Aerie Chores

The weather quack's forecast this morning called for overcast skies and a chance of some heavy thunder boomers late in the afternoon and on through the night. As a rsult, I figured I had better get out there and get some things done this morning and right after lunch.

First I went up the power line and onto the upper portion of our property to haul out some flatties, i.e. large flat rocks for use in making some stone walls and walkways. We actually have two parcels of land on the hillside. The one upon which the house sits is pretty rectangular and contains 10.4 acres. The other is shaped like a key with a long narrow section from the road and parallel to the 10.4 acre parcel and then a wide back end. It measures 6.9 acres and abuts the 10.4 acres on the south and slightly up hill. It has it's own driveway so I took the Explorer up there to haul the rocks back to the Aerie.

I pissed off a lot of ants of many varieties by picking up the rocks that formed the roof to their nests. There were little brown ants with little white eggs. There were little golden ants with little cream colored eggs. There were medium sized black ants with opal like eggs. And, when I kicked up a decaying log or two, there were large red and black ants whom I knew to be biters so I left them alone. They aren't as bad a s fire ants but they can really put a damper on your day.

Between 9 AM and noon I made four trips back and forth with about two dozen rocks at a time. I figure it came to a little over a ton of stone. Now I just have to make the same number of trips to have enough for the raised beds I will want for vegetables and perennials next year.

After an hour break for lunch (and some recuperation) I went out a angered a bunch of honey bees and bumble bees that were feeding on the flowers of the clover we have in the yard. It takes about a week for the clover flowers to really mature and the bees were hard at work gathering all the nectar they could until I came along with the lawn mower and put an end to their activities. There were the bumble bees with their black bodies and bright yellow vests, regular honey bees that must have become feral as I know of no one in the area with any working hives, and a bee that looks like the honey bee but with a rust colored vest. There were dozens of them at work and with every pass of the lawn mower, their working area got smaller and smaller until it disappeared completely. Now they will have to settle for the bergamont, Queen Ann's lace and goldenrod until the clover sprouts new flowers.

I finished up at three in the afternoon and the rains didn't appear until after five. Even then they were considerably less than anticipated. At noon there was a line of pretty violent thunderstorms stretching from Buffalo to Pittsburgh and they were heading our way. By four they had broken up and when the front reached here there was a little drizzle but not much else. At least with the sun staying hidden behind the clouds the temperature never got much above 75 degrees and the little rain we did get held off until I was done with the grass.