And Then, A Little Pointing...

So, we did a  little light and not so light DIY outside before winter arrives. Winter’s a long way off you say? Have you not noticed the evenings drawing in already?

Anyhoo, first up was easy – just checking the mouse guards and this may be of interest to some of you.

A house about three down the road – or up the road if your standing down the road - has recently built a very nice conservatory; home built, timber, finished to a high standard. It is, however, built on a timber deck and you just know, as the owners now know, mice just love that and I do see the occasional mouse  foraging round our garden of an evening.

They’re welcome to come and go as they please as long as they don’t attempt entry to the house. Just as a safe guard against the little fellows getting in, sometime ago I protected the air bricks to maintain the flow of air but prevent the ingress of mouses; that being more than one mouse.

The stainless steel stuff the big shops sell for this purpose costs a small fortune but if you feel you need that sort of protection, get down to your Poundland store and get a few of their fine mesh flour sieves** at, yup, a pound a pop. As a bonus they do indeed appear to be stainless steel. They’re easy to cut to the required size with house scissors and can be formed to ‘lock’ over the air brick. Mouse entry bared via the air bricks. Job done for a slack hand-full of pounds.

**Sieves; not to be confused with colanders.

Okay, the proper job wot we took care of was a little brickwork pointing down the side. Easy job for me and her as I’d done the gouging a while ago. I say me and her but I’m sure you know how that works. Yup, me up the ladder utilising both my two available hands and hanging onto the ladder with my teeth while my little nest of vipers did the actual pointing. 
“You miss bit there! Look, look at place I be pointing at!”

Quote;  Robin McKinley.

“Mice are terribly chatty. They will chat about anything, and if there is nothing to chat about, they will chat about having nothing to chat about. Compared to mice, robins are reserved.”