Monsters of all kinds

It's been so long since I blogged, but I'm starting with the same topic I left off on....the interminable stinging insects/creepy crawlers of south central Texas. Really, what DID the early settlers see in this place? Between the heat and humidity, drought and floods, scorpions and wasps...snakes and Indians--they just "HAD" to come? Hmmm. I would SO have stayed in Boston back in 1830.

Well, they did and now I'm here. The difference is I do have air-conditioning and wasp spray. Thank the Lord.

My weekend started with me coming home from an errand to find all my children behind the house, yelling and screaming with either glee or terror. Come to find out, it was a little of both. "Perfect daughter killed a rattlesnake!" yelled rowdy son. THAT was glee. The terror was my "WHAT?????" as I ran around the house to investigate. Perfect daughter was already burying the body...the head was in a coffee can. Oh great. They found it in my favorite flower bed. Where I often water the plants while standing barefoot....

I quizzed them as to the certainty of it being a rattlesnake. "Did you see the rattle?" I asked rowdy son. "Yep, it was rattling and it was trying to STRIKE me", he insisted. Perfect daughter said "It was really aggressive". Sweet girl said, "I watched from inside" (she is my true daughter!). I just happen to have world famous snake experts/breeders as neighbors and I immediately called them to ask if there had been an influx of rattlesnakes into the neighborhood, perhaps due to the utility work in our pasture. The husband wanted to come right down to see the head. He came, he saw, he was nice, he explained..."That's a rat snake". Um. Good, and bad. Now we felt guilty about killing it (and I wondered how many rats might come inside that night). Perfect daughter was sad--especially when the snake guy said "he was a teenage snake, just looking for his own home". Sniff. She really HAD been brave, though. I was plain ol' relieved.

Till the next day. We have red wasps. LOTS of them. They live in the holes in our rock exterior and I know with certainty that if we were to take off the rock siding, it would be somewhat similar to "Alien" with the breeding wasps and scorpions. As I have often written...I'm afraid of my own yard. It's creepy.

Well, the kids were playing outside. Being herewegoagain children, they decided to be "really smart" and bat at the red wasps with sticks. Hmmm. What's wrong with that picture? Oh, yeah...sticks don't kill them. Sticks anger them.

Rowdy son was stung on the forehead, between his eyes. He was very brave and came to tell me immediately. And good thing too, because as I watched him, he swelled before my eyes. HE then looked like something out of "Alien" (no, make that Star Trek--think, "Klingon"). I gave him benedryl immediately, but the swelling continued. When both his eyes were almost swelled shut, we hustled to the ER. THERE, he was even more grotesque. He's generally a cute kid, but he suddenly looked like he needed to be yelling "Yo, Adrian" and slumping on some stool in the corner of the ring.

They fixed him up, but in the two days since it happened, the swelling has done some interesting things. It started traveling down his head, to give him chipmunk cheeks and slits for eyes. He still looks cute, but more like a chubby Asian kid who is visiting, rather than my scrawny son. He's milking this to the max. He can't take out the trash "Because I was stung by a wasp". He can't help with the dogs because "My face is all bloaty". But apparently he IS well enough to now have played 40 hours of video games. And the prednisone has upped his appetite to the point of possibly keeping that chubby little face forever. In other words, he is just fine.

So, he's not the monster I'm worried about now. It's bigger, uglier, and permanent.

During the same time frame, our easement issues have heated up. If only the wasps would swarm around a few well-placed utility workers. Maybe then they would leave. Instead, we have trucks, wires and cranes in our front pasture daily. We finally had the new easement that they are trying to purchase from us surveyed. The stakes clearly mark which trees we have that would be at risk of clear-cutting. Mr. herewegoagain and I tramped around counting trees yesterday. Well, HE tramped and I stood on pavement trying to avoid fire ants and wasps. We counted FORTY mature shade trees (different oaks, and a japanese cherry tree) and 65 other trees in the threatened area.

So, we asked for a tree survey. At the very least, if they are going to cut down almost all the trees on our property (and we live in Texas where trees are a premium on your land), we feel that we should be compensated for them.

We heard back today. Nope, nope and nope to all and everything we have ever asked. They want our land and they want it at their price. And they insist on the right to cut anything in their way. We very possibly will be left with a scarred landscape leading to our house, nestled under high power lines. Pretty picture, eh?

The wasps are scary, the snakes are terrifying, I don't like the ants, and the water isn't always clear here---but this is OUR HOME. And the real monsters out there are taking it from us, without a care for our rights.

Because apparently we have none.