Something's underfoot!

  When Hurricane Katrina dumped about a ton of lumber in our yard, we could have done what most folks did and burn the stuff.  Instead, Mark and I decided to clean, stack and reuse as much of the lumber as we could.  While some of the lumber went relatively unscathed, a lot of it was broken or splintered.  These boards were not fit to be used in any building projects so I decided that we were in dire need of a board path leading down the hillside.  A lot of the planks I used were old pier boards making them too short to use in most building projects but as path boards, they were perfect.  There were even a few pieces of piers or decks still intact.  These, I used to terrace the hillside.  The board path has served well all of these years since the hurricane whipped through here.  I have had to only replace a plank now and again.  The terrace platforms have had no problems whatsoever....until now.

  After a night of torrential rains pounding the Little Bayou House, I decided to scoot myself down the hillside to check the skiff.  We have an automatic pump that is supposed to keep the boat free from water but occasionally, it is not so "automatic".  The pump gets a tad contrary and refuses to pump.  As Ms. Ez, the Bayou Dog, and I made our way out the front gate and down the first terrace, all was fine.  It was that second platform that looked a bit strange.  Right in the middle of the thing, a hole had been gnawed!  Sometime during all that rain, a critter decided it needed a new house!  I would not have complained as much if the animal had decided to make its door on the side but, noooo, this critter gnawed right through the middle of the platform!  Now my walkway had a hole as big as my fist!  Geez! Herein lies the problem. What critter wants to live under my path?  It is highly unlikely that this is a squirrel as they are tree-dwellers (except for the ones that insist trying to house themselves in my attic!) and they are diurnal.  This hole was chewed during the night.  That leaves the most obvious critter to be a RAT!  Ugh!  I had noticed a colony of rice rats living in the palmetto clumps this past summer.  I had hoped that they would shy away from moving so close to the house but it seems to be their intent on seeking higher ground.  (Should I be worried about the fact of rats moving uphill?  Perhaps they know something that I do not?  Is our water level going to rise?)  

  But, back to the rats and their choice of dwelling.  I am now presented with the difficult task of prying up the platform and eradicating the area of rice rats.  This will not be a fun chore!  Besides, where are those two cats that call the Bayou home?  Why are they not doing their job?  And Ms. Ez?  Shouldn't she at least be interested that some rodent is underfoot each time she heads down the hill?  I think my animal friends are a mite lazy!  It will be up to Son and me to fight the infestation of whatever critters that are living under the walkway.  Not fun...not fun, indeed.