So Are the Days of Our Natural Lives

Back in June I wrote:

"...guess what the girls saw under our carport that made them come skrieking into the house the other day?  Well, just you wait, Mr. Higgins, just you wait!  We'll let you know in a full Field Trip Report."

Then I promptly forgot to report what that mysterious being was in our June Nature Field Trip.

So, let me begin with that. 

What caused my girls to come "shrieking into the house"?  Nothing more than a beautiful lime-green katydid scaling across the snowy white ceiling of our carport.  But, you have to understand, DQ is afraid of crickets.  Why, I may never know.  We have caught them and held them and admired them and played with them---at least Starr, GameBoy and I have. DQ will have nothing to do with them.  She's terrified of them and lizards.  Thus the frightened shrieks at seeing a mere leaf of a bug walking across our carport ceiling.  I mean, goodness! what's so unusual about that!?

Amazingly my girls think nothing of ohing and ahing over this awfully nice arachnid!  (scroll down a tad)  Yes, indeed.  Our yard cat, who does not catch mice or snakes but lets our country yard farely crawl about with them, did earn her keep by defeating the likes of this.  It was a beastly defeat, yet a proud moment.  My husband found the girls cautiously inspecting the slight widow in her mourning attire. Clearly, the sands in her hourglass had run out.

There was no shrieking from the child who has a phobia against little brown defenseless crickets, mosquito-eating lizards, and---yes---even harmless katydids; just respectful observation over the intricate details of God's handiwork.   Perhaps...just perhaps...because it wasn't scaling the walls of our carport but lying in a defeated lump at the feet of our feline warrior whose green eyes never lost sight of its prey.

And then there was yesterday's excitement with the army of wasps who practically kept us as prisoners within the house. 

Their attack began the day before with my husband noticing the comings and goings of a number of red wasps (Polistes carolina) through a crack in the carport which leads to the attic.  This is also a central location for the comings and goings of our children and visitors on their way to our kitchen door.  Not a good place for a wasp fest.  So my husband did the smart thing.  He sealed-off the crack.

Yeah, buddy, here's your sign. 

Within 24 hours the party had moved from the crack in the corner to our entire carport.  Wasps swarmed around in crazy line-dances trying to locate an opening to their blissful domain...my space!  They even bumped against the glass storm door trying to knock down our defenses.  We were trapped!

I began digging around for wasp spray/cockroach spray/ant spray/ mace personal defense spray/ whatever-would-shoot-them-down spray...to no avail.  After what seemed like forever, my husband came home with the real macoy.  It took my husband and two can-toting, poison-shooting sons of mine to save us from these flying demons.

They were back today...the wasps, I mean...but we're slowly getting an upperhand on them. Their numbers are showing signs of dwindling.  And it's a good thing.   DQ and I were at the point of bailing out on Nature Study.  I mean, who wants green leafs walking on their carports and black widows attacking their cat and demon wasps wanting to suck blood?  Tell me...Who!  Pray tell.

Honestly, if it wasn't for Charlotte Mason and Macbeth Derham, I'd have given up on Mother Nature a long time ago.  Instead, we'll study about how nice katydids are, keep wasp spray on hand, continue studying and appreciating God's awesome works of art...oh, and we'll keep the cat.

Comments

[Theresa]

Sounds positively beastly!

[Kristin]

Thanks for sharing this post! I found it quite humorous --- and educational! I was outside the other day with ds and dd and we saw a katydid ... I did not know what it was until now! Need I admit that in my ignorance, I thought it was a grasshopper, albeit a rather unusual-looking grasshopper ... I'm so glad to know I'm not the only one around that isn't necessarily the keenest on some of this nature stuff!

[Krisann]

I found two of those lovely black ladies in the sunroom at the house in Belen the last time I was there. They were huge!

I swept them up and threw them outside. I wanted to squish them but I just couldn't do it. LOL.

I don't know which is worse, the black widows in the old house or the scorpions in the new one!

Ahh nature, ya gotta love it! ;)

[Cay]

Scorpions!!!