Plague of Worms

Last night was a windy mess. It was the kind of day when I wish to have a wind turbine to generate free electricity. Because it has been reasonably warm I didn't close the barn doors. When the wind started howling and the rain began blowing sideways and shaking the house I woke up and worried about it. I tend to worry about things I cannot change on a general basis. Ok, I could have gone down to the barn at 3:30 in the morning when the wind was threatening to blow the house off the hill, but I didn't want to.

So this morning I was apprehensive as to what I would find when I got to the barn. I slept in (8:00) as I had been awake during the night for a few hours listening to the wind and worrying. I wish I had taken my camera as the whole front part of the barn was covered in worms. Not tens of worms, but hundreds of worms. A plague of worms, if you will.

After doing the usual clean up in the stalls and letting the horses out, I had to sweep the wee little beasties out the door. Sadly most of them were on exposed concrete and had mostly dried to a not quite crispy yet not fully functional mess. I tried not to make it worse, but really, I wasn't going to pick up each one and carefully place them in the dirt. They had been blown in about 15 feet into the barn and 10 feet on either side of the doors.

When sweeping them out of the tack and feed room portion of the barn I noticed that most of the mouse traps had been sprung when the wind had flipped them over. I have a preference in mouse traps. I like the ones that kill them dead and have a large piece of faux cheese as the trigger. Setting them is tricky, but I wear gloves. This makes it harder to do yet less painful when it snaps ME.

One of the traps held a dead mouse and so I dumped him in the trash and reset the trap. Sure, you can dump the whole thing and not touch anything, but, once again, I wear gloves and I am cheap. They cost about 50 cents each! I must admit that when I haven't found the dead mouse until a few days have passed and it is a disgusting mess, I do toss the trap with the mouse. Not THAT cheap.

As I was sweeping mostly dead worms and disposing of a very dead mousie I was thinking of my breakfast up at the house just waiting for me. Yes, an Atkins bar is breakfast if that is all you eat in the morning! Is there something wrong with me that I am not grossed out by gross things? Or is it good that I am turning into a country girl and not squeamish about silly things? All I know is, I won't be butchering a hog anytime soon. Not quite there yet.