Enough is enough!

So...I have had enough! These flippin mice and rats are making a fool of me. The traps have been set for weeks but every night they rattle and rustle about and avoid the traps completely.Some have even managed to nibble all the bait without the traps going off. Today we found a mint slice half nibbled."Keep that half biscuit" I said, "I'll mix it in with some new bait.""Too late" said Will, "I've eaten it.""What?!" I couldn't believe he had eaten a biscuit tainted with mouse spit!"You English people just don't embrace Nature," he said.It was the last straw...when they start eating my biscuits it is a step too far. I suspect I know how Kim Jong Un feels with Trump's battleship poking it's bow in from the Pacific.I bought a couple of new traps today and I cleaned out the old ones and I googled the perfect bait for rats and mice. They like peanut butter, chocolate, cheese, maple syrup, sausage and bacon bits. I mixed together a concoction of them all, except the bacon bits and bound it together with a bit of rice flour. I read if you stick a peanut in the gooey bait the rodent has to apply more pressure to get it out and hopefully there is more chance of it setting the trap off. I have some humane traps set too so it is a bit of a lottery between Life and Death but either way I am determined to put an end to these nightly mouse parties in my house!

Woah!

So...we are at the beginning of the second week of the second term and apart from my day at the local school last week I heard nothing about work elsewhere.What a difference a day makes...I have heard from three schools today and have booked in another 10 and a half days of work in the coming months. I had to turn one school down because I was double booked but there is still a possibility they will call me for four days. It was a school I have not been to yet. They had heard about me from the school near the cheese factory. They wanted me for the first three weeks of term three but I am already at Stanthorpe for the first two weeks."I'm sorry," I said, "but please keep me in mind if anything else comes up.""Oh, I will" said the administrator, " and I might just ring you up just to listen to your lovely accent again.""Oh, anytime," I laughed.It is very easy to say yes to these requests it is another thing when the actual days get closer! At least most of them are in Prep, although I have another day in Year 5/6 in the next fortnight. Ooh er!

Building firm foundations for the future.

Green Hood Orchid

Photos by Will.

Hi Ho!

So...yesterday I started my new one day a week job down at the local school. I was incredibly nervous about it and spent hours on Wednesday planning for it....(which is something I have not done for ages!)For the first two hours of the day I was and will be, every Thursday, in the Year 2 and 3 class. I will mainly be teaching them Science and yesterday we finished off some work they had doing previously on the Life Cycle of Butterflies and, as this is Australia, Crocodiles. We talked about the Life Cycle of a Frog as next week they have to do a Science Assessment task writing about it.The morning passed fairly easily and quickly and the boy in the class with behaviour problems stayed at his desk and worked the whole time.After Morning Tea I was in the Prep / Year 1 class until the end of the day. I am going to be doing History and Geography with them as well as some spelling and handwriting. Yesterday, following the Australian Curriculum, we were identifying places that were Natural, Managed and Constructed. Yep, it was thrilling!There is a lovely Teacher Aide in the class who is, by a strange coincidence, related to Ms Z the T.A who texted all the way through my last supply day but she is nothing like her and is going to be a joy to work with.After the Lunch break the whole school had a practise for the Anzac Day service on Monday so I had an easy last session.The Prep / Year 1 class is lovely and Nate from Next door is in the class too.He did very well at calling me 'Mr Allen' rather than 'Nick'.