I remember when we had been away on holiday and had someone in to feed our cat. When we got back her mat was swimming in water and the note said that was the only way to keep the ants away from her food. They're crafty little beasties.

I have them come by once or twice a year. Uninvited and not welcome, but they don't care.
Marching in a line to wherever they planned to go. Or one on its return from 'a mission' runs into one that was send out on a mission a little later. As soon as they have approached, they stand still, communicate something and then continue on their way. Thát I do find fascinating. A zealous well organized community, but not in my kitchen please.
You can't leave anything edible, not even crumbs, in the kitchen, because with other right conditions they will come. And sometimes I even wonder why they had come at all. Nothing to find here!
They however remind me, don't ask me why, of:

Pure chocolate sprinkles.
I have that sometimes in the house and guess would be disgusted if one would be in there and I would eat him or her by accident. Eew!
Never happened. Silly thought, but still.

If it didn't go crunch, it wasn't a sprinkle....


I spray my kitchen benches with vinegar to keep the little sods off. Any really strong scent will disturb their own scent trail, so things like clove or lavender oil work too. I just like the vinegar because it's in the cupboard anyway and the smell disappears in a minute or two. Only problem is, I keep getting this craving for hot chips and a beer

Well, see, I'm not sure that the level of pain is actually different; it's just that it doesn't bother me as much. It certainly hurt when my gallbladder was infected and it certainly hurt when other things happened to me, but to me it was tolerable enough that I didn't think it was serious. It probably doesn't help that I have liver damage, so I have digestive and metabolic issues as a result, so I'm kind of used to feeling unwell in the upper right abdominal quadrant. In any case, in that instance, it made me dismiss something I shouldn't have. But anyway, it's just that pain perception and tolerance is variable in people. It's not really a matter of anyone being a "crybaby," and I'd never accuse someone of being one just because they feel pain more acutely than I do. It's just that, for instance, people who've been in a lot of persistent/chronic pain (like gummilutt with rheumatoid arthritis) will tend not to feel pain as keenly as people who haven't been in chronic pain. It's probably a survival thing. That said, I can't say that I've ever been in a position where I've been in prolonged or chronic pain, so that doesn't really explain me. Hence why my doctor things there's something not quite right with me. If so, it's been that way for a long time, possibly from birth. I do remember things happening to me as a young child and people being surprised that it didn't make me scream my head off, so...yeah.

As for ants...I'm surprised the "moat" stopped them, Charity. Ants are amazingly resourceful and scarily single-minded and their hive intelligence can be pretty astounding. I'm surprised they weren't building bridges with their bodies to get to the cat food, like army ants will to get across barriers in their way. I confess to spending many summer hours observing the harvester ant colonies that are all over my property. I also confess to leaving out little piles of seeds near their nests so that I can watch them gather them. It's pretty amazing to watch. We don't really get ants in the house here, which are usually sugar ants; the climate's too dry around here. We have a lot of harvesters, though. They're a desert species and native to the Southwest US, where I am.

LOL! I'm glad you think so!

@simonem, wanted to say that my Seasons disc just arrived! I'm very happy now, because my chances of getting this ep any other way were slim.
I think no one will mind if I acclaim you a bit. You're very generous to just send out discs without asking or wanting anything in return. And you made some Dutch woman feel really excited now because of it. Thank you véry much!

My daughter doesn't want them, no being young (13) she thinks sims 3 is way cooler! It's not as if it will even install on her dinosaur of a computer, although she keeps trying! Now she has had her father uninstall everything that can be uninstalled and he's also defraging it in the hope of getting Sims 3 to install. I won't hold my breath.

I'll be trying the Sims 1 disks on mine on the weekend when I have some time. I uninstalled Sims 3 and Dragon Age Inquisition (which won't run properly) to make room.

I feel kinda sorry for her she can't play the version she likes most.

I want to play with seasons kinda right now, but I first have to figure out how to install it in a matter it won't screw up anything.
Want to do it prepared and not just 'rücksichtslos'.

I'm glad it got to you safely. I'm always a bit worried about things heading off overseas without me holding its hand

Hope you get lots of fun out of it once it's installed.

I think this one was independant enough to arrive safely. (But it appreciates your motherly worries.)
No doubt I will have fun. So much new things to see for me. But I do realize I now have a lot more to consider for my game. I never had to deal with temperatures.
Let's hope I do not wipe out my entire hamlet Cornerhill by doing it wrong.

You can play around with the settings and make each hood go in different cycles. Like all summer for a desert or three winters and a spring for a real gardening challenge

I wiped out half my hood using that one when doing a settlers challenge where they had to grow or catch their own food. Great hood for those times you fancy an apocalypse.

I think I would be safest off to start with a cycle of spring and autumn, to practise first? (to prevend the same thing from happening to my sims. It must have been a lousy experience to lose so much sims. )

And I probably also need to look at my mods? I have Freetime and most mods are in line with that. Can I keep it that way or do I have to go back to a Seasons version? (Have no clue.) Hm, maybe, a new topic to ask these things might be better.

Free Time came after Seasons so your mods will be fine. You will continue to play with the FT disk. I never practiced, didn't have much trouble. If it's summer don't let kids spend ages out there, same if it's winter. They have a temperature gauge which will go up and up again, or down and down again before they become too hot or cold. Keep an eye on it and bring them in. If they are hot you can have them get a glass of water. make sure you have a season proof house. Underneath an upstairs roof may not be. The SW is only concerned about the temps of babies, toddlers and kids. A teen, adult or elder who has passed out from heat stroke will have red areas and can be revived by 'dousing' by another sim. If they freeze and fall over another sim can use a hair dryer on them. You should let an adult who doesn't live alone to try out the temperature extremes so you can see how long it takes. I wouldn't advise you jump into the Test of Time challenge with all four seasons summer, but you will want to see what each season has to offer. Also watch out for lightening storms, a sim can get hit -not normally fatal. I had 3 sims hit last summer in my new hood. Also let your toddler outside to play in leaves and snow, it's really cute.

Dogs also can roll in leaves and eat snow. The blow drying the frozen sim action is hilarious. Watch out for fancy custom pagoda roofs; I found out the hard way that most of them are not weather proof due to the technique for making them.

Thanks, ladies.
Probably will install tomorrow.