Gopher Revenge

I must say I'm loving the weather here.  Cool down to 45 at night and only up to the low 70's during the day.  Mostly I love it because neither my heater nor AC units are running causing my electrical bill to skyrocket.   Especially in light of the fact that PG&E is now going to charge everyone in the state for the cost of the lawsuit they lost over the fire that burned down an entire town.  

Anyhoo .... I wandered out in the back yard to double check on the ant hills.  Yup they are still GONE!!  Wait .... what's this?  Another gopher hole, this time in the flower bed.  

And another .... and ANOTHER!!  FIVE GOPHER HOLES!!!  It's the revenge of the gophers for flooding their little castle in the grass.  There were so many holes, I thought it might be the skunks.  Nope ... it's gophers.  

So I stomped on each and ever one, finding the line between holes and smashing them with relish!!  Now I have all these depression trails in the flower bed.  Oh well, better than gophers.  And so the NEW war begins!!!!  I've no idea how to fight these guys other than watering them until they move to my neighbor's house.  You know, they are just too cute to come to some demise.

Much as I dislike going to Home Depot, it was time.  I think it has to do with the fact that you park at the ENTER door, walk clear to the far end of the store to find your items, check yourself out (only one cashier here) and go out the OUT door to find you are parked clear across the parking lot at the ENTER door.  I walk at least a mile every time I go there.

THIS time I parked at and went in the OUT door.  They don't care for that much ... going against the grain and all.  They also said I had to wear a mask, so I put it on and pulled it down under my chin.  The sign didn't say I had to wear it on my face.  I know, I'm a rebel.

I spent the rest of the day ... literally like 5 hours ... cleaning out the cracks in the shower walls.  This was an epic job requiring the use of a grout brush and a hair dryer.

Once super clean (and I knew very dry) I re-caulked the outside seams.  Luckily I didn't cut off too much of the tip and did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself, only because I read the directions that said to cut the tip at an angle.  

I even got pretty good at smoothing with my finger.  Sadly, that finger had my longest nail on it, which is now stuffed like a jalapeño with cream cheese.  Boy is that caulking hard to get off!  By the time I got done, I had it all over my fingers, palms and even my elbows.  It peals your skin off when you discover it after having dried.  Ask me how I know!! 

My repair job looks 100% better than before and since it's especially made for bathrooms, guaranteed to be waterproof, it should do the trick.  When it dries, I will begin the mega chore of cleaning the tile grout and sealing it not once, but twice with this stuff.  

Hmmmm I better read the directions to see if this is waterproof.  I forgot to check.  I'm also VERY happy that the other shower is in a bathtub that does NOT need to be caulked.

I wonder if gophers have all these housing repairs since their little abode got wet in the last flash flood!!  The weather forecast says there will be more flooding VERY soon!!