Summer of the Flies

I officially deem this summer/fall, summer of the flies! We have been overrun. We can't keep them out of the house. We are killing them constantly. John turned fly killing into a game with the kids. Unfortunately, they aren't skilled enough to actually hit one (this might be because we use big magazines as our fly swatters...why can't I remember to buy a flyswatter!?) There have been many tears shed and many fights over who gets to try to kill the fly or who got the point for killing the fly. Maybe it wasn't the best game?

I am currently aware of 3 flies in the house this morning. And this is after I killed 1 and let 3 out as they were sitting on the back door, and John killed 7 last night! I seriously can't open up the door without at least one flying in. It's insane! I'm not sure if there is something about my house that is particularly alluring to flies, or if they really are bad this year. I might as well just start leaving food out for them so they will stop landing on us!
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This reminds me of preying mantis summer. It was the summer after my freshman year of college. I was home that summer working at First Security Bank doing data entry with my friend Karalenn. I'm pretty sure we were the first to notice the insects that were taking over our town. I distinctly remember eating lunch outside on the grass one day when we noticed a preying mantis on the grass near us, then we noticed another on the wall, and then another on the grass. Since preying mantis's are quite possibly one of the creepiest, most alien like insects it totally freaked me out...I can't speak for Karalenn.

Our theories about preying mantis summer were strengthened when one night while getting gas we were attacked by hundreds of preying mantises (is that how you would spell that??) We were both out of the car and the outside lights were on at the gas station. Within minutes of being there we noticed MILLIONS of preying mantises all over the cement. Then they were all over the car. Karalenn even had to knock one off the gas pump handle so she could take the nozzle out of the car (she had to do it because it was her car and I'm a wimp!). It was seriously freaky!

Finally the media was informed of the problem and they came to us for information...okay, so actually I just saw the story on the news of how the weather patterns that year were forcing the preying mantis population north into Idaho, but if they had wanted some good stories they should have called us, their bad!

So my point is, I'll take a fly over a preying mantis any day! While flies are annoying, at least their not alien like and HUGE and scary!



On a completely different note...........................................

We planted another tree!!!! This might not be as exciting for anyone else in the world as it is for me, but I'm desperate for shade (some privacy wouldn't hurt either)! Our backyard faces west, and most of the windows on our house also face west. As a result we BAKE for most of the year! Our neighbors have an awesome tree that shades part of our yard, but I've been desperate for some shade on the other half. And now we'll have it in 10-15 years! Actually both of these trees are capable of growing 3 feet a year. So we're going to force them to grow 5, so that I can have some relief! John's brother Dan was nice enough to come over last night and help John get it into the hole. The base of this thing was massive! The two of them couldn't even lift it, they had to kind of roll it into the hole and we had to get it into the backyard with the help of a wheelbarrow. I was amazed it was that heavy because there was not a drop of water in the root sack, that thing was bone dry.
We planted the maple (on the right) 2 years ago. And on Saturday the nice man working at Lowe's sent us over to a tree auction at a nearby nursery taking place that day. After some cursing and unpleasantries (I won't say between whom) John was able to buy this 15 foot ash for $45. That's what I paid for our maple 2 years ago when it was teeny tiny. The trees we were looking at at Lowe's were $30-$40 and were pretty sad looking. And although our tree has a scraggly looking side, we got a killer of a deal! And the nursery owner assured John that the lack of leaves on the one side were due to it's lack of sunshine since it was packed in next to another tree, I'll be ticked off it those branches don't sprout in the spring!

And in case you're looking at the picture thinking the spacing of those trees looks ridiculous! I'll tell you now that I don't care! A woman at a nursery assured me that although these trees should be planted 30 feet apart, they should just grow together and most likely won't kill each other even though we only planted them 10 feet apart. Hopefully there will eventually be a nice wall of shade back there! And luckily, we won't be living here in 10-15 years when one of the trees will most likely be removed. Is that rude?

And, I'm glad I learned my lesson on house direction on my first house and not a home I want to stay in forever. I think that even if I found a house that faced east, even if I really, really loved it, I would have to decline, unless of course the previous owners had already taken care of ALL shade issues. It's just one of those things that I now know drives me crazy. Lesson learned!