Mouse-capades April 2021

 

Finally ready to blast off and ill prepared despite my best plans, I untied from the bank and was "off to sea".  Planning to course the entire expanse of Norris Lake, my first excursion was around the bend to where Big Creek joins the Clinch River section of the lake.  Since I was in no rush, I took a little shake down time before I got seriously into the trip.  I was still learning to navigate.  One would assume that you can't get lost on a lake, which is true in the sense that you can always find your way home eventually.  But it's not so easy to pick the route you want to take when you come to the intersection of a wide-mouth hollow, that might go for a few miles, and the true channel.  I solved this problem soon thanks to technology and the the internet.

For cooking I was using a burner attachment that usually is screwed onto a one pound tank of propane, but in my case I was using a 30 pound upright tank attached through some brass nipples and an elbow.  This worked quite well except that I had to be careful my pot did not slide off the burner when a wave hit the boat.  I also used the same burner for a little supplemental heat on cold mornings.  Open flame heaters are far from ideal for heating and require careful attention, nothing too close and nothing overhead that might possibly fall into the flame.  I remedied this situation before Winter came.

My bed was a hammock, the bed I use every night, even back home on the farm.  The first night out on the trial run I was disturbed by noise beneath my bed.  Flashlight in hand and sleepy eyed, I spotted my visitor -- a little brown mouse.  I pondered this situation with the thought in mind that, not only were these critters not the sort of company I wanted aboard, but that they might take a fancy to my food stocks.  A trip back to the dock and a drive to town and I was armed with a solution.

Night time came and I was geared up for war.  Shortly after lights out there was a loud snap.  I started to drift off thinking I had solved the problem.  Snap!  Two down and surely the war was won, not to mention that I was out of ammunition.  

The second night I reloaded, thinking this the prudent measure just to play safe.  Again, two snaps in the night.  The following night delivered only a soul victim and I counted the war won.

Mouse infestation on the boat was not a new phenomenon.  In fact I had fought this same battle even before the boat was drafted into year round service.  I cannot imagine why mice congregate on a boat.  Their path of entry or escape is always precarious unless they like to swim.  There was no food for them when they infiltrated -- beats me!  Here is a clip from a accidental video I had did couple of years previously: