DAMN MICE!!!!! Part 2

You may remember the mouse nest in my fan shroud a while back.

Tonight I discovered mouse nests in both of my heater boxes!

Man, I hate to think about where else on the engine they may have nested. I probably should check the frame tubes too.

DAMN MICE!!!

...might want to cover your exhaust tip also, to prevent shooting out a mouse as if it were in a 'potatoe launcher' (I'm guessing Alan has some diabolical experiences regarding potatoe launchers he's built). ;-)

One lazy summer day my roommates and I decided to make a spudgun, what an engineering marvel it turned out to be! We never put mice in it though.

Jim,
Never got into fabricating a spud gun..
..I am a big fan of watching "Pumpkin Chunkin" (Delaware) Guys and gals launch special grown white pumpkins with catapults and huge air guns that have to be mounted on a truck!

Chris and his buddies built a nifty Spud Gun - fired it with Oxy-Acetylene mix.

That puppy could lob a spud close to 1/2 mile across the salt marsh behind our house!!

Good thing we weren't home when they were shooting it 8>|

'Course, when I was a kid, we built one to lob Bud cans - half-filled the can with water, stuffed it onto a styro-foam cup and pushed it down into the cannon (press fit), already charged with Oxy-Acetylene. Shot them WAY out there, along with a huge Boom!, flame tongue, etc.

After about six of those, we shot it off and suddenly I couldn't hear anything...nothing but ringing... Hearing came back in a couple of days (after the ringing subsided) and I've never shot one off near me since...

Got my riding mower out last Spring and, when it wouldn't immediately start, I found a mouse condominium inside the fan shroud of my trusty 12 hp Briggs and Stratton. I think five or six were in there - had little mouse realty signs and all, trying to attract more to join them.

Alan- It's funny you should mention it-- Punkin' Chuckin' weekend is coming up here in Central Illinois later this month. There are several teams of engineers from Caterpillar with SERIOUS pumpkin cannons (range? nearly a mile), and our high-school physics class always has an entry in the trebuchet/catapult class. It's huge fun, and about a mile from my house.

I hate the little suckers!!!! we had them years ago up in our attic, they would run like hell in the middle of the night and cause havoc up there , I would wake up all freaked out in the middle of the night just thinking about them...they are dirty little pests. ~Esther

Stan ,

Keep us posted, I'm sure it is of interest to most!




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG7nNedoQNI&mode=related&search=

Michael - maybe you can borrow a snake from the local reptile/pet shop and have it patrol your garage!

Stan - a mile from the Punkin Chuckin event. You're within range so you might want to keep a lookout for stray pumpkins heading your way!

Michael, my great-grandmother used to chew on Juicy Fruit gum for a minute or two, and then use it to bait mouse traps. Same method for moles, rats ... it was an Iowa farm, and she swore the rodents couldn't stop chewing and starvation killed them even if the trap didn't.
Whatever, right? But she was Methuselah old, like Lane's age, and she had survived the depression. Apparently it works. Worth a shot?

circa 1959: State Highway ran right down main street in our small town in upstate New York. Town Marshal parked in the shadows, waiting for out of state speeders. He usually fell asleep in the car, because he usually drinks on the job. We sneak up, and stuff a big potatoe waaaaay up into the tailpipe. Then we got Lynn to pull the cap off his muffler bypass and make a full throttle run right past him. We are all hiding in the bushes laughing our ass off as the marshal tries to get his car started (flooded it so bad you could smell gas everywhere). He finally killed the battery and had to call a tow. We just casually happened by the only gas station in town to observe repair procedures. It was a couple days later before they finally had the car running again. The whole town heard about it and laughed. Our parents never even asked any of us about it - I think they somehow knew. I know this sounds like something out of the movie "American Graffiti", but it's all true. I know - I was there!

In the same town we had a Civil war era cannon mounted in a park and aimed right down main street. A couple years earlier, the senior class actually succeeded in firing a black powder round down the deserted main street! The town council had the gun barrel plugged in short order. But that is another story . . .

Ever dump two very large cartons of FAB detergent into a huge three tiered fountain ? ....Great opening scene for a Disney movie !

It happened at the men's dorm where I lived at Syracuse Univ. It fact it happened just about every time they had a home football game. It was the geeks getting even with the jocks.