Simply Norma

I thought I had picked a nice dark red for my newly built bridge but I am having some difficulties with how the color is actually coming out. The woman at Lowes (a hardware-type store) told me that the color would darken. Here’s the chip that I picked out.

It looks dark enough, doesn’t it? When I opened the paint can, the color looked pink. After stirring the paint, the wooden stick I stirred it with looked almost the same color.

Once I finished priming my wood, I put the first coat on it and the color was definitely pink. A second coat went on — still pink. A third coat went on … well, we’re getting closer.

I think part of the problem might also be that I’m painting under fluorescent lights in the garage so that may skew what the color looks like.

It’s still lighter than what I had thought it would be but it’s close enough. We’ll see … we’ll see … this project is almost completed. Yippee!

I’m wondering if maybe I should start a website called Bugs of Minnesota as I am enthralled (term used very loosely) with them. At night, they cling to our windows attracted by the light from inside our house. They are numerous in both numbers and species. (hmmm … can you be numerous in numbers?)

The problem with this grand idea is that I would have to capture the bugs and identify them. (Face scrunches up) Then do I release them afterwards?  Ugghh … the thought of this idea …

The first of the two new bugs in my life likes to cling to my window at night. I have yet to see him during the day while working in the yard although I’m not really looking for him/her.

All the bugs in my neck of the woods seem to have, well, buggy eyes. They jut out and look quite spooky to me. Do you know what the above bug is? I’m thinking it’s a type of beetle.

The second bug has an interesting story that goes along with it. On a recent rain drenching Minnesota day, I drove to Menards (hardware-like store) to pick up a part for my contractor who was installing my new toilet but had a defective part. I got lucky and managed to find the part right away.

Upon returning to my car, I noticed a green bug on the hood. He/she was walking back and forth. In the past, I’ve, unsuccessfully, tried to talk the bugs away from me but really, who am I kidding? I think people must think I’m nuts as I mutter things to small insects around me. I quickly entered the car and rolled up all the windows. Staring at this green bug I loudly exclaimed: This bug is not coming home with me. I have plenty of my own.

Driving on the highway, I sped up to the 55 mph speed limit wishing the bug would fly off but it clung tenaciously to the hood. About 1 mile from the house, I pulled into a park thinking that I would shove it off with a piece of paper but the tenacious bug decided to make it’s way in between the hood and the windshield — unreachable.

Not wanting to make the contractor wait much longer, I drove the last mile and pulled into an outside parking space next to the house. There it was — the green bug on the hood withstood the drive home. Great, I thought. Now I have to kill it so it doesn’t breed.

Running inside the garage, I grabbed a large piece of newspaper and rolled it up. Back outside I did something I normally don’t do. I killed it. Smack! It continued to move. Smack! It still continued to move. I raised my arm and with all my might I hit the green bug a third time. Smack! The green bug was now squished on my windshield.

Poor thing. The pity came a little too late. Later I did some research and found out the green bug was … a mere grasshopper. I didn’t feel too bad when my husband told me that he had never seen one like this before.

Remember the TV show called Kung Fu back in the 1970’s? One of the characters was nicknamed “Grasshopper” by his teacher as a term of endearment.

This poor bug received no endearment from me. I’m not sure if grasshoppers are a good thing to have on a property or a bad thing although I’ve read that they like to eat leaves and we certainly have plenty of those.

Perhaps I should have caught it and let it loose in the wild. Hey, wait a minute. I live in the wild. Perhaps not.

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As I lay in bed, I heard the thunder and saw the lighting but rolled over to the other side as it was too early for me to care about what was happening on the outside. Unfortunately, my husband couldn’t sleep and he turned the TV on to learn that we were in the midst of a 60 mph electrical thunderstorm.

As I rubbed the sleep from my eyes at 4 a.m.-ish, I felt like I was at a 70’s disco party. Do you remember the silver ball that rotated casting shadows of light throughout the room? Or maybe you’re too young to remember John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.

Oh — but I digress.

This storm was huge and we have more to come. Today the temperatures will reach into the 90’s with high humidity. Yesterday the humidity was at 98. Very tropic-like.

I constantly look out the window at our property expecting some of our tall trees to be on the ground or at least have branches that have come off. So far though we’ve not had any problems. But later today they are expecting more wind and rain.

The ground is saturated with water and all of my outdoor projects have been put on hold for a few days. Even when the sun comes out the ground will be too wet to work in. Landscaping and bridges will have to wait.

These Midwest storms can be pretty but they are causing flooding with many downed trees and power outages. The projection for the next storm is that it could bring over an inch of rain an hour with it. I’m not sure how long our trees will be able to stand tall. Pictures of houses with trees felled on them make me wonder why our house has not had a tree topple on it yet.

Another “wait and see” day …

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It’s a thunderin’ — enough so to wake up the dead if it were possible!

The lightning lights up the almost pitch black sky as the large pieces of hail fall from the sky and gather to make clumps of white as if it were snowing.

I’m quite awed by the Midwest storms that pass our way. Many years ago, we didn’t have weather.com to be able to check how soon the change in weather would take place. This is one piece of technology that I use here as its accurate quite a bit of the time.

A few days ago, a small tornado touched down about an hour away. No harm was done but the possibility of a tornado hitting is high.

There seem to be quite a few of these storms that come our way. Most of the time they pass us without not even a hint of rain. Not so today. The weather will clear soon and another storm will be heading our way this evening.

I am thankful today for hostas and ferns. We have so many of them in our yard and the deer (most of the time) have left them alone.

This year the hostas have grown exponentially. (What a neat word!) Instead of dividing them, I have moved some around the property to make room in between the plants so air can flow.

The picture above is of the side yard in the back. It faces southeast. Yes, southeast. There is minimal sun that gets to this area so I’m hoping (depending on cost) to have our large trees trimmed to allow light to filter through into the yard.

One major plus to our house is that it stays cool (mostly) in the summer and warm in the winter. Most of the light we get in the house though is in the winter unless it’s directly overhead.

I figure that if we trim only on the southwest side we should be okay with keeping our house at just the right temperature and perhaps be able to plant some colorful plants in this area. It sounds like such a great idea to me. Yes Norma! Do it! Do it!

Yeah, okay … someone needs to give me a little shove to get estimates and it may as well be me.

Sometimes I get so focused on the yard work I’m doing that I miss a lot of what is happening on my property. But not my helper — a local neighbor boy. While clearing leaves for me recently, he came upon an “infestation.” He’s used this word before with the weeds on my property and this time he was right — again.

He took me to the subject tree to show me what was happening. From afar it looked like the tree had dead blossoms on it but once I got closer I could see what he was talking about.

Not a pretty sight, eh? The leaves look like there is something poking through them. It can be considered pretty if it was natural to the leaf but it’s not so it goes into the ugly category. Although — since it’s “natural in nature” could it be considered pretty then? Too philosophical for me …

A search on the internet educated me that, although the mite distorts the appearance of the leaf, it does no harm to the tree itself. There is no remedy for it either unless you kill the mite right as the leaf is ready to open. I don’t think that will be on my list of things to do next spring.

There are other similar mites such as the sugar maple spindlegall that also infest trees.

The mites overwinter under loose bark and pruned or scarred branches. They are not easy to detect either except with a microscope. No — I don’t plan on hunting for one so you don’t have to send me one.

So — it is what it is. Another Minnesota insect that has come into my life. I doubt the insect education will stop here.