Fire Ant Flickers (#23)

Howdy, folks! I trust you’ve had a great week and are looking ahead to an even better weekend. However, since today is National Cheeseburger Day, it may well be that we’ve peaked for the week, and I’m not complaining.

This post could easily have been placed into the Neighborhood Nature category, but I’m going to try not to be all sciencey and we’ll mainly stick to photos and generic observations. Plus, there are a few other things I want to share that aren’t all that natural. So, at the end of the day, we can fall back on the shrewd words of an ancient philosopher…

I was browsing the website for our club membership earlier this week and the following line on the monthly charges section caught my eye (and my breath):

I don’t know about you, but we’re going to have to move some money around — maybe even call my guy ^[1] — to cover this when it comes due. I guess we’re just lucky that we don’t play golf, or it could be worse.

I’m pretty sure the rock squirrels are building a nest under our deck.

I wouldn’t mind it so much but with the current drought, we can’t affored to lose any more lawn.

I’m not saying that there’s someone — or something — living in our refrigerator, but I’m also not saying there’s not.

Many people have guard dogs. Our neighborhood has guard does.

Speaking of the drought (you do remember my reference to the drought, right?), the grass and weeds in the pastures are drying and thinning out to the point where the “carton tubes” of desert termites (Gnathamitermes tubiformans) are becoming increasingly obvious in the surrounding landscape.

This cluster of mud tubes is more than a foot wide, and is next to the sidewalk running by our pickleball/tennis court. Fortunately, while the termites do eat the grass, which is already threatened, they are not harmful to humans, animals, or buildings. IOW, they’re not the bad wood-munching termites.

Speaking of faces in unexpected places…

You may be forgiven if you thought this is a snake peering out of a watering can, but it’s actually a tree frog (the toes grasping the edge of the pot might be a clue, right?). He or she frequents our back porch (there are more of them doing the same hide-and-seek thing in the front of our house), and it’s always fun to see them.

Well, that’s it for the day…talk about phoning it in…have a good one!

Closing Hit

Footnote

[1] I confess to stealing some of the preceding words from Greg Warren, who currently holds the #1 spot in my list of hilarious comedians. He used those phrases in a sketch about ordering side dishes at Red Lobster over his server’s warnings about their expense. [Return]