Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of.........Pack Rats?!!!

We have had the most interesting 4th of July weekend ever. This one will go down in the history books for us. We started planning for a great weekend in the Uintahs with some friends, but at the last minute, our truck decided to start making funny noises. Long story short, we fixed it, but decided by Saturday afternoon that there really wasn't enough weekend left to head that far. I was bummed, but getting stranded with two kids would have gotten me really bummed, so I opted for just bummed. We ended up going to Kory's (Al's brother) for a bbq and had a great time with everyone on Saturday night. Luke loved the sparklers they shared with us. Well, we thought it would be fun it head to the cabin for an over-night adventure. Grandpa Shurtleff, my mil and Alex's aunts and uncles all own a cabin together up in Scare canyon at Monte Cristo. I really love it up there. I love it for being a real mountain experience and I feel like a pioneer when I'm there.

Cam and Al by the fire pit

The cabin is a small A-frame with one room and a small upstairs loft. No electricity, no plumbing, plank floorboards. It has this awesome stone fireplace that is huge, the term "hearth" probably fits it better. Its got a big hanger so you can boil water in a big pot over the fire if you want. Can you tell I love this hearth? Anyway, we went on Sunday after church and being the first one's up this year, the cabin needed to be cleaned. No one has been up there all winter and spring. So we open to door to find a very dusty room. There is poop on the floor, but that is expected of mice when they can get in and no one has been there to make them move out. So we start cleaning and sweeping and getting our beds up. There is no beds there, we just sleep on the floor. We opted to sleep right in front of the hearth to keep the kids warm and left the loft alone. We had a roaring fire and made smores before bed. I had gotten the kiddies ready for bed so everyone was asleep when I went to make my smores. I was enjoying my smores and watching the fire pop when I heard a bump. A BIG Bump. Next, some running. Bump. Bump. Thud. Scratch. Running. Well, I pride myself on not being much of a squeamish person. We live in the country and mouse traps are just a part of life out here. We knew there were mice in the cabin because we had been sweeping up their poop. But mice are harmless and leave when you come. You won't see them. This BUMP I was hearing was either the new world record holder for biggest mouse ever, or something much bigger. I know what mice sound like, I've heard them in the house before. These sounds are coming from the floor boards right above my head in the loft. The only place we had yet to explore this trip. Every horror movie I have ever seen, and some I have not seen, start flashing through my mind. Should I go investigate? I only have a teeny weeny flash light that is dim and needs new batteries bad. There are no lights. Just the fire. I can't go up there. That's what all the stupid people do in those movies and they die. Well all through this thought process of my next move I am still hear sounds from all over. Downstairs, upstairs, the woodpile, under the couch. This isn't just one something, it's multiple somethings. What to do. What to do. Got to pee. Should I wake up Al. No, cowgirl up, don't be a wuss. Just a mouse. Than I hear something running down the stairs. I am standing frozen in the middle of the room and I hear a noise to my right. I look up..................And scream a scream I didn't even know I was capable of. Alex jumped about ten feet in the air from a prone position on the floor, which I didn't know was possible.

I learned later that this little beauty is termed a Pack Rat. A huge, giant rat a little bigger than a squirrel. And yes, this is an actual photo that I snapped of it. Well, of one of them. I had seen it running at first. Here is one on the mantle. They would leave the room through a hole, climb the outside wall to the top and enter through a vent. Then we could here them running around upstairs and then run down the stairs and come back to the fire and stare at us some more. We then spent some time getting photos just in case no one believed us.

I knew that I was not going to be able to sleep. Then we had the added horror of realizing that they weren't afraid of us at all. They kept coming closer and closer. I kept adding wood to the fire. Remember, we had no lights. These pics are courtesy of the flash on our camera. The cabin was very dark. Then I see one run into the fire. Ya, into the fire. It ran across to coals like it didn't have a care in the world.

See the eyes glowing from the right corner of the hearth. Well, Alex admits to me that he had seen something run up the stairs when we first got there. But just figured it was a squirrel and that it would leave with us there. These rats were coming closer and closer. We had already decided that there was no way in heck we were staying there, sleeping on the floor. We set a record packing up camp. We pulled out at two in the morning and got home two hours later. We are returning later this week with reinforcements and a rat a-bomb that will vaporize them. This just may turn out to be our most memorable fourth of July ever. Pretty sad that we have better pics of a bunch of man-eating rats than of our kids!!!