Tuesday, September 4, 2007

the day after the great holiday!

Well here we are, the long weekend is past and what did we accomplish? Well actually quite a bit. It's amazing what can happen when you can't sleep past 6am on your day's off!

Having arisen even BEFORE 6am on Saturday I had a bunch of things on my mind to accomplish. We were going to see about getting a storage room, yes a room not a building or garage. Where we live it's a small town. The old school was donated to the city of 348 people and they spent a year cleaning it out, re-flooring, getting things donated, cleaning up the kitchens etc., etc., etc. We found out (through the grapevine) the there were storage rooms (aka classrooms) available for renting for a mere 5 cents per square foot. I was ready to move in and live there! You cannot build anything for 5 cents, yes, CENTS per square foot. The average home is supposed to cost $100 per square foot but you know that is before you add that lovely italian marble tile, that "over the top" carpeting, those gorgeous sinks, and what about the window coverings - nobody wants shades any more! So, 5 cents a square foot got us not just one but two rooms for a mere $33 per month. All we had to do was furnish the padlock - a mere $15 with the hasp. $15 for a padlock chapps me, they are made in China (I hate buying foreign stuff - Did I say that? I'm a foreigner myself!!).

We got this carpeted room, sorry two carpeted rooms, nice blue industrial carpet that we couldn't wear out even if we tried! Blue pretty much goes with everything but that doesn't matter anyway, all my storage tubs are blue anyway!

Down one wall (24 feet long) is built-in cupboards and shelves. On the other wall opposite is a kinda store display cabinet, perfect for dust-free storage. Then we have like 20X24' space on top of all that! I'm going to have a field day. I love organizing (at least the first time) I will get to take all of my craft items (everyone that sees it says I have enough for my own craft store!), my fiber, my tools (yes, even crafters have drills etc) and store them out of the DUST that accumulates on a farm minute by minute! Do you know how much dust is blown into your house on a daily basis? Just live on a farm and you'll find out pretty darn quick (that's PDQ for you computer savvy people!). Every day, yes, every day the wind blows. No, I don't care where you live, the wind blows. I've lived in New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and now Texas and everywhere I have lived I have had dust on my furniture. Yes, can you belive it? That was like when I found out that weeds grown in EVERYONE'S yards! (That's a story for another day)

Well, with "out buildings" as the realtors like to call them, you get double, even triple the dust that everyone else gets. Along with the dust comes the dreaded HORNETS. Have I told you how much I hate bugs?

When we moved in there were more hornet condos on the property than all the apartment buildings in Phoenix. Yes they were everywhere. Mud daubers, yellow jackets and those black ones. They even had the nerve to build in my bird houses. Opportunists. . . you bet. They can find the smallest crack in a building and they can move in 14 families into a hole so small you didn't think anything could fit through it. I bet they're even charging rent!

We did find out that these pesky pests have two redeeming charteristics, one: they dont sting (noone told us about the biting though), and two: they eat spiders. So, I thought, we could eliminate over 1/2 of them and still have "spider eaters". So, I have a plan.

First Jerry saw an ad for an EXTERMINATOR! Yes the real kind. There was an ad in the local paper, good prices, regular service, blah, blah, blah. But this caught his eye as a small swarm of bees had decided to move into the eaves of our house. First they had wanted to move into the eaves outside our bedroom door, along with the hornets. Not a friendly site when you're trying to get back indoors, or go outside. We didn't know at that time if they might be AFRICAN BEES!!! So, Jerry sprayed hornet/wasp spray and they left. Two days later the bees had taken up residence on the outside of the house, but still moving into the eaves.

It was time to take action. The Exterminator came today, yes he could remove them (that is another word for "kill"), he'll be back tomorrow to do the dastardly deed. His main concern was if the dog would attack him once he donned his bee-killer outfit. I told him our dog may be large, and bark, but she'd never attack. Not like I expect the bees will do once he starts into their domain. I wish we could have just had them "moved" somewhere else but apparently it's really hard (and expensive) to find someone who will take that stand. I have a real liking for bees, they are very hard working insects, and look at the end product they produce for us. . . honey, mmm, mmm, good!

Where would Honey Bunches of Oats be without bees? Where would the bears be without honey??? See, it affects lots more than you think!

So how did I start off with a post about moving "stuff" and end up talking about insects??? Have I told you I HATE bugs?????

So. . . tomorrow is the mass murder, oops, removal of the bees. Tomorrow I am going to post a picture about Jerry's wonder vegetable garden. You can't wait to see it. (Say, "I can't wait to see Jerry's vegetable garden tomorrow")

So, until then, feel sorry for the bees, try to think about humane bee removal and then think, "Would I do this?". OK, food for thought!

1 comment:

  1. Humane? Is anything humane anymore? I think once we decided to erect abodes were things no longer humane, Mom. Just kill! That's what we do best.

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