boblog

In case you’re having trouble with your company and COBRA, you might be interested in this article.

http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/COBRA/main.html

Finished my bi-annual kitchen knife sharpening. Thanks to the Boy Scouts of America for a practical, lifelong skill. I hardly know any guys who can shapen their own knives nowadays, except of course all the fishing and hunting pals. Otherwise, it’s a lost art. I honed (sorry) my skills on weekend scout campouts. If I wasn’t teaching a course, I’d sit back at camp and sharpen things. Anything that had a blade and needed its edge honed. Or, during those long midnight shifts at the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Often, having a few knives to bring back into service was the one thing that got me through some very boring early-morning hours. So, it’s Memorial Day weekend. Got kids? If they’re old enough, take some time to teach them how to sharpen things: knives, hoes, shovels, shears, clippers. They’ll thank you in about 30 years when they realize how they know to do that.

Went to the Texas Western Swing Festival in San Marcos over the weekend. Noah never saw as much rain. Sigh. God bless them one and all they did the best they could. Moved the bands into the Activities center and all was well. Any place that has buckets of salted goobers (peanuts) on the table for you is okay in my book. If you’re interested, here’s a great place to start: http://wswing.home.texas.net/. It was fantabulous, amazing, fun, and good beyond belief. No really, it was, in spite of the rain. The Wimberly side-trip wasn’t too bad either.

I don’t know about where you live, but here in north Texas we have to deal with fire ants. They’re small but vicious and, apparently, have a passion for flesh. Plus, as you probably already know, their bites (and there can be lots of them very quickly) leave painful, itchy whelps.

Wanna get rid of them from your yard?

Seems that’s the problem. Everybody and their uncle has an idea about how to rid the yard or pasture of the little buggers but most of them are only temporary solutions. And, most of them also involve nasty, semi-toxic chemicals.

What’s an antphobe to do?

Well, there really are a couple of honest-to-goodness, permanent solutions.

Solution 1 is simple.

1.     Clear out an unobstructed path between your kitchen and the ant hill. That is, move the kids and pets somewhere else and make sure there’s nothing on the floor that you will trip on.

2.     Bring a medium-sized metal container of water to a rolling boil. (Yes, I know, a plastic container will have less-satisfying results.)

3.      Pour the boiling water down the middle of the ant hill.

4.      As always, do whatever you can to ensure the safety of you and anyone around you while transporting and handling boiling water!

Solution 2 is simple but requires slightly more preparation.

1.      Buy some  orange oil from your local organic garden center. I use Erath Earth orange oil from Hico, TX. Bought it at Lowes.

2.      Outside, in a regular-sized mop bucket, pour in 1 to 2 ounces of the orange oil.

3.      Add a healthy squirt of regular dishwashing detergent.

4.      Fill the bucket with water and mix thoroughly.

5.      Pour about half of the mixture down the middle of the ant hill. Save the remaining half for the next herd of ants that take up residency in your yard.

Works every time. And, so it goes.

Or, there’s always this: http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20090512/sc_mcclatchy/3231765;_ylt=AmUMoWu9jhbrDHKN1D7Im9IDW7oF

What’s the world coming to when you can’t have a few chickens around: http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/1189350.html?