Sunday, June 28, 2009

Bees!

We have bees! Those who know me well will be able to hear the mortal terror in my tone when I say that line.

Bees have decided to make the eaves just off our deck their new cozy home. Darrel sprayed this evening, after the sun went down, with some Raid wasp and hornet spray. He reports that the bees seem pretty pissed, and are completely unwilling to go anywhere near the eaves. Me, I'd rather have them dead than pissed, because alive and pissed means they can just find another home...hopefully one far away from my house!

As if I didn't have enough to worry about here, between the bears and the snakes...

Oh, I never mentioned the snakes? Well, one snake, but still. Two weeks ago, Frank and I were coming home in the afternoon, and we walked around to the front door. As we passed one of the bushes, I looked closely at the odd thing that looked somewhat like a stick nestled cozily on top of it.

It was a snake. Mere feet from my house. And mere feet from my two-year-old, who fears nothing.

I picked up said two-year-old, and pointed out the snake. "Ohhh...can I touch it?" he asked, as I'd known he would. (I do hate to say it, but in certain ways, I am finding toddlers to be quite predictable!)

"No," I told him. "Never, ever, ever touch a snake. Snakes can bite, and it will hurt! Don't touch the snake. If you see a snake, don't touch, tell Mommy and Daddy."

I think it's (sort of) sunk in, mostly because I quiz him on this from time to time. "Frank, what do you do if you see a snake?"

"Tell Mommy and Daddy."

"Do you touch the snake?"

"No!"

Who knew I moved out to wild freaking kingdom??

4 comments:

Deb said...

What kind of snake? We have snakes here too and they freak me out sometimes but they're harmless. Grass snakes, I think they are...? Some are teeny, but I've seen some ginormous ones. We're talking, like, anaconda size.

Ok, not really, but when they startle you....yeah.

Karin said...

I think it was a garter snake, but it's been years since I've seen one. They're pretty common around here- I grew up in suburbia, about a half hour from here, and we saw them once in a while there, too.

Even if it was "just" a garter snake, though, what I told Frank still stands: if it bites, it will in fact hurt. ;)

Deb said...

Yeah, I know Frank shouldn't touch...he's too young to know if it's *just* a garter snake anyway.

I was just curious about what kind of sons of Slytherin you have out there.

Anisah said...

Do you live out in the country? We live in the boonies, but I haven't seen a snake. They are probably around though We see lots of deer.

Anisah