Thanks all for the Replies. I forgot to mention that this is my first year gardening, so I'm a bit on the beginner side. My first gardening area just turned out too small, then the second area wasn't enough. So I made a third, fourth and a fifth. I have crops all over the place (they do look great). That is why the fence idea was ruled out, just too much ground to cover. The other day, I caught him going into my shed. I closed the door on him and tried to figure out how I was going to remove him without having to kill it. Well, next thing I know, he somehow pushed the shed doors open (it was latched) and escaped. I have a burrow in my yard, I believe that the shed and my yard is their vacation home. Their place of residence is my neighbors yard. I could always lay stone all the way around my yard, but I would need a lot. (its at least close to 1000 feet of fence. I'm going to get a trap and trasfer them to a much nicer place far away from my garden.

I also bought a Hoover Windtunnel self propelled about 8 - 10 years ago. It worked great with an fresh bag in, but seemed to loose suction fast. I thought the machine was pretty good, and it was better than anything I'd owned up to that point. Then my daughter broke the self propelled mechanism, and that made it a drag to use, but I kept on for several more years. I bought something else, but it broke and it was still better to use the hoover than it. I finally broke down and bought a dyson animal. Was I amazed at what it sucked up. I now know that I should have been changing bags on that hoover twice each time I did a whole house vacuum. That is based on the amount of yuck I dump out of the dyson while cleaning. I don't find the weight an issue at all, but not being able to get under things is a drag. I've had the machine for about 7 years now and only cleaned it out good once, and it still sucks very well. And even sucking up things like pennies won't hurt it (no impellor). (BTW if you think the years don't add up it's because for a while I had two houses while we were trying to sell one- DH lived in one and I lived in the other, 400 miles apart). I have a few things that I still smile EVERY TIME I use them, and my dyson is one of them. I have been married over 30 years, and this is the first vacumn I've had that didn't end up being a disappointment after the first year. Every person can end up with different results - andersons loves their hoover compared to a dyson, and I think my hoover was a poor example of a vacuum compared to my dyson.

What a perfect package for Lars, and the potholders were even from Texas, what a great coincidence. I love the pie potholder Carol sent me, and the pizza one is just great too. The wine when Lars describes it sounds much better than "smoke, leather and tar", which is a very good thing, and the cookbook will be perfect. Good job Carol. Lars, enjoy everything. Annie

@Greatlakesmower, you are a genius! We had exactly the same problem, and it went on for years - a bad smell in a closet, that would come and go. There would be nothing for months or even a year and then, bam, dead animal smell again. I was up in the attic over the closet several times, and nothing. It happened again today and my wife thought to Google it and found your post. We realized that the smell isn't really dead animal (though it's close) - it's actually drywall patch compound that's getting heated up by the bulb! That stuff has a mild smell at room temperature, but it turns out when it gets hot, it's disgusting. We had a 100 watt incandescent bulb in the closet light fixture and swapped it out for a CFL. We're waiting for the smell to dissipate now, but we think our problem is solved, thank you!!!