I don't know about you, but one thing that motivates me to clean out my garage is the sign of a mouse. I love animals, but a mouse cannot live in my house or garage. Seeing all those droppings everywhere can get my skin crawling. I called Clarks Pest Control and spoke to a great guy who gave some suggestions for maintaining a pest free garage. Some of these ideas are easy and others take a bit of work and a few dollars.

1. Keep all pet food or garbage sealed in closed containers. I have two dogs and would "roll down" the dog food bag. I thought this would work as I was taking most of the air out of the bag and making sure it was compact. I was told that a mouse could easily eat through the paper or find a small hole and enter. My first purchase was the orange Home Depot bucket that would secure the food safely. Any bucket with a secure lid would work. You could reuse kitty litter buckets or rice buckets if you wanted to recycle. If you don't secure your food, the mouse could enter the bag and have a buffet.

I also started a new habit when feeding my dogs. I make sure to take the food container outside and scoop the food directly into the dog bowls. I believe I was accidentally spilling dog food when I was in the garage. This was probably another source of food for the mouse.

2. A mouse only needs 1/4" (one quarter of an inch) clearance to enter your garage or house. This was much smaller than I realized. Make sure gaps greater than 1/4" are sealed. I purchased a can of expanding foam from Orchard Supply Hardware and went around my garage and sealed vents and anywhere that had a small gap. My screens under my house have holes for cable, phone wires, water, and air conditioning. All of these holes needed to be sealed.

3. I had a 1/4" gap under my garage side door. I purchased a small weather strip for the garage side door that attaches to the bottom. This will help seal the door and keep rain and mice out.

4. Once in your garage, mice can live in your old boxes of stuff. If you want to be extra cautious, you can purchase storage bags or bins. I went to Target and purchased 10 plastic storage bins for baby clothes, toys, books, and other items that I want to keep sealed and mouse free. The bins were about $8 each. They are easy to stack and will keep items fresh and harder for mice to penetrate.

5. Get a cat to live in your garage 24/7. Not very practical and besides, I'm allergic to cats. Cat's are wonderful animals but unfortunately, I can't live with them. I would need to be on Benedryl all day.

Out of all these suggestions, I believe keeping food sources sealed and contained will help eliminate my mouse problems. My dog food will remain safe and sealed and keep out any unwanted visitors.

Let me know if you have any suggestions for keeping mice out of your garage.

Earnings for March on Yuwie were up 90% to $10.84 This may not seem like a large amount of money, well it's not, but the momentum is gaining along with referrals. I'm adding about 200+ referrals a month to my total tree. In case you are not familiar with Yuwie, it's a free social network similar to Myspace or Facebook and does not charge a membership fee. I have enjoyed meeting new friends from around the world and sharing stories about work, family, school, ebay, investments, and hobbies. My referral tree grew to the final 10th level and I have one person on level 10. To find out more, you can view some great video clips here at Yuwie. Yuwie shares a portion of the revenue from advertisers up to 10 levels. The RSR, or Revenue Sharing Rate for March was 40 cents. The RSR will increase as the number of Yuwie members increases. As more join, the advertisers will want to bid higher for ad placement on Yuwie. Currently, Myspace and Facebook does not share this revenue with it's members....but Yuwie does. I don't expect 90% returns every month, but do expect the number of referrals to grow. Yuwie is a great example of passive income. I earn income 24/7 and don't have to be logged on to make money. The RSR can fluctuate and the earning potential can always decrease, but for now the earnings appear to be gaining momentum.

Wow! I have a new X5 again. I can't believe that a $30 part was causing so many issues for my X5. When I got the car back from the mechanic I immediately hit the gas and put it to the test. Very little to no hesitation after the first punch of the gas. Then the first test was a stop light. No stalling and no check engine light. Success! Engine just went back to a nice and easy idle without coughing or erupting like a volcano. The hesitation issue was gone as the X5 is receiving the proper air mixture. The issue the mechanic found was a one inch crack in the small rubber tube on the air intake. He believes it was an age factor as my car is a 2001 with 97,000 miles. What a huge improvement. I don't recall the car responding like this in a very long time. Many owners complain about a delay or sluggish start for the X5. I wonder if this crack in the air intake is a common problem and would help solve many air issues for the X5. I am thrilled that I have my old/new vehicle back. Now, if it can just hold on a bit longer for our summer road trip. San Francisco to Las Vegas and then to Disneyland and back to San Francisco.