Wednesday, May 14, 2008

More yard work, and an upcoming change

Mowed the lawn across town. The bees were out, but now that I know that they're stingerless Carpenter Bees, I just sneered at them and kept on mowing. Just wait until I a) I discover that the information about Carpenter Bees being stingerless is not true, b) I discover that they are not Carpenter Bees, but are Bumblebees - Killer Bumblebees, or c) discover that they have completely hollowed out the supports for my garage when it collapses on me as I mow around it.

I didn't get back here until after 8:00, and by then it was too late to get started mowing the lawn here. So I unplugged my weed-whacker from its charger and cut down as many dandelions as I was able to before the charge and the light gave out. I was halfway through when I noticed something moving a sapling on the side yard not far from me. Something big.

It was one of the neighborhood strays, the one we call Spookybear. He was scratching his back on the sapling while he watched me work. From his days as a kitten last Fall, Spookybear has always been the neighborhood stray least frightened by humans, and the most fascinated by them. I worry this may not be a good survival trait in the long run.


Note to regular commentors:
I may be changing the way I handle comments on this blog at some point in the future. When the time comes, you'll know what I mean. Apologies in advance - I'm not doing this to restrict or inconvenience you. Sorry.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why did you delete my comments? I wasn't joking, i really wanted to see the after pictures of your catapiller massacre!! I bet they left some interesting shadows as well.
The only question now is why can you kill catapillers and not the carpenter bees? Clearly the bees are more destructive.

...
Its not nice to delete comments :(

Bill said...

DB, It appears that there's an infestation of trolls lately in the comment threads. So, yeah, you'll need to moderate comments to shoo them away and let them return to their personal hells. Take care and don't let the assholes get you down -- although I'm sure you're not.

Bill @ BN.

whimsical brainpan said...

I'm pretty sure Carpenter Bees don't have stingers. A bunch live right outside my door and have never bothered me (even though they've landed on me).

I hate that you have to approve comments now. Trolls will be trolls i suppose.

D.B. Echo said...

Yep, whim, I hate it too. I used to like feeling like there was a conversation going on between commentors, like I see on other sites. Now nobody gets to know what anyone else said until I approve it all. It sucks. But once upon a time, people used to leave their front doors unlocked.