Jon and I have plans to thin out some of the smaller trees from our woods and seed more grass in the fall to have less "woods" and more "lawn" in the back. Since one of our trees fell into the neighbor's yard during last week's severe thunderstorm, it was the perfect opportunity to borrow his dad's chainsaw, cut up that tree, get to know the neighbor better (and let them know we're a responsible neighbor!) and cut down some of the smaller trees.
Jon had the best helper! Sean drove around the tractor for him all morning and absolutely loved it. Good driving practice.
BUT- before I took all these pictures, Jon and all the kids except Jack and Luke were attacked by yellow jackets!
I was inside when I heard Brilee coming up to the house screaming hysterically. This really isn't unusual for her, but when she got in the house she was flailing her arms around saying, "They're biting me! They're biting me!" I thought she had stepped in fire ants, so I took off her shoes and socks but didn't see any ants, but there were a few red marks on her leg that she was scratching and a big one over her eye. I took her to the bathroom to find the cortisone when she started screaming again, "I hear it! It's buzzing IN MY EAR!!" At this point I thought she might be having an allergic reaction and hallucinating because I didn't see ANYTHING on her or around her. So, I pulled back her hair, and that's when I saw the yellow jacket crawl out of her hair and start flying around again and get on her arm and sting her again! I swatted at it and it fell to the ground and I smashed it (with some clothes lying on the floor!) It had left the stinger in that time, so I went to find the tweezers when I heard the other kids and Jon come crying into the house-- that is, Jon wasn't crying, but he had been stung also. And they talked about how the yellow jackets had chased them and all bitten them too.
After getting out Brilee's stinger and giving everyone benadryl and cortisone cream, it was a good chance to use this event as an opportunity to learn about yellow jackets. We read about their nests and of course, the best way to KILL them!
I was disappointed not to have a picture, until later that night I went to open my music bag when I saw a dead one right on top!
I guess it had come in on one of the kids. THen I found a second dead one on the carpet beside the piano. Took a picture for size comparison and posted on a fb group page called Antman's Hill for identification.
He called them, "Vespula squamosa......the Southern Yellowjacket. Mean, spiteful little balls of hate"
So, after that occurence, the girls did NOT want to go back out in the woods, but after a break, the guys headed back out to do more work, and I snapped a few pictures wearing my big TALL boots :)
The culprit of the tree falling down was this...it had been completely eaten hollow by bugs! Sean thought it was so cool.
These next few pictures are of trees Jon cut down because I wanted them down- they are either dying or too small and in an area I want to encourage grass growth.
Sean spotted a tree frog on one of the logs. We hear a chorus of these at nighttime--very relaxing to hear them out on the porch.
Holding the tree frog
This line of trees is the back edge of our property.
This is from the back of our property looking towards the back of our house.
Sean doing some more driving. I was so proud of him that's why I took so many pictures :)
This is the opening to the Yellow Jacket nest--in the middle of these leaves. Jon is going to get some insecticide to kill them, but it has to be done at night when they aren't active and can't see because they don't see well. Plus all of them will be in the nest at night.
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