ON WASPS & FIRE ANTS & THINGS

At our new home in the City by the Lake there are all kinds of creepy, flying, and crawling creatures. These can provide a fascinating and exciting experience for our young knight Don Andrew. Generally Don Andrew is fearless when it comes to all kinds of adventurous activities. He will travel with his old sidekick Grandpa Sancho almost anywhere, except where there are wasps and fire ants.

Recently our young knight hired out to his faithful squire to plant some tomatoes. He wanted to earn some quarters so he could purchase the soundtrack to the movie Cars. Its true the duo waited a little late in the year for planting and drought conditions had already set in. We got the “A Shovel” (so named because Don Andrew had Grandpa Sancho put an A on the shovel so everyone would know who that particular shovel belonged to) and tried to dig in the ground. After many tries the ingenious duo had to resort to larger equipment. A grubbing hoe could only break the surface, so water had to be added to soften the dirt. After a long while the shovel would work. Four of the holes were now dug and two remained to be dug.

Now Don Andrew is a little like his (almost) namesake Don Quixote. He not only likes to go on adventures that end up being misadventures, he also gets just a little bit confused at times. He was convinced the two want-to-be farmers are actually planting potatoes. Or, is it because he hates to eat tomatoes, even though he drowns French fired potatoes in tomato catsup?

As the day wore on so did Don Andrew. This five year old farmer was getting pretty hot in the 100+ degree head out there in the back forty. All of a sudden he called out “Grandpa we have to go in. There is a red wasp.” Now red wasps seem to be the monsters of the wasp world. Don Andrew assured his old grandpa that the wasp could be easily killed with “Wasp Poisonous” (Don Andrew’s name for poison. Incidentally, there is also “Fire Ant” Poisonous,” “Spider Poisonous,” and Mosquito Poisonous.”

Grandpa Sancho couldn’t see a wasp. But, Don Andrew assured him there were wasps over there near their nest. Upon closer investigation, the wasp nest turned out to be a bird nest in a tree. So, there was really no wasp but Don Andrew had convinced his ancient sidekick there was a need to go inside, rest, and cool off.

So, the two of them sipped tea, reclined in comfortable chairs, and watched Sandlot for the twentieth or thirtieth time. All was finally well with the two adventurers. Farming the back forty would just have to wait for a cooler day.

FLAT FROGS!

Back in the spring it was raining almost every day. That was before the drought of 2006 set in. Folks in Central Texas think it is drought conditions if it doesn’t rain for five or six weeks. When we lived in West Texas we learned that just after a really great rain might just be the beginning of the next really long drought. That seems to be the case in the City by the Lake this year.

Don Andrew and his faithful sidekick Grandpa Sancho left early one day to try to find a really good adventure. It’s nearly always a good adventure when these two get together. It had been raining quite a bit so the grass was wet and the adventurous duo had to walk on the edge of the road. As Don Andrew looked to the right and to the left he could see a great number of frogs hopping around in the yards of neighbors. This was quite fascinating to our young knight.

On this particular day Don Andrew talked about the frogs during the plagues in the days of Moses while the Israelites were captive in Egypt. Grandpa Sancho was very proud that Don Andrew could recall the story so well. Don Andrew loves to hear the stories of the Bible.

As the duo traveled on, Don Andrew looked ahead and saw something on the road. “Grandpa look!” said Don Andrew. “It’s a flat frog.” Now that poor old frog had been run over by cars way too many times. He was not only flat, he was flat and dry, like he had been there for a number of days. Our brave knight drew his faithful sword (a stick) and moved the “flat frog” carefully off the roadway. That seemed like the best thing to do. He decided not to bury the frog but to cover him with leaves and rocks. It was too muddy to bury a flat frog with a stick.

As the adventurers traveled on Grandpa Sancho had to assure brave young Don Andrew that we were not having a plague of frogs of Biblical proportions. This young knight was satisfied with that answer as we went on to bigger and better adventures, eventually ending up at the playground, as usual.