It’s a busy time of year. Clearing away last year’s yard debris and battling the new weeds coming up faster than whack-a-mole at the Exhibition. Between the outside work, company and Honey I’ve been distracted from writing.
Every day is an adventure in my life, some great and other’s not so good. Weirdly, I’ve been stung twice in four days by wasps. I can’t remember if i was ever stung by a wasp, they usually mind their own business. I walked into the garage and something flew into my hair, I swatted at it, knocking it down the inside of the back of my shirt and then I felt the prick of its stinger in my shoulder. OWIE, OWIE! I beeline for the house ripping off my shirt as I go in case it was still trapped between my back and the material, willing to sting me repeatedly for trapping it. It swelled to a minor bump, so I guess I’m not allergic. Then Sunday, I was swatting them off the ceiling of our back deck. They’ve been trying to settle there and build a mud nest. That stuff is as hard as concrete so it’s best to prevent them from building in the first place. They only have so much time to complete the nest and plant their young so we hoped they go someplace less problematic. So I’m swooshing them away with the broom when one falls straight down and heads toward my upturned, open mouth, but luckily avoids the black hole and lands on my bottom lip, stabbing me with a vengeance. OWIE, OWIE, big time! Their sting burns for quite a while, like acid on fire so I ice it and then complained like the whiner I am. I was beginning to feel picked on and persecuted, this is my space they're violating right? I’m paying the mortgage so squatters buzz off! And oh joy, everything happens to me in three’s so I expect another round. I can hardly wait.....
We won’t be getting our boat in the water until July so I figured I’d plunge into yard work. Last year I did nothing except complain about the sad state of affairs when gardening was neglected in preference of boat maintenance. Once the growth is out of control, with weeds advancing past the height of the actual plants I was too overwhelmed to start.
So with the boat on the back burner, there’s no excuse to not make an effort. I’m digging my way slowly but surely through the three gardens. I’m getting bark mulch this year and laying the fiber cloth down to inhibit weeds so it’ll be less maintenance. I’m not a fan of this. Those bags of mulch are sprayed with insecticides so I’ll have to be diligent keeping the dogs out of the garden area and plant my edibles in pots on the deck. This weeding problem has to be nipped in the bud because I can’t spend my entire summer pulling them. The soil is so rich I get to the end of one garden and have to start back at the beginning, a continual loop of weeding, Mother Nature’s sick joke on the gardener.
Honey is hanging in there but she needs constant attention. We rarely make it through two days without her fainting no matter how hard we try. With the upcoming election, and door to door candidate visits, we’ve had surprise rings on the bell sending the pups into an uproar, threatening to knock poor honey out. She flies off the sofa and it’s always a scramble to chase her to the door and grab her before she falls over. I made a joke, we’ll vote for the candidate that doesn’t kill our sweet girl.
When we know a friend is coming to visit we have to be warned when they will arrive and jump through hoops to keep her quiet. We had company stay with us for two weeks and three times their arrival caused our poor girl to pass out. I felt badly for our friend as it had to be stressful knowing she might activate the one that might kill her. It’s stressful for me as the mom, my instincts are so strong I have one eye on her at all times, trying to prevent what might set one off. Dogs can smell and see things we can’t so they can erupt into a chorus of barking anytime and four of them are quite the quartet. Honey is such a social butterfly its difficult keeping her enthusiasm contained. Her heart rate escalates until her blood pressure drops; she lacks oxygen to the brain and passes out. She literally vibrates, too bad she doesn't have an off switch.
Every day is an adventure in my life, some great and other’s not so good. Weirdly, I’ve been stung twice in four days by wasps. I can’t remember if i was ever stung by a wasp, they usually mind their own business. I walked into the garage and something flew into my hair, I swatted at it, knocking it down the inside of the back of my shirt and then I felt the prick of its stinger in my shoulder. OWIE, OWIE! I beeline for the house ripping off my shirt as I go in case it was still trapped between my back and the material, willing to sting me repeatedly for trapping it. It swelled to a minor bump, so I guess I’m not allergic. Then Sunday, I was swatting them off the ceiling of our back deck. They’ve been trying to settle there and build a mud nest. That stuff is as hard as concrete so it’s best to prevent them from building in the first place. They only have so much time to complete the nest and plant their young so we hoped they go someplace less problematic. So I’m swooshing them away with the broom when one falls straight down and heads toward my upturned, open mouth, but luckily avoids the black hole and lands on my bottom lip, stabbing me with a vengeance. OWIE, OWIE, big time! Their sting burns for quite a while, like acid on fire so I ice it and then complained like the whiner I am. I was beginning to feel picked on and persecuted, this is my space they're violating right? I’m paying the mortgage so squatters buzz off! And oh joy, everything happens to me in three’s so I expect another round. I can hardly wait.....
We won’t be getting our boat in the water until July so I figured I’d plunge into yard work. Last year I did nothing except complain about the sad state of affairs when gardening was neglected in preference of boat maintenance. Once the growth is out of control, with weeds advancing past the height of the actual plants I was too overwhelmed to start.
So with the boat on the back burner, there’s no excuse to not make an effort. I’m digging my way slowly but surely through the three gardens. I’m getting bark mulch this year and laying the fiber cloth down to inhibit weeds so it’ll be less maintenance. I’m not a fan of this. Those bags of mulch are sprayed with insecticides so I’ll have to be diligent keeping the dogs out of the garden area and plant my edibles in pots on the deck. This weeding problem has to be nipped in the bud because I can’t spend my entire summer pulling them. The soil is so rich I get to the end of one garden and have to start back at the beginning, a continual loop of weeding, Mother Nature’s sick joke on the gardener.
Honey is hanging in there but she needs constant attention. We rarely make it through two days without her fainting no matter how hard we try. With the upcoming election, and door to door candidate visits, we’ve had surprise rings on the bell sending the pups into an uproar, threatening to knock poor honey out. She flies off the sofa and it’s always a scramble to chase her to the door and grab her before she falls over. I made a joke, we’ll vote for the candidate that doesn’t kill our sweet girl.
When we know a friend is coming to visit we have to be warned when they will arrive and jump through hoops to keep her quiet. We had company stay with us for two weeks and three times their arrival caused our poor girl to pass out. I felt badly for our friend as it had to be stressful knowing she might activate the one that might kill her. It’s stressful for me as the mom, my instincts are so strong I have one eye on her at all times, trying to prevent what might set one off. Dogs can smell and see things we can’t so they can erupt into a chorus of barking anytime and four of them are quite the quartet. Honey is such a social butterfly its difficult keeping her enthusiasm contained. Her heart rate escalates until her blood pressure drops; she lacks oxygen to the brain and passes out. She literally vibrates, too bad she doesn't have an off switch.
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