BIG STINKERS!

In nature it's always something. My eyes deceive me once again as I glance outside at the glass table on the deck. The object was bright red, not a paint stain because it was moving. I scrambled for a pair of glasses and sure enough it was moving. Are those legs I see? For this I need a magnifying glass. I scrambled for the magnifying glass and go in for a close look. Eww, a curious group of tiny red-shelled spiders huddled together and when one moved they all moved as if it were one spider instead of 100 or so.

My skin wasn't crawling too badly at this point because I thought "awww, they must be baby ladybugs how.... cute?" But wait a minute, don't ladybugs come from butter flies or cocoons or something? So I took a photo and planned a Google investigation for later.

Then there was the pesky hard-shelled triangle shaped bug sitting on the same table only it was dead. I recognized this guy as the kind of bug I thought ate one of my favorite potted plants last week. The plant was fine when I checked it that afternoon, the next morning it was a shadow of it's former self. I photographed him for a Google later too.

It didn't take long to find out that the triangle shaped guy is a "Stink Bug". Notorious for eating fruit and veg in the garden. Plenty of writings about them on line, but because they're apparently difficult to control everyone wants to sell you the big secret to obliterating them.

I scrolled a little further and low and behold, there was a photo of the tiny red group of bugs. Turns out they're not ladybugs but baby stink bugs. Now my skin is crawling and I can't wait to get back to the table with as much poison as I can find around here and kill every one of these buggers. YUK!

And just to drive home the fact that creatures, critters and crawlers have us humans out numbered, we found a copperhead snake cooling it's jets under the chestnut tree last week.
This exact spot is where my dogs lay every single day. They love to eat the chestnuts and they love to sleep in the shade of that tree. Now and forever more my skin is crawling. This is no place for sissies, that's the truth.

Mom's Hydrangeas

Mom loved her Hydrangea, this one's been growing in front of her place from day one. When I got here in January it was very tall and bare. It looked like a weed gone out of control! I cut it way back knowing it probably wouldn't bloom again. For the most part it hasn't, except for on the corner there. Soo glad it's coming back!

And So We Mow!

Mowing the lawn is traditionally "A Mans Job" right? however, I know many women who don't think twice about dragging out the mower and edger to do the job themselves. But on this property, they'd be thinking more than twice about "taking on the lawn".

The difference here is that we're talking about 2 hairy acres that need mowing at least twice a month in spring & summer. We don't put on a cute gardening hat with matching gardening gloves and clogs to push a shiney-red mower up and down the yard until it's perfect.

No, we pretty much gear up with machine washable head covering, goggles, long sleeved shirt/pants, and nasty canvus shoes so as not to lose a toe or an eye to flying debris. It's all about getting the job done without the company of fleas, ticks, and mosquitos.

We ride an old, noisey rickety lawn tractor, nursing it along as it spits, groans, hickups, and sometimes stops all together, leaving us in the learch, and at the mercy of a handiman who knows a little about mechanics. We then convince him to fix it, but at the least possible expense. If he can do it with Spit & Glue, even better!