The wind is blowing this afternoon. Whirly-gigs whirling. Wind chimes chiming. Leaves falling from the trees.
And it made me think about how rare it is to see fall actually happening right in front of my eyes.
* * * * * * * *
We (mostly) finished our ant-extermination project yesterday.
Saturday's watering experiment results (just two hills, to see if the short afternoon drizzle would do the watering) were mildly interesting. There was no activity in those two hills. The others? A little crusty, no visible activity, but poke a stick through the crust and ants come pouring out. So a little dampness does not do the trick.
If you read yesterday's post, you already know that there was some (a-hem) discussion about how we were going to get water to the ant mounds down that l-o-n-g driveway. The tractor idea reared its ugly head again, but in a different way. In the garden shed there is a 20-gallon tank that fits in the tractor bucket. The Husband had not considered it Saturday because of some issue with the sprayer nozzle, but Sunday he decided that we could pump the water into a watering can (to achieve the "gentle sprinkle"), and he could drive around behind me while I watered the mounds. I asked why we couldn't put the tank on the tailgate of the truck so that *I* could drive while HE watered the mounds. Nix that idea; the tank pump operates off the tractor battery.
So we watered. He drove the tractor, I walked and watered. And me with a bad knee.
I did not use the watering can; I put my thumb over the nozzle-less hose to achieve the "gentle sprinkle," but I gently sprinkled each mound until I could see tunnels, and then sprinkled a little more. Some of the mounds never did show tunnels; they seemed more like "excavation piles" than inhabited mounds.
We used SIXTY GALLONS of water.
And we were about ready to throttle one another by the time we got to the end of the driveway.
But we held our tongues. Mostly. ;)
As I was limping back towards Nanny's house, The Brother-in-Law came zooming down the driveway to mow her yard with his big monster mower. I'd already texted him not to mow down the mounds. He stopped and said he'd been mowing them down - "probably started a new colony everywhere the sumbitches landed," he said - but he promised he would not do so that day.
Later that day, The Husband said his left leg was a little sore from all the clutching.
I just snarled. ;)
I said "mostly" finished earlier because we had one other ant-related chore that we did not do. We bought a bag of granules meant to be broadcast around the yard rather than applied directly to the mounds. But by the time the watering was done, my bad knee had had it. Done. Finis. I put the granules and the spreader back in the shed. "Tomorrow's another day."
But today was a workday. And it's raining again.
I finally got some face time today with the dude in charge, to have him lay eyes on some stuff, and to tell him I suspect we're missing some boxes and he should have someone check the attic again. It would probably be smarter to check the attic, myself, before I start the numerical ordering. But I'd have to climb a ladder to do it.
*Snarl*
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