Wednesday, April 7, 2010 - Birth of a Nation

After breakfast this morning, we decided to do what we could about straightening out the horse trailer, at least enough to get the tack door open and closed more easily. Hubby had a great idea to use a homemade hoof stand we had, on it’s side, with a car jack, to push out the dent from the inside of the tack box. As I stepped outside the RV, I noticed everything had a fine coating of green pollen on it. Then when I looked into the woods, I saw what looked like a fine mist of green. It was pollen coming down so heavy it was turning the air green! Good thing neither of us have allergies, or we’d be miserable! Anyway, we tried to make Hubby’s idea worked before we made a discovery; hydraulic jacks don’t work on their side. Who’d’ve thunk? Anyway, we resorted to using a 3 pound hammer Hubby had picked up at the hardware store. Just before I crawled into the tack box to start pounding, I noticed a swarm of insects on a tree stump. They were emerging from between the bark and the stump, gathering at the top, then lifting off into the wind in a steady stream. They looked like regular brown ants with wings, but they might have been young termites, maybe they turn white later on. Anyway, the wave continued for about 10 minutes, then they were gone, like it never happened. A truly amazing birth of an insect nation! After the parade, I got into the trailer and start banging away, and after about half an hour, we managed to get the door to swing freely and the dent slightly less pronounced, albeit it now it looked like it had been hit with a mini hailstorm...
Afterward, I got back to work, closing in on finishing our taxes, while Hubby spent the afternoon reading.