Interesting mouse fact:

Mice are considered a delicacy in eastern Zambia and northern Malawi (Wikipedia).

Death toll remains at 2

Oven Lovin'

So, yesterday I relayed a story about our oven and the death chamber it became for one unsuspecting mouse.  The story of  ovens doesn't stop with that execution. That exact oven broke several years ago and has been replaced. 

For this story we need to return to early January of this year.  We had been moving in over a few weeks and were starting to settle in.  By the end of January we realized there were some home improvement jobs which would happen much faster if we resorted to bribery.  A friend of ours was called in to assess what could be done with a few projects (hanging/fitting doors - that kind of thing).  We offered to cook dinner in exchange for this labor.  Since we are each a family of four with kids almost the exact same age and very close friends, a little get together sounded very nice.  As anyone out there who has ever moved a family knows,  that first planned event at the new house is a nice way to force yourself to finish organizing and making the place feel more home-like.  So we invited them over for a play date and dinner.  

This dinner turned out to be the first time I had the opportunity to cook in our "new" oven.  It turned on without trouble and everything seemed to work fine.  The menu was not exactly gourmet - it consisted of frozen pizza and salad. The pizza needed to cook at 400 degrees.  As we stood in the kitchen drinking a much needed glass of wine and catching up each others lives, we started to become distracted by a very unpleasant smell.  The stench was growing stronger as the oven heated up.  It was once again coming from the oven.  Now, as I made clear in my last post, I am very familiar with the smell of decaying animals and this wasn't exactly that particular scent.  My friend who I was drinking/talking with happens to be a veterinarian and she did comment that the smell was definitely animal based.  We didn't do much about it that night because our social activities were more fun and entertaining.  Oh, have no fear, my friend does not drink wine while doing her veterinarian duties.

As the days went by we became more and more disgusted by the smell that wafted through the kitchen whenever we used the oven.  Geoffrey and I looked all around and did not see any evidence of a dead animal.  We decided that we needed to dig a little deeper.  Geoffrey pulled the oven out and started dismantling the back panels.  No dead-anything was in there but what we did find was almost worse.  Inside your oven, surrounding the metal box housing the oven, there is a lining of insulation.  What we learned that night is mice LOVE oven insulation.  Covering the entire oven housing was a think coat of mice urine and poop.  The insulation was initially white but after the mice finished with it, it became a lovely shade of yellow.   On the top of the oven housing, just beneath the cook top, were two very clear mouse nests.  By the looks of things, mice lived, loved, and made little mice pups in our oven.

Okay, Geoffrey and I consider ourselves fairly capable do-it-yourselfers (when you're broke most of the time, DIY becomes much more of a necessity).  We thought, "We can fix this!"   I started a little internet research and discovered we were not alone.  Apparently many people have mice infestations in their ovens. According to what I read, you can replace the insulation if you can get a hold of some.  At this time, we have contacted every major hardware store and home DIY chain but no one carries this special type of insulation.  Mice have exclusive tastes.  

To wrap up, we are still living with a mice pee/poop encased oven and avoiding all recipes that require baking.  As a girl who fancies herself a novice foodie and a lover of cooking, this is a very limiting reality.  Luckily my mother has two ovens and lives 30 yards away.  Anyone know of anyone who sells mice-approved oven insulation? Or can one wash insulation?  Hmmm...