Can all you Can, Can, Can!

This October, I had a visit from some unwanted new friends-mice.

We had never had any in our house, but we knew our neighbor Charles did, and he was battling them all of the time. Charles decided to move this Fall after becoming seriously ill with pneumonia. He was in assisted living for awhile, and I would take him flowers from his beloved garden and straighten up the house while he was still away. He thought he would return within a few months, but all of the food went bad in the fridge, which I threw out,too. I missed him, as we would always chat on the porch when I took a break from working at home or passed him coming back from the studio. His relatives came and cleaned out the house in September, and right after he moved to Virginia, Charles passed away in his sleep. The neighbors and I still morn the man whom we called, "The Mayor of Pawtucket Avenue," always on the proch with a smile, a good word, and advice for the garden.

The new visitors came once the food was gone next door. I also think it was my prolific garden of sunflowers, dropping seeds throughout the yard, and me collecting them within the house for next year. I grabbed a few though Have-A-Heart traps and let the mice go in the woods, and got several plug-ins that emit a sound only mice can hear to drive them away. I started to think about how many people are being good little mice these days, canning and freezing food from the garden. I put up blackberry jam, tomatoes from the yard, pickles and peaches from local produce, and froze blueberries and peas, dried some beans. There is a shortage of food in the country, and more and more people are having a hard time providing food for their families. I hope many learn lessons from the dreams of mice, and put away for the future.