matching tracksuits

I took the trusty Nikon onto the back deck the other evening for some playing. I wanted to get a picture of our backyard at night.

That bright light in the neighbor's yard will be of particular concern if we ever build a small patio and grill down there.

I also set the camera down for a self-portrait.

One neighbor was having concrete poured. Another neighbor was having his roof redone. K was painting. I pulled apart that awful squirrel cage in the back yard and (not shown) moved more leaves and branches for curbside service.

The downside of having a big yard is having a ton -- almost literally -- of leaves to rake. And when the back yard has 25+ trees and hasn't been raked in probably years, it makes a mess.

This represents probably 20% of the leaves in the back yard.

We were going to fix an outside spigot

Then we decided it was too much work with too little time, so we had a cookout instead.

I recently reclaimed our backyard from a group of yellow jackets. In reality, they really had only taken over a small portion -- they were in the corner of the yard, and we have a big backyard:

We have big plans for the backyard, but there's so much work to do in the house that I seldom get outside to do it -- and "it" is truly overwhelming.

The backyard has been terribly neglected: the leaves probably haven't been raked in years. Trying to remedy that is how I initially discovered the yellow jackets' nest.

But I can't get outside because of all the problems inside. This week, the guest bathroom sink decided to develop a leak. Rather, three leaks. I fixed two of them, but in the process of fixing them, created the third.

The whole problem (taking all three as one larger Problem) is that whoever did the plumbing the first time had never heard of Teflon tape, hence everything was simply screwed in place and waiting for a leak.

It's indicative of this house -- most things seem to be done backwards. For instance, the insulation throughout the house is put in backwards, with the vapor barrier facing the crawl space instead of the floorboards. I can't figure out how they did that one, since the vapor barrier has "This side to living area" printed in bold every six inches or so.

But it gives me plenty of little projects...

On May 7 and 8, 1945, the Allies celebrated their victory over the Third Reich. In London, millions gathered in a near-carnival atmosphere to mark the end of a long nightmare.

While our celebrations were nearly so huge, K and I did exchange a laugh over the end of the Yellow Jacket War this weekend, after the last pockets of resistance were flushed out and destroyed.

I went down Saturday morning about nine, just before mowing, to see if I could root around with a shovel and find the nest. I'd been making daily observations at dusk the whole week and had not seen a single infantryman (infantry-wasp?) in that period. Just to be sure, I'd doused the area liberally with more wasp killer.

In short order, the tip of my shovel turned up the yellow jackets' lair...

And it was absolutely covered with yellow jackets.

The shovel fell with a thud as I sprinted for my life. Not literally, for I'm not allergic to them, but their stings do indeed burn. I soon realized that none were following. "Perhaps these are specialized workers who aren't as aggressive as those who hunt and gather -- and defend," I thought. Deciding to take a chance, I crept back down the hill in the early evening and found the nest still covered. I gave them a shot of bad medicine (you had to know that was coming at some point), ready to run. Yet none attacked.

Their mistake.

There's something perversely satisfying about holding a significant portion of your enemy's entire base in your hand...

("That looks burned," some might think. Indeed. When I brought the nest in, I noticed that there were a couple of larvae still wriggling about. "Immolation is the only sure method," I muttered -- rather, "I guess I'll have to burn these suckers" -- so I took the nest out, put it on several layers of aluminum foil in the driveway, sprinkled a few drops of gas on them...)

Of course I videoed some of the battle. Let’s hope the music is synched…