The Life of Goldie

   Since I have been forced to slow down a bit due to health issues, I have to find things to entertain myself.  Thankfully, as Son has always said, I am easily amused so it is not overly hard to deem something as interesting enough to take a break from chores.  This afternoon after canning hot sauce, I headed outside to empty the remnant pepper stems.  Once I returned from the compost, my attention suddenly was drawn to the eaves of the house.  Aha!  My good friend "Goldie" was busying herself in her web.  Goldie is none other than a Golden Silk Orb Weaver.  The spider, I am quite sure, is the offspring of the one who had a web in the exact same corner of the back porch.  It seems that this is a favorite spot of these huge spiders and I am all for them being there.  With the wet weather we have had lately, there are a ton of every type biting bug imaginable so Goldie is sure to be well-fed.  But...why suddenly has she captured my attention?  Well, Goldie was busy, as I said.  It did not take long for me to figure out that she was in the midst of molting!  Goldie was going to get bigger!  

  Every year since I was a kid, I would seek out the orb weavers simply because they are so huge.  The palm-sized spiders demand attention from all but especially of curious kids.  Back in the day when I was a small kid, I watched as they spun their webs across the window in Pop's shed.  Now, I watch as one molts near the backdoor.  Funny how things come full circle, isn't it?

  Grandmother once told me how these spiders spin their gigantic webs to bridge a gap between the human world and that of nature and whosoever treated the spider with kindness would always be protected.  Well, even though I know that Grandmother merely did not want me to destroy the web (for the same bug-catching reasoning I have now), it would be nice to know that a spider this size is on my side if things ever hit the fan and I am in trouble!  

  Goldie still has another couple of months to grow before she weaves her egg sac and fills it with eggs.  Those eggs will hatch in a few weeks but the spiderlings will stay put in that sac throughout the winter months.  Then!  Then, the tiny critters will spill out and things will start anew.  Man, I love Goldie!

The "Mop Wasp"

  Early this afternoon, I needed to empty remnants of the fig-preserving process into the compost pile.  The heap is out the back door and down behind the shed.  All went well as I hiked out to do the chore but coming back inside gave me a reason to pause.   Hanging off the edge of the back porch is an old mop that is used to slosh water around on the porch floor when a good cleaning is needed.  The mop hangs there doing nothing most of the time as it is not my "inside" mop.  This is one of the good, old-fashioned style mops with the stringed head.  The mop, itself, was not particularly interesting but, for some odd reason, a wasp was eating it.  THAT was interesting!  Why was a wasp pulling strings off of the mop?

  I got to looking at that wasp and had to admit that I did not recognize it at all.  It bore a great similarity to several of the wasps that call the place home but it was not identical to any of them.  I did know one thing!  It was one of those, more or less, harmless ones so I knew I could watch without any cause for alarm.  I eased back inside the house and got the camera.  As with all things around here, I HAD to photograph it!  Critters are getting pretty used to my camera being shoved in their faces!  This wasp was oblivious to my efforts to get the perfect shot.  If I can get a clear picture, it helps tremendously in identifying the critter.

  To be honest, my photos turned out rather well but none were a perfect match to any of those on the wasp ID charts.  The wasp highly resembled the mud daubers but, then again, it did not.  It was smaller and had less yellow.  The legs of this wasp were more of a reddish tone.  My friend was also a lot like a thread-waisted wasp but still not a perfect match.  So, I kept digging until I came upon a blog about grass-carrying wasps.  Ok, so I have to admit that I have never heard of this ilk.  Reading further, it sure seemed to match my critter but I was still not certain.

  One thing is for sure, the "whatever" wasp was mighty interested in that old mop.  For the rest of the afternoon, the critter made numerous attacks on the mop, gnawed/tugged off a bit of string and flew to parts unknown with its treasure. Me?  I am just as bewildered as I was earlier.  I guess a grass-carrying wasp can take a liking to a mop string if it wishes.  Personally, it matters not to me if it takes the entire mop.  Maybe, I have a new critter called a "Mop Wasp"!

Just When You Thought It Safe To Go Out The Back Door!

  Sometimes, it takes a tragedy for us to see beauty.  Last evening, I headed out to the compost pile to discard the scraps of the day's meals.  Several baby raccoons visit the heap each night to feast upon our leftovers.  Tossing the scraps not only helps to clean the kitchen, it also feeds some of my bayou friends.  This has become the nightly ritual of house cleaning!

  It was on the way back into the house that I noticed another friend in distress.  A bright red spider had fallen from above the door and down to the back porch floor.  The lovely creature was clearly not doing too well but I could see no sign of injury.  The poor thing writhed in agony as I watched.  Then, as if on cue, a small black wasp flew in and attempted to show me who was boss.  No, it did not sting but rather tried to intimidate me by getting in my face.  Hmmph!  Sorry, wasp. I was more interested in the spider.  

  The wasp settled down and soon showed me why it was so upset with my presence.  The wasp had obviously stung the spider and was attempting to carry it off to its nest.  The wasp was a ground wasp that needed the spider as food for its upcoming offspring.  The wasp, being much smaller than its prey, tugged and tugged at the huge spider.  Finally, it made progress and soon disappeared over the edge of the porch floor.  The show had ended for the evening.

  The spider was one of the many orb weavers that inhabit the area.  This one was called a Cross Spider and for good reason.  The white markings on its abdomen were almost the perfect replica of a highly ornate cross!  What a thing of beauty!  Another fact noticed was that the abdomen was quite swollen. This spider was gravid!  Well, that saddened me to no end.  No baby spiders would be roaming the place any time soon.

  The wasp, on the other hand, was a small black wasp.  Yep...it was actually called (for the lack of a better name) a Small Black Wasp by an "knowledgeable" insect identifier group.  Hmmm..well, I could have identified it as that had I only used my head.  It was small and it was black.  So...Small Black Wasp, it is.  These wasps are ground wasps meaning they dig holes in the ground to use as nests.  The female wasp hunts spiders to sting and paralyze.  She, then, hauls the spider to the her hole and proceeds to shove the spider down into one of the several cells. She pokes the spider into a cell then lays an egg near it before capping off that cell.  Keep in mind, the spider is not dead.  It is merely paralyzed so it will not decay before the wasp egg hatches.  The wasp larvae will begin to eat the spider while it is still alive.  

  That circle of life takes a funky turn with these two.  In the current case, the wasp managed to overpower the spider.  That made the wasp the predator.  However, it could have been just the opposite.  Had the wasp been caught in the spider's web, a different scenario would have taken place.  The spider would have eaten the wasp and it would have nourished her eggs.  The baby spiders would have been born.

  It just goes to show that you never know what is happening just outside the back door.  Predators of all sizes and shapes can be lurking directly above your head or below your feet!  Take a look outside!  Things are interesting!

Murder on the Back Steps!

  Early this morning, Ms. Nycto begged to be let out the back door.  The cat, otherwise known as the Bayou Princess, demanded in loud meows to have her whims met.  Not wanting to wake up the entire neighborhood at 5am, I heeded her calls and unlocked the door.  No sooner had she slipped out the screen door, than she begged to be let back inside.  Something was amiss out on the back porch and she was having no part of it!  I opened the screen door and let the finicky feline back inside.  The Princess then scampered up the stairs and retired to the large queen-sized bed that she has claimed as her own.  Well, now!!! I pondered if some coyote was prowling in the darkness.  I headed back into the kitchen to get a mug of hot coffee then settled in by the old wood burning stove.

  Along about daybreak, I ventured out that back door just to see if there was any evidence of what scared the cat.  Yup.  Plenty of evidence!  It appeared that a brutal murder had taken place on my doorstep overnight!  The entire steps was covered in blood-red goo!  Not to mention there were incriminating "hand prints" in the "blood"!  My goodness!  No wonder the poor Bayou Princess was scared out of her wits!  

  Now came the time for me to clean up this mess as it was mostly by my own oversight that it occurred.  The night before, I found a nice bowl of cherry sauce in the fridge,  This stuff had somehow gotten shoved far behind the half bottles of pickles, the extra cartons of cream cheese and the chilling pie dough for today's dessert.  The cherry sauce was beyond my use but instead of tossing it in the garbage, it was stuck on the back porch to be toted to the compost in this morning.  I was not about to traipse out in the cold to empty that dish!  Well, by the looks of it, a raccoon decided that the cherry sauce was far too tasty to be wasted. The raccoon helped itself to the dish.  By the looks of things, the cherry sauce may have been even a bit fermented and the coon may have gotten a bit tipsy.  The bowl, itself, was flung under the nearby pear tree and cherry sauce was smeared on every step!  Silly, drunk raccoon!  He murdered that stuff!

 

Acid-spewing Monster!

  Life is full of lessons.  Some we learn from books.  Some we learn from past generations' teachings.  Some we learn the hard way through experience.  It matters not the method of which we learn but rather THAT we learn and that we never stop learning.  Our brains need the constant stimulation if we wish to remain mentally healthy.  Pop always used to say it was better to wear out rather than rust out. He did just that.  Up until the day he died, he was as sharp as a tack.  Physically, his old body just had enough and could go on no longer.  I would like to do the same.  So, with the urging of Son and Darling Daughter, I learn.  Maybe not as easily as in the past but I push myself to learn something new every day.  I want to wear out.

  Today's lesson was one that I should have known from experience but that part of the brain probably was taking a nap or something.   Son had put the boat battery on the back porch and connected it to the battery charger.  No problem...sort of...maybe.  The problem did not present itself as the battery on the floor but rather with trying to charge a faulty battery.  When I went out to feed our "new" cat, I noticed what appeared to be water around the bottom of the battery.  The battery was also making a rather strange hissing noise. Hmmm?  This was not good.  Batteries are not supposed to hiss and spew like some dragon monster!  That was not water but battery acid.  It seems that the thing had sprung a leak!  Sooo....now I had acid leaking all over the porch.  Not being able to lift the battery without getting the stuff all over me, I unplugged the charger and called Son.  He came to look at the thing and said to grab the box of baking soda from the pantry.  Aha!  Yes!   Baking soda!  Why did I not remember that nifty fix?  I had learned about that way back in chemistry class in high school. (In all fairness, that was eons ago so perhaps I had a reason for the lapse in good thinking.)

  While Son removed the battery, I poured soda on the spill.  Immediately, the stuff started fizzing and foaming!  The baking soda being a base reacted with the battery acid and neutralized it.  Now our porch was safe again albeit a messy safeness.  Son assured  me that once the stuff sat there a while and we washed it down with the water hose, the porch would be perfectly fine for our feral cat visitor to come eat his supper.  

  So...lesson for today...if a battery decides to spring a leak and spew battery acid everywhere, that trusty box of baking soda is the answer! Just cover the mess and let it fizz and foam.  Well, that and never try to charge a faulty battery in the first place.  And...maybe remember some of the things from high school chemistry class.  Fun times!