biglar155
Jetboaters Admiral
- Messages
- 1,577
- Reaction score
- 2,142
- Points
- 277
- Location
- Fredonia, WI
- Boat Make
- Yamaha
- Year
- 2009
- Boat Model
- SX
- Boat Length
- 23
Now here's a pretty sight:
My new-to-me Expedition hooked up to the boat.
Gotta love it when the rig matches the boat.
We didn't go on the road with it, so I can't truly comment on towing capabilities (other than that it felt very strong at "parking lot" speeds).
I was hooked up because Chris and I spent hours this morning cleaning out our storage unit (15' X 40') of mouse droppings. What a mess.
It all started late last summer when I found a mouse poo in the boat. Just one little poo. I immediately set traps in the boat and within a day or two I had him.
Having dealt with mice before I should have known that this was no where near "it" but for some reason I'm a slow-learner.
I found a few more signs of mice in the unit but nothing serious. "Probably just passers-by" I though. (Yeah, right.)
Fast-Forward a bit to November when I went up to get my outdoor Christmas ornaments. EVERY box had mouse droppings in them. One had a partial nest. The Electric Pig (wire-frame fabric covered pig wearing a scarf and Santa hat) was loaded with mouse poop. The happy candy-cane bearing bear had a hole chewed in his butt.
Of course you realize THIS means war!
I headed to Fleet Farm and bought an armload of mouse-traps and D-Con. Within hours the entire storage unit was a minefield of mouse traps and poison.
As I was setting the traps, I heard one spring. Based on where the sound came from, it was the one I was having a hard time setting. "Dang. That stupid thing popped on its own again" I thought. The next thing I heard was the sound of a trap being dragged slowly across the floor. Eeww. "I think I'll just let him finish what he's doing." (I came back an hour later to dispose of the carcass.)
I normally store the boat with the stern portion of the cover lifted off the swim-deck to allow some airflow under it. This of course exposes said swim platform and would allow for mice to board if they climbed up a wall. Have you ever seen one of those "chain reaction simulations" with a room who's floor is literally covered in mouse-traps and they toss in a golf ball? That's what my swim deck looked like. If one of those little b@$!@rds had climbed up there he'd have bounced 7 or 8 times on traps before he died. Luckily, they left the boat alone.
Every week I'd head up to check my trap-line and every week I'd find 2-4 dead mice and a couple of my trays of D-Con would be emptied out. (D-Con is getting expensive which is making it expensive to feed a family of mice nowadays.) I'd reset the traps and put out more D-Con. (Luckily, they were leaving the unit to die as I never did find any dead mice in there.)
Within a month or so things settled down and I was only getting one or two every couple of weeks.
I realized that they were coming in in the gaps between the toe-plate of the wall and the siding. I wanted to use some Great Stuff to seal the gaps but was worried about trying to use it in sub-50 Degree temperatures. It finally warmed up a few weeks ago so I went up and sealed up the gaps both inside my unit and on the outside of the building.
Today we emptied the entire unit out (two boats, a utility trailer, a bunch of Christmas yard ornaments, some shelving units, and a few odd yard implements), swept the whole place out (thank God for sweeping compound or we'd have been covered in who-knows-what from the dust) and, most importantly, put things back in "summer mode" which means the sailboat is tucked in the back of the unit and the powerboat is up front ready at a moment's notice.
Luckily it was a cool day today, but it was still a lot of work.
On the plus side, I was able to get some "backing up" practice in with the new tow vehicle so I was happy about that. I REALLY like the back-up camera for lining up with the hitch. No more guesswork there (I normally hook up alone). I think the Expedition turns a little sharper than the Suburban did because I felt like I had a little more maneuverability. It may have been my imagination though.
So that was one of the major jobs on the list that had to get done before boating season opens at our house.
Next up is scupper replacement.
I need to get rolling because the natives are getting restless. Yesterday my wife came home from Costco with a $200 three-person tow-able. This is unheard of in our house as we typically discuss any purchase that even approaches $100.
Clearly I'm not the only one who wants to get on the water.
My new-to-me Expedition hooked up to the boat.
Gotta love it when the rig matches the boat.
We didn't go on the road with it, so I can't truly comment on towing capabilities (other than that it felt very strong at "parking lot" speeds).
I was hooked up because Chris and I spent hours this morning cleaning out our storage unit (15' X 40') of mouse droppings. What a mess.
It all started late last summer when I found a mouse poo in the boat. Just one little poo. I immediately set traps in the boat and within a day or two I had him.
Having dealt with mice before I should have known that this was no where near "it" but for some reason I'm a slow-learner.
I found a few more signs of mice in the unit but nothing serious. "Probably just passers-by" I though. (Yeah, right.)
Fast-Forward a bit to November when I went up to get my outdoor Christmas ornaments. EVERY box had mouse droppings in them. One had a partial nest. The Electric Pig (wire-frame fabric covered pig wearing a scarf and Santa hat) was loaded with mouse poop. The happy candy-cane bearing bear had a hole chewed in his butt.
Of course you realize THIS means war!
I headed to Fleet Farm and bought an armload of mouse-traps and D-Con. Within hours the entire storage unit was a minefield of mouse traps and poison.
As I was setting the traps, I heard one spring. Based on where the sound came from, it was the one I was having a hard time setting. "Dang. That stupid thing popped on its own again" I thought. The next thing I heard was the sound of a trap being dragged slowly across the floor. Eeww. "I think I'll just let him finish what he's doing." (I came back an hour later to dispose of the carcass.)
I normally store the boat with the stern portion of the cover lifted off the swim-deck to allow some airflow under it. This of course exposes said swim platform and would allow for mice to board if they climbed up a wall. Have you ever seen one of those "chain reaction simulations" with a room who's floor is literally covered in mouse-traps and they toss in a golf ball? That's what my swim deck looked like. If one of those little b@$!@rds had climbed up there he'd have bounced 7 or 8 times on traps before he died. Luckily, they left the boat alone.
Every week I'd head up to check my trap-line and every week I'd find 2-4 dead mice and a couple of my trays of D-Con would be emptied out. (D-Con is getting expensive which is making it expensive to feed a family of mice nowadays.) I'd reset the traps and put out more D-Con. (Luckily, they were leaving the unit to die as I never did find any dead mice in there.)
Within a month or so things settled down and I was only getting one or two every couple of weeks.
I realized that they were coming in in the gaps between the toe-plate of the wall and the siding. I wanted to use some Great Stuff to seal the gaps but was worried about trying to use it in sub-50 Degree temperatures. It finally warmed up a few weeks ago so I went up and sealed up the gaps both inside my unit and on the outside of the building.
Today we emptied the entire unit out (two boats, a utility trailer, a bunch of Christmas yard ornaments, some shelving units, and a few odd yard implements), swept the whole place out (thank God for sweeping compound or we'd have been covered in who-knows-what from the dust) and, most importantly, put things back in "summer mode" which means the sailboat is tucked in the back of the unit and the powerboat is up front ready at a moment's notice.
Luckily it was a cool day today, but it was still a lot of work.
On the plus side, I was able to get some "backing up" practice in with the new tow vehicle so I was happy about that. I REALLY like the back-up camera for lining up with the hitch. No more guesswork there (I normally hook up alone). I think the Expedition turns a little sharper than the Suburban did because I felt like I had a little more maneuverability. It may have been my imagination though.
So that was one of the major jobs on the list that had to get done before boating season opens at our house.
Next up is scupper replacement.
I need to get rolling because the natives are getting restless. Yesterday my wife came home from Costco with a $200 three-person tow-able. This is unheard of in our house as we typically discuss any purchase that even approaches $100.
Clearly I'm not the only one who wants to get on the water.
