Does this make me a bad mother?

Let me just start right off and say... this wouldn't have happened if I was in the correct state of mind. But I can't be held accountable as I was feverishly shaking way over to the side trying to keep myself from screaming.

So anyways, my job right now is to take 3 bails of hay out of the newly built garage and put them in the cow feeders. Cut the twine off the bails and pour 1/2 a bucket of grain on top. I can do that. No problem.


My husband said, if the hay ends up on the ground, make sure and scoop it up and put it back in the feeder. As you can see in the above picture, hay on the ground. So I carry the pitch fork over and start a scooping. I think I was even singing "whistle while you work" (not really but it shows the happy pleasant state of mind I was in to say that). Just as I get to the end of the hay, holy crude! A mouse! It ran out of the hay and under the boards that Mark has propped up off the concrete (these boards are to build a roof over the feeder). The only reason I didn't faint right there was because as soon as I would have hit the ground, I am sure that mouse would have come over and latched itself to my face. Just to illustrate how hideous I looked and sounded, here are our cows looking at me wondering "what in the tarnation is going on?"


I don't do mice. I can do snakes, I can do spiders, but I don't do mice! (ask my mom to tell you about the time we found a mouse at grandmas house. All I am going to say is, Wendi isn't a very good wacker while mom is sweeping it out of hiding) After shoving my fist in my mouth and screaming while trying to figure out how to get back to the house, I gather reinforcements.


Yep, you guessed it. Lucky our dog and Sidney my 6 year old. I convinced her to take the pitchfork (YES, I know it is dangerous! But if I die there is no one to fix the children dinner!) and swipe it under the boards to scare the mouse out. Lucky then was assigned to grab said mouse and make it as nonexistant as possible. Great, everyone has their assigments. And I, Mom, would instruct from a safe distance.



Pitchfork wasn't working, so we had Sidney come over and get an old broom handle. That seemed to get under the boards better. Go Sidney! Go Lucky! Get the Mouse!



Uhmmm when someone *cough* Lucky *cough* was busy at the other end, the horrible, nasty spawn of satan shot out from under the boards and into some long pipes. Poor Sidney then had to put the broom handle in each pipe and shake it, hoping to dislodge the mouse and once again, Lucky was to grab it. See how well this is working. Our hunting dog isn't even at the end of the pipe to get the mouse when it runs out!


Can you believe, even with the best laid plans, that thing got away. It wasn't until a few minutes later I realized that there wasn't really one mouse, there were TWO! Which means even at this very moment they are breeding. From what I have read, mice can have babies every 25 days and have anywhere from 7-12 in a litter. I have 5 more days to feed the cows. I think I need to go throw up.