Day 264

Jonathan got Grandma's heater hooked up in the basement. It seems to be able to keep it at least 40 degrees in there with these terrible cold outside temperatures. So that is very good.

We had a bit of excitement this afternoon. Merlin (our cat) has been going up to third floor alot. He likes it up there, but he also uses it as his hunting grounds. There are sometimes birds and bats up there. The last few days, I have been hearing sounds of a bird. But I haven't gone up to explore, as we have all of the windows covered with plastic I can't get them to go outside. So it will just have to find it's own way out or have fun with Merlin. The only thing I am slightly worried about is that when Merlin comes back down to second floor he opens the door. If we don't get out there to close the door, maybe the bird will come down. Well, now you might be able to guess at what our excitement was...

Jonathan was in the basement working on the heater, and the kids and I were in the tower room. I heard the bird, and it sounded like it was closer. So I went and peeked out the door. Sure enough the third floor door was open and Merlin was guarding the wall. The noises were clearing coming from behind this piece of drywall. So I headed down to the basement to get Jonathan.

Well, what we had was not a bird. It was a squirrel. As Jonathan was trying to get it. The squirrel went through the wall (like Merlin does) into the tower room. It walked right past the kids and went to hide in the corner. Merlin wanted to chase it. So I grabbed him and locked him in the bathroom as Jonathan chased the squirrel around the room. He finally did get it and carried it outside. When he put it down, he said it ran across the street as fast as it could.