I am at home in the new country house. The sunrises and sunsets are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. If it were not for the mouse infestation this house would be perfect. But because of the mouse invasion, I have been spending my time hunting and killing mice. I think the tide may be turning for me because I no longer find mouse poop on my kitchen counters. I know there is at least one of the critters left because I saw him come out of one of my chest drawers. Neither I nor the dogs could catch him. A few hours later he was climbing up my drapes, which are behind my headboard, and making a beeline for the dog treats I keep on my nightstand.

The dogs went after him. Isn't it nice that my dogs are part rat terrier... Rat terriers were bred to hunt down rodents and kill them. And that is what they have been doing. In addition, I am catching them in a special trap that allows me either to catch and release somewhere else on the property, or catch and then drop in a bucket of water.

At first I was walking all the way to the end of the property... (11 acres)... and freeing them near the pond. Since this has been going on since May, I have given up catching and releasing. I now dump them in a bucket of water that I keep on the back porch for just such a thing.

Before I started actually killing them, I tried everything else I could find... from peppermint plants and peppermint essential oils, to trying to talk to the "mouse king" and telling him that his children are not welcome in my home. Nothing has worked completely.

I believe the mouse population has decreased because I no longer am finding their poop on the kitchen counters.

At somepoint in my mouse-daze, I started vomiting. I was able to stop it with some pills the doctor gave me... but the moment I was out of pills, the sickness returned. A friend who knew of the mouse infestation asked me if I had thought that my vomiting might be "rat bourne". Well, the cute little mice aren't rats... but they can also pass a "rat bourne" disease that causes you to throw up. At the moment I can't remember the name of it.

In addition to throwing up for months, I developed a flu-like illness. Cough... congestion... aches and pains. I know there is nothing that an MD can give for the flu or a cold so I just lived with it.... until it finally turned in to pneumonia.

I know that I was diagnosed with pneumonia one week ago because I just finished the 7 day antibiotic pack my doctor prescribed. Yes, there are times that those drugs which are made from things none of us want to know about... actually do some good.

Back when I believed I only had a bad cold, or at the most... the flu... I went to my chiropractor who offers a number of treatments... none of which are covered by my insurance. I really thought I was getting better so I continued with the treatments until one day I simply couldn't breathe. It must have been a weekend because I went to the ER instead of seeing my personal doctor who is an osteopath. That's how I found out I had pneumonia instead of the flu.

I am on the road to recovery. I believe my lungs are finally clear... but the exhaustion is mighty. It's all I can do to sit at this computer and write anything. And even when I do sit to write, I can't sit too long because I slipped on the stairs to the basement and bruised my tail bone. Evidently it takes a very long time for a bruised tailbone to stop bothering a person.

There, in a nutshell is where I have been and what I have been doing with my time.

I just checked my bank account and found that I am $800.00 overdrawn. When my Veteran's Widows Benefits arrive, I won't have enough left over to pay the rent or electric bill.

If the Fundrazr widget can be filled up to the $3,000 mark, I will have enough to pay the rent for the RMN office... aka... my house in the country... the electric bill and some more payments on the RMN server. I still can't believe I forgot to pay for the server for almost four months.

If you can help asap, it will mean the world to me.

Thank you so very much!

Raye