Noises Outside

It was the middle of the night and I was in a nice sound sleep.  My sleep, however, was disturbed as I was awakened by the noise of a window being opened at three in the morning.  My first thought was, we have the air conditioner on, why is she ("she" being the wife), opening a window?!   In a groggy state I asked her what she is doing, and she said she heard an animal scratching at the outside, and asked if I had heard it.  No, I said, I did not hear it.   At the same time I was thinking, but I heard you opening the window.   I have heard similar proclamations from her before this incident, but I don't recall her opening a window at three in the morning.  When she opened the window, she said, the sound stopped.

To aid additional air movement, we use a fan in the room, and I wondered how she heard a scratching noise over the noise of the fan.  I then said something about not worrying about it and get back to bed.  My wife turns off the fan and tells me to listen.  A little while later I hear some slight scratching.  Perhaps it is a squirrel trying to find a place to bury some food I say, like in our newly covered front gutter.   I turn over and try to get back to sleep.  My wife then says, "I wonder how long it will take for it to cut into the house?"  If she worries like that about a small animal you can imagine how much she worries about our two sons.  I had some fun with this comment, to which she responded "It will not be funny when they are nibbling on your toes."  Her comment on a rodent entering the house may be more a derision of current building materials where vinyl siding, styro-foam insulation, fiberglass insulation (between studs), a plastic vapor barrier, and drywall create the cross section of modern home construction, over a rodent's ability to cut its way in to a house.  I responded for her to  go back to sleep and we can look at in the morning.  At least this was not a wild goose chase as other attempts to find the creature.

This is not the first time I have been awakened by her hearing noises, which she rightfully believes I think are more imagined than real.  One time, perhaps years ago, I went outside and took a flash light to see if I could see an animal on the roof by our bedroom.  To keep out rodents from behind the siding, many years ago I placed some spray foam in the vertical trim piece (and then drilled in a drainage hole) to avoid mice getting up the trim piece, as we had seen occur.  I am not sure any home is fully rodent proof.   The night earlier this week I wondered if a squirrel was on the roof and trying to dig up our newly installed gutter protection. 

When our house was re-roofed about fifteen years ago, due to hail damage, I had a no clog system provided by the roofer put on the back gutters, but its high profile dissuaded me from having it placed on the front gutters.  So, four or five times a year I made the journey up onto the roof to clean out the front gutters.  It is amazing how fast debris finds its way into the gutters.  My wife did not like me getting on the roof to clean the gutters, so most often I would do it when my wife was away.  Now that we are retired I had to put up with her barrage of getting a gutter protection system installed. Well, this year, after prodding, and more prodding, and even more prodding, I took the plunge and the leaf filter system was installed last week.

My wife has not only heard noises upstairs but also in or near the chimney, and even in the family room wall shared with the garage.  I had a tendency to shrug it off, but she was always quick to obtain verification from one or both of our sons.  Both of our sons indicated they had heard the noise by the chimney.  She did this to prove to me that she is not crazy.  I think it was this past spring when I too heard noise by the chimney and I went outside the following day to check the caulk of the fireplace vent, and the vertical siding trim pieces.  I could see a wasp nest built where some of the caulk had come out by the fireplace vent, so I cleaned that and re-caulked.  I put a nice big thick bead of caulk to assure proper sealant around the vent.

Back to the main story.  With the outside noise that night earlier this week my wife said my snoring was preferable to  hearing the animal scratching outside.  Can I take some solace knowing that my wife finds some comfort when I snore?  Probably not, but for least least in that one instance. She usually knocks me and I then stop.   I am not sure how many times she opened the window that night, but she told me the following morning that the noise had been bothersome to her since 10:30 pm.  The following morning I went for my walk and when I got back she said she said she saw a small pile of plastic by the outside house wall along the drip edge and to find the source she took four of the six screws off the shutter and pulled it away from the house where she noticed where most likely a  mouse had chewed into part of the plastic support on the backside of the decorative plastic shutter.  I scolded her for getting on the roof, and she told me that she was able to reach all screws while still in the bedroom.  I crawled out of the window onto the porch roof, doing what she does not like me to do, took the other two screws off and cleaned the back of the shutter of old wasp nests and other debris and washed the vinyl siding.  We then put a mouse trap right below the window to attempt to avoid a mouse, or whatever small animal, from getting behind the shutter. I have realized that sounds made by such a rodent must be amplified in the night. Kinda of like how much more you can hear car traffic in the early morning, as the background noise is much less.

 A day later during a light rain we were sitting on the front porch reading, and we heard something that sounded like it was crawling above our heads on the aluminum material that makes up the ceiling of the porch.  It would be quite a journey to investigate this area.  I would need to crawl though the garage access panel and then travel to the opposite end of the house along and between varied joists.  I chose not undertake the journey. In 29 years of owning the house, I have looked up above the garage ceiling, but have never attempted to get up above the ceiling, much less walk above it.

Perhaps some day I will change my mind and see what I can find in the space above the porch.  Although, I may have to do it when my wife is gone.  In that space, will I find the hole of a rodent digging into our bedroom? Will the hole be but a short distance from the rodent being capable of  nibbling on my toes?  Just asking these questions may force my wife to get me up into that precarious space.

Photos by author, Aug 2-19.  In a contrast to a discussion about rodents, I chose photos of flowers and more pleasing wildlife for this post.