Ouch!!!

Silly Moi!!

A couple of weeks ago I spent one evening from 3:30pm to 8:30pm weeding in my yard. I was quite successful but did not finish one of the flower beds on the hill.  I got one done and half of the other.  I also missed the area around our bench on the hill and two other beds in the back yard. 

As I was finishing the first bed on the hill, I kept hearing what I assumed was a big horse fly zipping around my head. It just kept circling and diving at me. I had moved to the second flower bed on the hill and felt a sting on the front of my right foot near my ankle. The stinging kept getting more intense. I thought it might have been a thorn or twig from the fir tree on that side of the flower bed. I finally stopped and pulled my sock back and that is when I saw it. It was definitely a tiny hole where a stinger had entered and exited.  I dismissed it and kept on weeding the second flower bed. Then it came at my hand and I felt a sting on my middle finger. It was from a yellow jacket. I was able to crush that little fella. It was really hurting my foot and my hand. I'm not highly allergic so my question was, "Do I keep weeding until light goes?" or "Should I quit and head back up the hill?"  I decided to weed a bit longer.

Last night I went back down the hill to finish weeding the flower bed I had not finished before. As I was weeding it, I realized I wanted to pull up the lamb's ear Andie had given me.  I really didn't like it in the bed. So I pulled all of it out of the flower bed I was weeding.  Then I moved to the bed I had completed a few weeks ago. All the lamb's ear in that bed I had planted at the bottom hoping it would provide a row of plants to stop the soil from floating down the hill and away in rain storms. My plan was to get that lamb's ear pulled and then call it a night. 

My thoughts as I pulled out lamb's ear were of taking my day lilies out of my front yard flower bed and planting them in a row along this bottom edge of the bed. I wasn't looking for horse flies...or yellow jackets. Suddenly, as I was shaking the dirt from the roots of one of the lamb's ears, I heard a familiar buzzing of a very angry yellow jacket. It didn't take it two seconds to buzz me and then sting. This time it was my pointer finger.  As I tried to move myself away from that scene which involved trying to get my feet under me and stand on a very steep hill without losing my balance, the yellow jacket came at me again. This time it managed to get between the leg of my glasses and the temple on my forehead. I yanked off my glasses breaking the leg off the glasses. No biggy, they are just readers. But that yellow jacket stung my head what felt like repeatedly. I managed to get it off my face and squash it. I took my glove off and pulled a stinger that felt like a tree stump out of the side of my head. That did it. No more weeding for me. I gathered my gear, left the rest of the lamb's ear for the yellow jackets and headed myself and my bags of weeds up the hill.

Inside I quickly Googled "what to do with a yellow jacket sting".  Following those directions I headed upstairs and washed with soap and water. The other suggestion I learned from the Internet was to put ice on it to stop the swelling. Hmmm...I remembered that I still have two of those little gadgets you use with a baby. You simply put an ice cube in it and the teething baby can chew on the mesh that contains the ice cube for relief from their teething. I grabbed one of those and put an ice cube in it and held it to my head. My head was hurting so much more than the finger. Although this time the finger was really swelling more than before.

Claude has been out of town and I had a text from him on my cell phone. I called him and he was extremely sympathic. While living in Maryland we had wasps trying to nest on our front porch. He took a caulking gun and was filling any hole they were trying to nest in. They stung him about 5 times in different places. He was so sick he missed church the next day. I'm thinking my Big Guy was still remembering how miserable he was and could truly feel my pain.

Claude suggested we wait and spray for the wasps and then try again to pull the lambs ear in the real early morning or late at night when they will have gone dormant for a bit. I was appreciative of his care, concern and ideas.

We'll conquer the yellow jackets. We'll pull that lamb's ear. We'll move those day lilies. But...I may have to say "Ouch!!" again.