We interrupt this school day for a STINKY situation....

First of all, be thankful that there is no "scratch and sniff" option on Blogger, otherwise I'd be tempted to add it just to give you a whiff of what we were up against on Monday. Well, it didn't start on Monday. Last Sunday I noticed a wierd stink in the laundry room and asked my men to investigate. Turns out under our fridge was ***DISGUSTING DETAIL ALERT!!!***a dead baby mouse. Thankfully, I was in the back curling my hair and never had to see the thing. Again, another moment when I'm thankful beyond words to have a great husband and a house full of boys!! I thought the solution was resolved, but Monday morning, a horrible horrible smell was back in full force in the laundry room. I had the boys look under the washer and dryer, but they didn't see anything right off. I think they were quite disappointed that there was a much bigger dead mouse or snake or something lurking under the washer and dryer.



My plan was to stick like glue to our schedule for the morning to get all of our schoolwork and jobs done around the house. But I just COULDN'T do it. The stink was debilitating. I couldn't concentrate! So, I asked Jonathan and Jeremy to move the washer and dryer away from the wall to see what we could see. My plan was to have Jeffrey and Josiah just continue on with their schoolwork. Yeah, right. Like they're going to sit and do math and handwriting while large appliances are moved around, flashlights and tools are pulled out. So it was all hands on deck for the investgation!

Notice the bandanas and kleenex up the nose on all of us. It was really the only way we could stay in the room. It was a wonder that our eyes didn't water so much the we couldn't see! After a little investigating, we discovered the the stink was coming from the drain in the floor under the washing machine. Jonathan went outside to where the drain empties from the house.

Then Jonathan and Jeremy rigged up a way to stick the water hose up through the dryer vent and down the drain inside to wash all the junk (and again they were hoping for something dead!) outside. It was quite an ingenious system really.

Here's Jeffrey putting the hose in the drain inside.

Then they rigged up a "saxophone swab"-inspired rig with a plumbing snake, coat hanger and an old rag, to "swab" the inside of the pipe in case there was something there that the water wasn't getting out.

Then we followed up with baking soda and vinegar...

Here's the fizzy coming out the drain. There was actually quite a bit more "gunk" that came out before this picture was snapped.

We rinsed it out again w/ water. Then another soda/vinegar and more water. I mopped the floor w/ bleach and water and the boys moved the washer and dryer back. And guess what....no more stink! We never saw anything obviously dead come out, but there was certainly something rotten or moldy or dead or SOMETHING! But, oh happy day, we don't smell it now! And it hasn't come back!