun and -- surprise -- she was still clinging to the gas hose. So I quickly loaded the gun thinking that would get her to scramble. Nope. In the background I hear Amy screaming from the kitchen, "don't shoot the mouse!" I move in and get the barrel of the gun within nearly a foot of the mouse and she still didn't move. So, I pulled the trigger.
Mouse and mouse guts everywhere! Dead hit. Just a little clean-up work that I wasn't expecting. It was only in the after-thought that I realized how STUPID this whole debacle was. Surely, the mouse would have gotten the message that the baby mice were gone -- and she would probably have left for good. The thing I didn't even fathom, though, was that I shot at the mouse as she was clinging to the gas line -- THE GAS LINE! Had I missed my shot by a mere fraction of an inch, I probably would have gone up in a huge explosion, together with my deck and half the house!
I thank my lucky stars, but can honestly say that I learned something today.
