The first mouse I found in my house. My favorite!!

Reading Edward Norton's adventures renovating his new, old house brought back so many memories for me. So I found the old pictures I took when I first began renovating my beat up, old place and enjoyed my trip down memory lane.  This is what I found when I opened up the main electrical panel to assess the situation!!!

Gee, 240 volts can kill you! Guess he didn't get the memo!!

Hahahah, gross!

I love the blood splatter and everything. haha

To be really honest, I didn't think it was gross at all. In fact I kept thinking of it as MY FIRST EVER HOUSE GUEST! And, of course, MY FAVORITE MOUSE IS A DEAD MOUSE! And he must have been there for a good 40 years! But since this was the first and last house I will ever buy.... I went outside and turned off the electrical main breaker and then I tried to slide the little guy out. I was going to preserve him under glass or something as a memento of my accomplishment. But he disintegrated as soon as I touched him.

I bet Edward Norton is going to find some terrific surprises as he tears into walls and floors!

A little off topic but you mentioned stuff found in walls of old houses.
My neighbor down the street.
Went to insulate his walls from the inside.
He found they were stuffed with layers of old paper.

When they were peeled apart there was an old paper flour sack maybe.
With the logo from the old mill we used to have down by our small river north of town that was driven by a water wheel.
It was in perfectly good shape,.. unlike your mouse.

The mill is a part of the history of our town of which very little remains.

Hi Craig,
Not off topic at all! Renovating an old place is often hard, frustrating, gross, exhausting.... O.K. I can go on and on. But it's really a wonderful surprise when you suddenly find something completely unexpected!

I made a new friend!
And your neighbor found a terrific piece of history! One he is a part of.

Happy spring everyone.

The horror!  I may need counseling.

Michael,
Are you psychic? I think the mouse must have said the same thing too! Too late.

EEK! That's an awesome little skeleton. . . poor thing.

You need to exercise caution in the southwest when handling mouse carcasses, mouse droppings, and the dried urine can all become fine air born particles.

Hantavirus is widespread in the deer mouse population and bubonic plague is also common.

And fleas should be dealt with extreme prejudice!

Not saying to live in fear of all these things but to be proactive in preventing them...

There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna go?
I'm gonna fix that rat that's what I'm gonna do,
I'm gonna fix that rat …

Hi there William,
I'm very glad you mentioned this and I hope that lots of people read it and take heed! I read a lot about this many years ago. In fact I was traveling through Utah 15 years ago and camping out. I pulled into a tiny, little BLM campground one evening. No one was there but me. No accommodations other than a fire grate and a picnic table. And the first thing I saw was the big, fairly new sign that said... Bubonic plague has recently been detected here in the fleas of rats. Proceed with caution!!! Boy was I cautious! Couldn't believe that we still had Bubonic plague here.... BUT WE DO!

And when I set about clearing out the crawlspace to this house I was even more cautious! I cleared out a couple of rats nests that were 12' x 12' x 1' deep!  They'd been nesting under this house for about 40 years. I sprayed them several times with bleach water and suited up like I was going to Mars! Coveralls, headgear and a super filtered mask!

And I hope Edward Norton is reading this! Words of Wisdom! Thanks William.

Glad to hear this!