Triumphs and Tribulations

When one considers today's exploits in the context of the proverb that there should be "a place for everything and everything in its place", the trade-off of one rodent for a few patties of bacteria and yeast seems slightly less weird.

The boys and I are sad to report that our mouse-in-residence, Gus, has met his unfortunate demise after another run in with the corn bin. Over the winter we have become accustomed to seeing Gus scoot around the garage.  We kind of liked him - he was very fuzzy and seriously cute.  However, today he managed to scare the pants off me posthumously when I went to scoop Charlie’s evening snack out of the bottom of the grain bin.
It was dark and I did not bother turning on the garage light because by this point I could do the evening chores my sleep.  I can now attest that ending up with a desiccated mouse carcass in your scoop when you are only half paying attention to what you are doing, is enough to make the best of us jump out of our skin.

Poor Gus.

My second surprise of the day was still a shock but a much better one.  As I was rooting through the pantry, I moved an old jar of kombucha vinegar that I keep for salad dressings. Much to my delight, I noticed that there are now several scobies sitting in the jar. What a windfall of good luck! I am fresh out of scobies since my latest batch of kombucha moulded (again!) and I have been thinking about how I am going to start up my seemingly doomed kombucha brewing operation for the fourth time.  Woohoo for surprise scobies!

Scobies hiding out in the vinegar jar.

SCOBY!

My new booch brews.

So, long story short, we are minus one pet (though really wild) mouse in the garage and plus some pet (yet also really wild) bacteria and yeast patties in the pantry.  I suppose one could say that we are better off now as you really do not want mice (however cute) in your garage, nor bacteria and yeast patties growing in many places except kombucha jars.  Perhaps "a place for everything and everything in its place" really does ring true.