There have been nights when we've been awakened by rustling sounds coming from the bathroom walls. Faint scratchy scurrying noises, like those of little feet movement.  Then the nights went quiet and for months nothing happened.  Some nights I sleep in the spare room because I toss and turn, thrash, throw pillows on the floor, and sleep with the ceiling fan on.  My sleep has become restless with the RA.   Lately, I've been awakened around 11:30 by a rustling noise in the laundry room.  I told Cliff it sounded like someone moving objects around, shifting things.  Things that really did go bump in the night.   Some nights the sounds were so vivid I would sit up with eyes wide expecting to see a form standing in the bedroom doorway.  Of course we suspected a varmint, not a small troublesome child, was trying to take up residence due to the recent flooding conditions, but there were no traces of droppings to be seen. During the day the walls were quiet.  Until..............one morning as Cliff sat reading his QST magazine in the bathroom, door slightly ajar, a tiny head appeared under the door, spotted him and scurried away.  Time to put steel wool in any and all holes where his radio wires and coaxial cables come into the house.  To plug the hole in the spare room closet, we had to pull out the large plastic zip bag that held a comforter with bed skirt and found a stockpile of birdseed in the folds of the comforter.  After shaking the comforter over the back porch, I sprayed a peppermint mixture around the closets, baseboards, and left peppermint-soaked cotton balls in the laundry area.  The steel wool plugs and peppermint spray seemed to do the trick as the only night noises I hear now is the occasional snoring and clunking from the ice-maker.

On the raw cold days that we don't care if we venture out, it's a good time for baking and cleaning out storage containers or junk drawers.  This started with the simple task of straightening up an accumulation of rags in the laundry area, pitching dried-up shoe polish cans, etc. At the bottom of a basket that holds plastic gloves and other items that have no home, I came across a mess of little round bird seeds.  I figured I must have accidentally spilled some when I placed the bag on the dryer to vacuum the floor around the washer/dryer.  From there I decided to pull out a drawer containing appliance manuals, installation instructions, and warranties and throw out those manuals for items we've updated or no longer own.  Under that stack of manuals was another stash of little round seeds and some larger sunflower seeds.  Seems our little visitor had been busy quietly placing reserves of food all over the house.  I can't imagine where else I'll find his cache.  I wonder if he's a "prepper" or a survivalist.