Canada Geese are the only ones enjoying Britannia Beach in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Cancun, Mexico on November 1st.

Friday, June 9, 2017

Rodent problems

We're fortunate to have central air conditioning in the old mobile home that we live in here at the park. It sure does make things a little more comfortable when the temperature gets up over 28C (81F) or so. Although, we never had air conditioning at home, so we know that we could get by without it if we had to.

Good thing, because we thought we were going to have to get by without it.

It was working fine the other day, when I noticed that it was getting cooler than it should be. I went over and checked the thermostat, and it was at the right temperature, so I figured I would just turn it off. I flicked the on/off switch at the bottom that turns the whole thing off... and nothing happened! Everything kept running as it was.

Hmm. That's strange. I figured the thermostat had given up, so I shut things down at the main breaker box.

The next day was also warm, so I turned it on again, using the breaker. It ran fine, and I was sitting in my seat near the window beside where the vent for the a/c unit is. There are two fans in the system, and I heard one of them shut off. The other one kept running, but that is not the way it should be. Both fans need to run at the same time.

Huh. So I went and shut it all down, again using the breaker.

We were not about to call someone in to fix this because it's just not worth it to us. Like I said, we can live without a/c if we have to. Besides, there's talk about replacing this old trailer so we don't want to spend the parks money on it if we don't have to.

But yesterday, I decided to see if there was anything I could fix myself. So I went out and took the main unit apart do I could get at the wiring.

Yikes!

Something had been in there feasting on the wires. No idea what, but it seemed to me that it had to be bigger than a mouse. Being in the car business, I've seen what kind of damage mice can do to car wiring, but I've never seen wires chewed up quite this much! Not sure what it is that attracts rodents to this kind of thing, but they sure do make a mess.

Then I also found this. These are the wires leading from the thermostat.

So I replaced all the wires, and fired things up. Once again the fans work perfectly, so the a/c is in fact working. But for some reason, the thermostat still doesn't work. There must be another break somewhere, probably under the house. I'm not ambitious enough to go crawling under there, so it can stay the way it  is. At least it's working. And as I said, we can live without it if we have to.

The other day, Ruth spotted this interesting bird beside the highway...



Anybody know what it  is... ?

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17 comments:

  1. It looks like a black bird with a yellow head, so I have strong reason to beieve it is a Yellow-headed Blackbird ;)

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  2. LOL... and so it is! Well, that was easy...

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    Replies
    1. Too bad you didn't ask me first because I knew what it was! I had looked it up a year or two ago when I saw one for the first time.

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  3. Mice can be cute and all, but I like them better when they're beady little eyes are peering back at me from the business end of a mouse trap. Had one in my garage/shop a while back, chewed up half a box of tissue and took it through a couple of the drawers. Helluva mess. No wires involved though. He/she went on to mousy heaven.

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    Replies
    1. Yep, they sure do make a mess! As much as we hate to say it, we like to see them in the our traps and not in running around in the house trailer.

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  4. It's time to have a couple of bull snakes move in 😀

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    Replies
    1. I mentioned that the other day in my reply to your comment. If I could be certain that it wouldn't slither into bed with me, I just might consider it. :-)

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  5. Did you check the batteries on the a/c thermostat? I used to work for a/c shop and most of the time it was battery related.

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    Replies
    1. There are no batteries in the thermostat, it is hard wired because it is the original one from like 1978 when they didn't have battery operated ones.

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  6. Almost have to set a booby trap to electricute the little buggers before they get to the wires.
    We use the Victor Electronic Rodent Repellers and have seen the little buggers towards our trailer, stop about twenty feet away start rubbing their ears then head to someone else's RV. They do work.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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    Replies
    1. We had looked into those a year or two ago and decided it wouldn't work so well here. First off we would need a bunch of them because they are only good for a certain sized area and the house trailer is quite large plus they plug in which won't help keep them out of the trailer when we close up in the fall, as we turn off the power to the trailer. Still maybe we will have to look at these again.

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  7. Good luck with your Rodent problem, we lived years without air conditioning and to this day we seldom use ours.

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    1. Even here at the park, we only use the A/C when we really need it and we never use it at night. When we are in the motorhome, like you we rarely ever use it.

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  8. I've never been able to understand why mice like to chew on wires so much. Silly creatures :-)

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    1. Nope don't understand it either, it's not like the core of the wire is made of chocolate! ;-)

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  9. Those are yellow-headed blackbirds; aren't they stunning? I guess it was some kind of rodent that chewed up the wires. Danged rodents can really be a pain.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, they are stunning and so far Saskatchewan is the only place that we have seen them and only in the last four years.

      Definitely a rodent chewing on the wires and we have caught lots of mice but we think that it might have been something a little bigger that did this damage. :-(

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