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Thursday, July 03, 2008

Bats in the Attic!





It was a TWO bat night. Yep TWO. I guess bats are like mice? they run in...ummm....HERDS? Colonies? Gaggles? Yes. I like that one. Gaggles of bats. Okay. So Jeff comes knocking on the bedroom door this morning saying "Mom!You are NOT going to believe this! There is another bat in my room!" All I can think of is :::OH GROSS:::

The LARGE pic is from Ann's Blog. Seems she had a bat in her house the other day too! We have the Orkin Man come out quarterly and do his usual pest control thing. Last time came he asked if he could put "sticky traps" in tight places to catch spiders and the like. They are little cardboard tube things with sticky inside. Think of it as bug decoupage. Gross I know, but highly effective near doors and windows where creepy crawlers like to come in at night.

Jeff has one in his closet, near the attic opening in the wall. In it....a live bat was stuck and couldn't get out. OH EWWWWWWWWW! He said "Don't you want to see it? What should I do?" I said "NO WAY JOSE!!" So he proceeded to go down to his Dad's workroom in the basement for a pair of leather work gloves. He took the sticky trap and the bat outside, but he couldn't get the bat off the sticky. It was hopeless. The whole thing is just so YUCK! So...he had to put it out of it's misery and bury it. I am just so totally grossed out.


SO! To get my mind off of it I'm going to post about my thrifting adventures yesterday! I live in Wallburg, NC, which according to the WIKIPEDIA is located in Davidson County, North Carolina. It is incorporated, but was never recognized as a CDP by the US Census prior to its incorporation in 2004. SO! When I did a search on population for Wallburg NC, it said...ZERO! *LOL* I guess this is why my mailing address is Winston-Salem, but technically I'm in Wallburg. Funny thing...Walburg is SO small that it lists THESE Area Businesses, Schools, Churches:


Wallburg Elementary School, Wallburg Baptist Church, Vernon Forest Baptist Church, Shady Grove Un. Methodist, Tyco Electronics, NewBridge Bank, Wallburg Mulch, Food Lion, CVS, Dollar General, Little Richard's Barbecue, Wallburg Diner, Wendy's, Subway, China One, Domino's Pizza


That's about IT folks! I think there is also a mortuary, a dry cleaners,a gas station, a car wash, and a tanning salon. But really, what more do I need? The NC map shows Davidson County in Red. Wallburg is a speck in the middle of the red somewhere!

The post office, a cute white building attached to the Wallburg Diner, has a sign that reads WALLBURG MAIN POST OFFICE. Like there is any other? It's a one window hole in the wall (Wich I love greatly! Believe me! NO LINES!) But Main Post Office? *giggle*(this is another reason I need to remember to bring my camera with me on my jaunts!)

Where is this all leading? Oh yes..back to yesterday's junking and discovery road trip! I pretty much have to draw a 15 to 20 mile radius around me to get "anywhere". I'm smack-dab between Winston, Greensboro, Kernersville, Highpoint, and Thomasville. The nearest Bank of America is about 10 to 12 miles away in any direction. So instead of going to the same one all the time, I've been doing it Buffet Style and exploring!

You know how an airplane stewardess, uh, excuse me, flight attendant says "Please note that the closest exit may be BEHIND YOU?" That was how I came to discover that there is a little Bank of America about 12 miles from me in Thomasville. Mind you, I'd been going to the big conglomerate B of A in Winston,having to take the interstate,dealing with it's long drive up lines, etc. So....Thomasville it was. I'd never been THERE before.

No interstate...just a straight shot south on highway 109 and I was there in no time. And a bonus! I found the Goodwill, AND an antique mall! Oh joy! And since it was already past 3pm, I figured I could dawdle a bit.

I found a rocking chair for the living room for $35 that Oscar is here checking out. Behind him is a patchwork duck from an 1800's quilt that was a whopping $3.25.

I found a 40 piece SET of 1930's depression glassware...a MATCHED SET! For $50.00. That was my big expense for the day,but I have been wanting a matched set for so long, wondering how I could do it piece-meal! Now I have more dishes than I know what to do with, and they don't exactly go with my burlap insulated tumblers and mugs, but oh well! Its MY life, right? :cD


And this little ditty....How many yards of this ADORABLE CAT FABRIC are in this large jumper? It's 100% cotton and hasn't been washed or worn. $5.00!! But what really caught my eye is the buttons! Hand painted ceramic cat buttons! What kind of fun embellishments will these be? Not even sure what to do with them yet,but the cat fabric is too adorable, and I'm usually not into novelty fabrics.







So...have I distracted you from the thoughts of bats in the attic yet? Hmmmmmm.....

25 comments:

  1. You made me curious, so I googled it. A group of bats is a colony or a camp.

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  2. wouldn't have guessed you had "bats in your attic", but then who am I to judge since I swear we're all a little batty.... :-)

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  3. Once we accidently caught a chipmunk in one of those sticky traps trying to catch a mouse. Turns out the thing we saw scurrying quickly thru the house was not a mouse. I felt horrible a chipmunk is much cuter than a bat. I had to also put it out of its misery. It was sad. I would seriously freak if I came face-to-face with a bat.

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  4. Now, I'll kill anything unwanted in my house...but that's one reason I hate those sticky traps. They are unfortunately cruel, poor things get stuck and feel the adrenaline, panic and just have to suffer. Yuck, but glad they are gone and jeff put it out of it's misery!

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  5. I LOVE your matched set of depression glass dishes... good thing you found them first!

    Great find with the cat fabric/buttons ~ in fact, downright awesome find!

    I laughed out loud when I read your remark about "where's my camera" when the first bat made its appearance... I think that way, too!

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  6. You know - I'm afraid I think bats are cute. No distractions needed. (But then again, I've never had one in the house.)

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  7. If I told you they can eat 1,200 mosquito-sized insects an hour, would that make you feel any better? :) http://armyoffourdigest.blogspot.com/2007/08/guess-whos-back.html We have one who "summers" on our deck; I will admit I like them out there better than I liked them when they were in our attic at Ft. Riley. :)
    KZK

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  8. That should have been me, not my dogs.
    KZK

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  9. I love your dishes Bonnie. I got a early anniversary present yesterday. A 1943 cabinet with 1 long glass door, 2 shorter ones, a open space, 3 drawers and 3 doors on the bottom. I love, love, love it. It was expensive but my hubby is a doll. I hope the 2 bats is all that is in your house cause they sure look ugly.

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  10. Two, you said TWO bats?!? Hope they never find their way to my house. Creepy, guck.

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  11. Yes. You certainly distracted me from the bats. How come I never find anything so cool. And...I look! Honest, I do. Those buttons are awesome!
    Regina

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  12. Ya have my sympathy! I get creeped out by spiders....but the bats were cute....mind you I've got my class of 7 year olds three hermit crabs sitting in a tank in my bathroom for the duration of the school holidays. The glass is a fantastic find...and so cheap! The material and buttons were gr8 too! Retail therapy cures any woes doesn't it?

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  13. We had bats in the bedroom, I never knew how terrified of them I was until it was flying around your head at night! my tenant gave her notice a month later. We hired a pest control guy who went through the attic to locate their main entrance point, he then sealed up all the other possible holes with a wire mesh, and then put a one-way door for them made of more wire mesh. They could get out but not back in. Then at dusk we watched them fly out and hang on the side of the house for a couple of days and then they moved on. We have never had a bat inside since! Yes they do eat a lot of mosquitoes but they can carry rabies! Get rid of them if you can, they belong outside.

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  14. Hey Bonnie,

    Love the cat fabric and especially those buttons! You could use them as an embellishment on one of your house quilts. A cat (not bat) for every house!

    Cheers, Amy from Falls Church

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  15. well EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

    But I'm glad you were able to make for it with some wonderful shopping :o)

    Hugs,
    Nancy

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  16. Hi Bonnie,

    I am glad to hear you were able to get rid of the bats- they are not too pretty are they? Snakes and bats are not my favorite pets/ pests to have... Your shopping trip was a wonderful- I love the depression glass set( what a great price for a set)- My gran had some depression glass dishes and I think that my auntie has them. Your cat buttons are fabulous- you will be able to have fun with them!! I loved your rocking chair the most- it looks like an inviting place to come and sit for awhile.
    Enjoy a Wonderful Fourth of July.
    Regards,
    Anna

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  17. Love those kitty buttons!!!

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  18. a bat? had one in my attic once too, they like hot, dry places. he was a loner, thankfully, but still had to dispose of him somehow. well, took some easy-off oven cleaner and sprayed him with it, i guess it finished him because he never came back. i know, it was cruel, but had no $$ for exterminator for 1 bat, so had to resort to other measures. illegal to kill them, but nothing about spraying them. anyway, glad they are gone. lucky for you there weren't more as they tend to travel in herds, which is what I was told at the science center.

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  19. Wow. The kitty buttons alone are worth whatever you paid for that jumper!

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  20. I am freakishly afraid of bats, so I admit I skipped that part of your post! But you have some great finds in the last part!

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  21. Oh gosh, snakes, now bats - you are very very brave.

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  22. Bats in the attic. I guess it's better than bats in the belfry. LOL. Okay, I love, love, love depression glass. I have a collection of pink depression glass. What color are the dishes? I couldn't tell from the photo. I didn't think that anyone was selling anything affordable anymore, due to E-Bay. I guess I might have to jump in the car and take a drive up. Sorry about the bats. Renée

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  23. The snakes were probably after the bats! Our daughter and hubby had a basement apartment and one night he went to the bathroom... he heard something in the ceiling vent... it traveled across the hall via the vent and down into the area where the fresh air intake was (living room) and he could see it trying to get out! So he yells at my DD to come help! It's like 2 a.m. and she has no idea what's going on. Then he tells her and she is really freaked out! He wanted her to hold the box while he opened the vent! He was going to get it into a box and toss it outside! Later in the day she figured oh, well I will get the box off the grass now cause it will be empty! Ahem.... nope! She screamed all over again! Yep, I'm thinking you really need some very tight screening on your different access vents! You get too many creatures! At least your cats my help out in some of these instant's. LoL.... hmmmm moving to the country... makes you just want to run right and buy a place hmmmmm? Our neighborhood gets lots of skunks! I guess it could be worse.

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  24. I have that same jumper (with ceramic cat buttons) only my cat fabric has a cream background!

    I will probably chop into it when I do am ABC quilt for the Watering can....

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  25. As an organic gardener, I love bats - outside only though. They eat lots of pests. I'd *hate* to find one in the house.

    What a profitable impromptu shopping trip!

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