This is to be the closing blog post of the “2015 Mountaintop Adventure” (a rather pretentious title, I’m afraid) thread. After this it’ll be something more akin to “Allan’s personal life and its complications and joys…”.
On Monday evening, September 21st, I made it back to my little off grid home in East Lamy (lol) New Mexico. I like this little rented house, that I moved to in April when Johanna and I amicably and lovingly separated our domiciles.
I had gone to great lengths to protect my old Mercedes diesel, that I run on used sopapilla and chile relleno oil from a restaurant in Santa Fe (for eight years now!), from infestation by pack rats. I had:
– spread a box of mothballs around the interior, trunk and engine;
– left the hood up 6″ as conventional wisdom is that daylight on the engine discourages rats;
– installed a PV-powered LED light string in the interior, for the same reason;
– left on the seat a peppermint oil repellant;
– run a long extension cord to feed an ultrasonic rodent repellent;
probably seven or eight other steps that I have forgotten…
And this is what I found under the hood:
Here’s the car with a 2X6 to hold the hood up to allow light in.
And here’s what I found when I raised that hood.
It took me a couple of hours and lots of cactus thorns in my fingers to remove the pack rat nest. At first it was sticks, bark, cactus and rocks (lots of rocks…) but as I got deeper there was rat urine and rat feces and I began to worry as I donned a face mask too late: was I asking for hantavirus?
After a shower to wash off viral terminal mutant spores and other threats, I made a call to the hantavirus hotline at the CDC office in Atlanta. I learned to my relief that nationally, four species of mice are hantavirus carriers, and wood rats/pack rats are of a different genus that’s not known to carry the disease. So I exhaled mightily.
The engine started easioly and ran well: ah, the joys of a completely analog machine! The rat had chewed through a few wires, so the tachometer isn’t working, but at least the old machine is still available for reliable service.
I’m glad to be back in my little home. After a wonderful, productive and playful summer. I’m ready for a home base, my men’s circle, and building new community. To all of you (both of you may prove more accurate) who read this blog, thank you and good night.