An evening at home.

For a few days now we've been noticing a rather musty smell in the TV room. As we had some building work done last year, as its been a damp summer and as the heating has been powering through the spell of cooler weather we've had recently I was beginning to wonder if we had the beginnings of dry rot. So, nothing ventured nothing gained.

We had very little to do last night, so I opened up the floor. Needless to say, while I ws doing this, the other half occupied himself fruitfully - running around trying to find a battery for a torch that we hardly used anyway.

There's a good three feet worth of clearance under our floors, but I'm the only one in the house small enough to get in. So with the SAD light in hand I went down for a look. Luckily, there was nothing there except for cobwebs (distinguishable from dry rot because of the absence of smell - and the fact that there were huge spiders running away to hide in them when I got near).

Reassured, but not really understanding what was causing the smell, I came out of the hatch. At this point the other half screams at me to look. Pointing furiously at something (which I couldn't see because his head and a beam were in the way) he got more and more agitated when I tried to explain that I couldn't see anything. Then he almost growled at me "it's there, where I'm pointing [still can't see as his finger is behind a beam] it's a hedgehog!".

Agreeing that he must have got in through a hole in a bit grating we've been meaning to get replaced (sigh), we knew that he wouldn't be able to get out again as the drop there is quite steep. So, next dilemma. How do you get a hedgehog out of the foundations of your house when you only have easy access to a couple of areas - but the hog can wander through all the little interconnecting holes in the stonework. - and boy can those guys move when they want.

Well, the first thing we tried was the Marks and Spencer approach. We took one of their reusable shopping bags, tied a bit string to it and then baited it with some dog kibble. Then we had to wait. The little guy must have been very hungry as he was back fairly soon and he started attacking the bag to try and get at the food. He wasn't too sure about it though and he took another couple of walks around the house before he decided to poke his nose inside.

We had been sitting on the floor above the hole watching all this going on for about for about half an hour before this happened and when finally he went in, the other half pulled the string, the bag came up as planned - but no hedgehog. I could blame the man here but that wouldn't be fair. Hedgehogs are VERY agile too! He had managed to jump out of the bag and he was now curled up on the sandy floor. I tried to get down the hole quickly with a towel to grab him, but he had gone by the time I got there.

So, we're now at 9.30, we've scared the hog and we're thinking he's not going to come back quickly. I stayed down the hole for a while, but I reckoned that, if he could smell the dog food from the other side of the house, he could probably smell me too. So, back out again and I decided to give it one last shot before calling it a night. I got the towel, threw some kibble down so that it was directly under the hole and positioned myself above. The intention was to try and disorientate him by throwing the towel down on top of him, jump down and grab him before he had a chance to run away.

It wasn't too long before he came back snuffling along as he went. We watched him get closer and I was beginning to think it was going to be an impossible task. The hole was really to small to be able to throw the towel accurately, never mind get down and catch him as well. As I tried to work out how I was going to do it, the son kept telling me that I shouldn't do anything unless I had a plan. Oh, I had one alright. I wanted my evening back!

Anyway, to cut what is becoming a rather long story short, the towel went down the hole followed by me and the hog was finally on his way to a much friendlier environment in the woods. It really was fun watching him waddle off into the dark - although he did stop to drink some water off the grass before he went.

Left the tidying up until this morning. The floor, pictured here, was screwed back down and all the sand and dust removed from the wood. I hope I don't have to do that again anytime soon!