Interesting title but I am definitely an animal lover though I am not too keen about encountering a bear or cougar in my yard!! But rats! Years ago I had several nice paphs and one day I discovered most of them had been eaten down to the roots!! It turned out a neighbor's boy had dumped his rats into my yard and they found their way into my greenhouse and had something to eat!! I used traps. But over the course of the years I learned that the best rat catcher was not a cat but a possum, who also eats slugs. I also have leanred about using nonlethal tactics to protect your plants. That is just leave food in an area regularly that is away from the plants. However with the arrival of raccoons forget all the above!! Not only do they make a mess of things but much of the time it is done in sheer play, even carrying off my doormat and tossing it around!! So I just let it go. Plants are nice but I am adverse to killing animals who are hungry and dealing with situations that have been and are being created by the ineptitude of man.

PLEASE HELP ME!!!! I moved in my home three years ago and the first winter I had these exact critters and their screech is loud and creepy as well as their living IN MY HOME!! I was able to rid of them with poison(not my first choice or my normal humane way of ridding rodents) and they were gone with in a week. Yet they are back two yrs later and are not at all afraid to come out at any time of day right there in frount of you, sit with you and be an anoyance. I do not want to put poison out (not only because it is inhumane, but because I have a small Chihuahua and cat that I worry about.) PLEASE HELP!! I am desperate for any advice with getting them out of my home! My cat, THE MOUSER, will not go near it and that just makes me wonder what kind of diseses they have, Im literally grossed right out here. Please help!!!!!!!!!!! ANYONE?????

e4849: The "counter" in the upper right is actually a placeholder for a desk and it's one area that we're not really sure what it will become. We'll have a guest room that will be an office for us, so I don't think a desk off the kitchen area will get much use. However (not shown on the plan), we are having our cabinet maker add shelving as a base for an antique map chest and that will go beside the desk. The door to the right of that leads out to the deck/hot tub. The closet is a broom closet. The mudroom IS large but we live in Montana during the winter, with lots of ski gear, coats, boots and guests so we feel we need the hooks and bench in the outer mudroom (the one that's labeled), and the coat closet that's in the unlabeled room. There will be additional hooks and something to sit on in that room also. We wanted a fairly large laundry area that has a long work counter for crafts and fly-tying. My list of appliance usage is identical to yours for the first 4 items. 5. Cooktop - daily 6. Pantry - daily (several times per day since it's for both food and lesser-used dishes) 7. Oven - 1 or 2 times per week I really like the idea of moving the DW to the other side of the sink to spread out some of the activity. I am amazed at how clearly you've identified the traffic issues and come up with a simple solution! It's an easy fix since the cabinets haven't been started. Judydel: I'm so glad to hear that you're happy with the GE single/double oven! I'm still a bit uneasy about jumping into it but when I think about why I'm hesitant it's because of resale, not because I think we'd be unhappy with it. And after decades of doing it, I'm tired of making decisions based on guessing what other people might want! Assuming the oven still works if we ever sell this house and it's a sticking point for buyers, I'll deal with it then. I'm pretty sure the size will work for us. And I just have to add, yours is a mighty clean oven - I hope mine will be so picture perfect! Montana

Hey everyone, I wanted to post a quick update about the area. The Earth Angel is emerging more slowly than my other hostas but it looks like it's doing okay at least. With everything else out of the way, it's clear that it's growing right on top of (and in some cases, intertwined with) the tree roots. In the 3rd picture especially, you can see how much more tight the area is compared to the surrounding soil. Of course, it grew to it's current size without any help from me despite competing with the tree plus the royal standard and other Earth Angel. My question is, will this continue to be an okay spot for it? 4/20 4/26 4/27 5/1