I can’t stand mice! They truly freak me out. My family can tell lots of stories regarding me and mice that they still find funny. I think it started when I was about 8 and my family had just moved into a rental house. Every night I could hear noises in my room which actually didn’t scare me but did make me curious. So I figured out my strategy to find out. At bedtime I pulled a kitchen chair into my room and placed it in front of the closet (I had figured out by then the noises were coming from a high cupboard over the closet) got a flashlight and settled down to wait. As soon as it started I climbed up on the chair, turned the flashlight on and flung open one of the doors. Oh my stars, the previous tenants had left some old catalogs up there and not only was it alive with mice chewing them, they were white. They looked at me and were doing those creepy noises they do and I was standing there in absolute horror. I don’t know to this day if I was even able to scream but I slammed that door back, jumped off the chair and ran back to bed. Found out later that the previous tenants had also left the mice and they apparently had been making babies. To me they are nasty, disease carriers and will ruin anything they’re around! Rats too!
We generally leave a few mouse traps on the floor under the metal shelving in the pantry just in case. The nasty little things can cause so much waste and damage in a short amount of time.
We do soups/stews pretty much year round except for the absolute hottest weather then we eat more salads and lighter type foods. I suppose if we didn’t have air conditioning that would be different.