The Gate

An innocent looking gate you might say. That is what my poor Husband thought this afternoon. A gate that doesn't get much use until he decides to switch some horses around. He opens the gate and a few of the horses go through without any problems but two decide to be difficult.

Somehow, and I am not sure of the sequence of events, but he throws the gate back into the wide open position and something latches onto the top of his ring finger. With the other hand he grabs the offender and dislodges him. Then he notices that there seems to be a swarm of offenders all around him. He then removes himself from the area and looks back with curiosity. That is when he sees the hornet's nest.



He comes to the house and applies a paste of baking soda to the sting and tells me the story. I drag myself from my sick bed, grab my cane and camera and hobble out to the gate, staying at a safe distance. I tell him that he smashed the nest against the gate post and that is why they were so upset with him.



He says, "Yes, I can see that now." He also informs me that a hornet's sting is the worst. Bumble bees cannot hold a candle.

Both of our Sons were stung yesterday by Bumble bees, they thought that they were Wood Bees and the eldest Son accused us of lying to him about Wood Bees not stinging. Since I am sure that I would never lie to him, I am thinking that they have just misidentified the species.

Wood Bees are shiny and Bumble bees are hairy and from what I was told, they had a nest in the ground next to a stump or in the stump. Our youngest Son looked like a prize fighter with his swollen eye.

Anyway, back to the hornet's nest, my DH is planning on dousing the nest with gas tonight and lighting it. I did give him some benadryl and he is out in the hot sun on the tractor mowing one of the pastures. I didn't feel that this was a good idea but just try telling a man anything.

This nest was close to the ground, so that is suppose to mean a mild winter. But I just talked to a friend who said that all of the hornet's nests he has seen this year were up high.

Writer's Block

I am trying to overcome this current round to writer's block, I have been struggling to think of anything to blog about. Pain is about all that I can think about right now. I don't really want to dwell on it but it continues to demand most of my attention.

My eldest Son and his family were here last night, he is a great inspiration, he is just a little off on the wrong side of normal. He has a great sense of humor and when he is around or when I am on the phone with him, he will bring up some odd fact or warped childhood memory that he says that I should blog about. The problem is that my aged mind can't recall what it was that he suggested when I have the time to sit down and blog.

During the course of conversation last night, my DH said something very irritating to me, I can't remember what, but I did threaten to divorce him. My Daughter-in-law jumped right in there and suggested that we both get divorced and we would go somewhere together. You see, I have this strange family, I love both of my Daugher-in-laws. I admire their fortitude for staying married to my Sons. It can't be easy, they are too much like their Father.

Happy Independence Day! Hopefully it won't rain out the fireworks like it did last year. We had a gully washer here last night, the barn is flooded again. We don't do much on the 4th of July if we can help it, this is the first day that my Husband has had off for weeks. So that means that he is going to have to catch up on all of the work that has piled up around here.

He works six days a week and we go to Church twice on Sundays, so it makes it hard to mow grass and bush hog pastures, not to mention trimming 156 feet that belong to horses and goats around here.

We do have a very accommodating neighbor who spends tons of money on fireworks every year. All we have to do is drive to the top of the hill to watch a fireworks display that rivals what they have in the nearest town. We don't have to fight traffic or crowds of people, although the word is getting out and we are starting to get lots of visitors to our neighborhood on the 4th.

The thing that makes it really nice is that we live in a valley, so with that valley behind us, we get a real good stereo with echo affect, it is like wrap-around sound. All of our horses are bomb proof, they stand at the top of the hill every year and watch the show with us, they love it.

I am a little worried about Angel though, it will be her first 4th of July because she was born at the end of July last year. She gets very nervous about loud sounds, but she is getting better. The first time we shot a gun around her, she ran off and didn't come back until the next day. We and our neighbors have shot several times since then and she doesn't like it but she doesn't run off. Tonight might cure her completely.

Got Gravel

Our drive is passable again, can't keep the people away now. Our peaceful, quiet life is over and we are $600 more in the hole.

We live here in the Limestone Capital of the World, as a matter of fact we have one whole hillside that is nothing but limestone with a little dirt spread here and there. But it still cost us $600 for a few rocks for our drive, we ran out of money before we ran out of drive.

When we first moved here and cut our driveway, my Husband and Sons took rock from the hillside and put it on the drive, then took sledge hammers and broke it up. They all got very good at it, they know just how to hit it to bust it up with the least amount of blows. If any of them ever have to work on a chain gang they will be prepared. Some day my kids may even get nostalgic at the ring of the hammer hitting rock.

Oh, Deer

Every evening we have two deer that visit us, they always show up while we are doing the evening feeding, they aren't the least bit concerned about us. Angel would bark at them when they first started showing up but she has gotten use to it and now ignores them. They know they have a safe haven here.

Well, we were blessed this evening with all of our Kids and Grandkids coming for a visit and they just happened to be out target shooting with a new BB gun that my Grandson got for Christmas. I just hope that our deer weren't too traumatized and will come back tomorrow night. I also hope that my sons will mature some day.