Lawlor's Wild Kingdom

[layla]

The mice, particularly Bob, have an irritating habit of covering up their food and water with their bedding (leaves and shredded newspaper). This is especially annoying with the water, because not only does it fill the dish so they can't get to the water, but the newspaper wicks water out of the dish and turns their food to glue.

They still refuse to properly tame down. Wilhelm won't let us anywhere near him, and Bob is, if anything, getting wilder and less prone to being handled the longer we have him, in spite of our best efforts to be friendly and gentle.

I thought the whole point of a pet was you're supposed to be able to PET it. They're awfully soft ... when you can catch them.

We're actively hunting for a house in the Fairbanks area, mostly using the online MLS and realtor listings. It's so hard to tell from the online listings what the real faults of a property are, though. We were really excited about one place that looked perfect, until we discovered it was slowly sinking into a bog. (You think I'm joking. I'm not.)

Comments

[arcana-j.livejournal.com]

Next time get rats. They're smarter, sweeter, trainable and stink less.

Oh, and please don't move to a bog. Where would they deliver your mail?

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

I used to want to live in a bog when I was a kid. Specifically, I wanted to live in one of those houses on stilts like you see in National Geographic specials. You would then climb down a ladder to your boat and paddle away to your neighbor's house. I think I'd read some book or other where the characters lived in a village like that, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

I still think it would be kind of cool, but one of the unfortunate things about growing up is that now instead of thinking "How cool, a house on stilts" I'm more inclined to think "What a pain, having to carry all your groceries up that ladder". ;)

[jeepersjournal.livejournal.com]

I once spent a summer working in a Canadian Tire store that was slowly sinking into a bog. If we left the carts in facing to the back of the store, they'd eventually start rolling down to it, since it was so unlevel.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Ahhh ... someone who understands. :D

The specific problem in this case is permafrost, one of the building hazards of northern Alaska (and probably Canada too). Dirt is such a good insulator that the ground never warms up enough to truly thaw out. However, the long-term warmth of a building starts slowly thawing it out ... usually unevenly. The ground under the building turns to mush and it starts to sink. A lot of old houses in Alaska, especially old rural houses, have a peculiarly twisted, Igor-like look because of this ...