Weekend So Far

Started my Typhoid vaccination the other day. It's four pills full of live little buggers that I have to take every other day and an hour before I eat. I think I'm experiencing some side-effects (details I won't go into), but not completely sure. Made going for a ride with Buddy yesterday morning interesting, as I had to get up an hour earlier to take the pill then eat breakfast before the ride. Why I don't just take them an hour before dinner? I dunno. I'm not that smart. Though I do know, I should safely be able to eat raw eggs for the next five years when this particular vaccination is done. WooHoo!

After the ride it was home to do chores. One of those chores being getting the Ninja inspected. We have a 94 Ninja 250 with 7700 miles on it. It's inspected and for sale. I'm asking $1,000. It's a great little bike, but I've got too many (things). Passed with flying colors. I really don't know why I let it sit for two years. If you're interested, it's good to go. Let me know before I really advertise it.

After the bike it was time to fix the tractor (again). The little mandrel/bearing job I did a few weeks ago imploded on itself when the pullies went bad. Unfortunately they took the new mandrel with them and I had to order a whole new setup. This all happened the week before we left for vacation. I was going two weeks of now grass mowing and getting ready to leave for another week. I ordered the parts, but there's no option to overnight or anything quick. In desperation the day before we left, I ran around borrowing things to get my yard cut. Things like Marks tractor and Henderson's trailer...

But that was last week. The parts came in while we were on vacation. I installed them and got the grass cut.

Meanwhile Jen and her Mom were going crazy with weeding. Weed, weed, swim, weed, weed, weed. Is all they did Saturday. So much so, I had to get a little creative with the compost bins.

So the picture doesn't quite do it justice. The weeds were filling up the bins, but not packed enough to actually decompose. I found some old compost piles from last years leaves to put on top and squish everything. Made a neat compost layered cake of sorts. Yeah I was playing a bit.

While working in the yard we saw lots of nature. Jen nearly put her hand into this.

We decided to leave it be and move onto somewhere else in the yard. Last year we had four or five of these in our pool shed. This year none. I'm surprised we've only found one this year.

What has increased is our Cicada Killer activity. Last year we had maybe three or four. This year it's at least seven. They all live along our front sidewalk. They like dry loose soil and that's the dryest part of our yard. They dig burrows to live in and lay their eggs. To feed the eggs, they paralyze Cicadas and drag them into their burrows. It's really neat to watch, though they're not very smart. They can walk for hours around their burrow before they find it. For the most part they're harmless, though their size is intimidating (about as big as your thumb). Jen wants them gone because they fly all around the sidewalk creating a general nuisance (they like to fight each other too). I'm assuming the Cicadas are the beginning of their end, so I'll probably wait till next year when we have fifteen or so buzzing around, then I'll thin the herd.

The other cool thing this year is the mud dauber living on our front porch. I noticed a week or so ago these things appearing in this same spot on our porch. Hmmm paralyzed wolf spider? Keeping an eye out, I eventually saw the culprit. The mud dauber does a similar thing to the Cicada killer. Builds a home (a organ pipe looking tube of mud in this case), finds and paralyzes another kind of being, stuffs it into its home and lays its eggs on it for baby food. I can't believe in the whole wide world of our yard, these little insects are actually able to go out and find what they need (though our yard is full of wolf spiders). Granted the mud tube homes can become unsightly and a nuisance, but watching the process is interesting.

Currently it's raining. Hopefully it will pass in the next hour or so, and we'll get back out into the wildness of our yard. Have to check up on the progress of all our praying mantis too.


- b