New York Renovator

Rodents- BAH!

I don’t INTEND to feed them constantly. My goal is to feed the BIRDS. We’ve been enjoying all the birds coming to my yard, including some beautiful cardinals and chickadees!

But apparently, the squirrels have discovered the feast that is in my bird feeder. I filled up the feeder three days ago, and now it’s bone dry! Unbelievable! I thought perhaps we had an influx of hungry birds, but my son said, “Oh no; I saw the squirrels dumping seed all over the ground so they could get to it.”

From what I hear, squirrels are almost IMPOSSIBLE to deter from bird seed feeders. The only solution is to get a squirrel-proof feeder. *sigh*

Well, it’s a good thing I like Buy.com so muchand they always have stuff on sale. I spotted this nice feeder for $32 at Buy.com. It’s called the Heritage Farms Birds’ Choice Squirrel Proof Feeder! How’s that for a name. And it’s birds’ choice! lol. I like the old-fashioned green paint color. That would match my house and yard perfectly. It looks pretty high-tech! What do you think? Think it’ll be the birds’ choice? It had better not be squirrel’s choice! Next thing you know, I’ll have to get an air siren to scatter all the dang rodents and deer that are infiltrating my yard! SHEESH!

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Now that the snow is just about gone, I feel invigorated enough to start some planning for the new kitchen, and do some supply comparison shopping. I had this amazingly bright idea when I visited my local Big Box Home Improvement Store— take a camera to snap photos of the products! And to think I used to write it all down on paper with a pencil! No one in the store seemed to mind one bit. Maybe everybody does it, now?? It is extremely helpful to snap photos of the stuff. I can look at the photos and compare with other products online or at other stores.

Sheetrock prices are still steady. I have to find out from what country this stuff originates– I won’t buy Chinese-made sheetrock because of all the health problems it’s caused. I wrote a post about that here, if you are interested: Chinese-Made Drywall Causing Headaches.

I have determined to get Traffic Master Allure flooring. I LOVE the stuff, LOVE it. I wrote more about it, here.

Of course, I have to plan all the electric, too. Wow, prices have really creeped up on this stuff. I will also *hope* to be getting some help installing the electric this time. I did the Living Room and girls’ bedroom all by myself, but the kitchen has special needs. I’d appreciate an expert or two for this. And just think– soon my entire house will FINALLY have electricity!! It’s almost too good to be true!

Yep, I’m installing Cat5 Internet wiring in EVERY ROOM. I dislike wireless. I’ll have to build a control panel somewhere, to accommodate for all the ports we’ll have.

So that’s the latest. I’m really, really getting excited about this. I’m working very hard while it’s still winter, to earn enough money to pay off my bills and save some for this project. I’ll probably have to get a bank loan to fund it all, though. :-p But Lord willing, everything will fit into place. I’ll be sure to have loads of posts with photos as we progress. I am n the process of making the electrical, plumbing, and furnace duct schematic. I figure I’ll start demolition sometime at the end of April or mid-May.

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Now that the snow is melting, I can walk to the backyard to access the winter damage done by the deer and snowmobilers. :-p

My poor apple trees. My poor grape vine!! I could skin those varmints alive, I could.

My grapevine didn’t get it as bad as the apple trees. The busted post is from the Husband varmint. He accidentally backed into the garden fencing when working on the brakes, lol.

But my apples trees! ! Ever year I go out to access the damage, and every year it’s the same– the trees are half eaten by those STUPID DEER!!!!!!!!! I hate them, I do.

By the way, that goofy string on the limb is my hokey version of deer repellent. Well, it WAS deer repellent. Well, actually, I guess it wasn’t. It didn’t repel anything!!!! GAH!!! It was a bar of soap hanging from the string. The soap (so I heard) repels deer. MY deer are SO nasty that they even eat soap!!!

*cries*

I have to go high tech, I think. I can’t sit back and watch my beautiful trees chewed up and devoured by critters that deserve only to be made into stew. I hear coyotes repel deer! mauhahahhahaha!!!! But… coyotes repel ME, too. So…. next best thing is to get….

COYOTE WHIZ!!! Yes! Well, technically it’s called “Coyote Urea.” *adjusts glasses* I really don’t care WHAT the durn stuff is, as long as it makes those deer high-tail it outta my yard. Buy.com has some of this stuff on sale for under $15. It’s called Shake Away Coyote Urea, and one application is supposed to last up to 90 days. That’s better than anything else I’ve have ever seen.

So, I hope my problems will be solved… now I need to figure out how to repel the blasted snowmobilers that tear up my yard…

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