Thar’s Bugs in Them Thar Hills….but you have to dig for them. One of the many things we like about AZ is the dearth of flying insects. The Midwest, where I grew up, has beaucoup mosquitoes and flies. The Pacific NW doesn’t have many flying pests but they have an abundance of carpenter ants. What we do have here in AZ is subterranean termites; neighbor lady says there’re only two situations when it comes to these critters: you either have ‘em or you’re going to have ‘em. And, she’s right: we have ‘em.
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STs are small, can become unwanted houseguests via cracks as small as 1/32” – the little shits. To keep them out you need to treat the perimeter of the house with bug juice, saturating the soil to a minimum depth of 6”. Step one is breaking up and removing the crust of stucco residue from when the house was built – tedious but not difficult. Step two is removing the pavers and bricks and all the other stuff that’s in the way. Step three is forming a trench along the edge of the house foundation, a place for the juice to sit a spell before it seeps into the soil. Step four is pouring the juice into the trench. Step five is replacing the soil you removed from trench – quickly – and mixing it in with the bug juice before it seeps away. And there you have it folks, my latest hobby: termite trenching.
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We’re back to playing golf regularly. Most area courses were closed in October for reseeding. That was a surprise to us but okay cuz we had a lot of house and RV projects to get done. I joined a men’s league for the first time; they play on our favorite little ‘executive’ course, a par 30. Most of the guys are older than me I think. Could be they’re not older but just look that way from traveling lots of rough roads and visiting too many all-you-can-eat buffets.
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The high obesity factor in seniors is alarming. And, it’s not just seniors. Lardy, lardy, lardy! A multi-billion dollar industry is the losing weight business, millions of people in denial, looking for magical cures to being overweight. Here’s the cure, it’s not magic and it’s free: eat less, burn more. Duh.
I imagine trench digging is a good workout plan--not as scenic as some, though. What a pain, to have those bugs!
ReplyDeleteWe celebrated Emily's birthday here last night with the other kids. Other than that, we're just cracking the homework whip. Ron just asked if he could strangle one of the boys, so you know it's bad!