Mad as a hornet!

This past weekend, we had quite an interesting experience. On Saturday morning, Ryan set out to complete the most arduous task of mowing our grass. The front yard isn't so bad, but the back yard is so steep and the grass is thick and there is poison ivy and lots of weeds that require a weed whacker. It's just not a fun task for the boy. He says it is the hardest yard he has ever had to mow. On top of that our lawn mower doesn't really "self-propel" the way it is supposed to so he has to push it really hard. It also got broken during our moves so it has to be rigged in order for it to run. All of this combines into a task that he avoids doing until the last possible minute.

On Saturday, he had finished the front yard and moved on to the back yard. Ryan's parents, sister, and Eva were all in the front yard and I was inside with Eli. I glanced out of the window to see Ryan sprinting across the front yard. My first thought was that Eva had gotten hurt, but I quickly saw her sitting on the front steps, safe and sound. I didn't quite know what my husband was doing, but figured he was being silly. Moments later, his sister came in tell me that they needed baking soda and water. Then his mom came in and said to make that soda and water into a paste because Ryan had gotten stung by something.

Hornets make their nests in the ground. Turns out that running over said nest with a lawn mower can make them... well, you know... mad as a hornet! And when a hornet gets mad, it chases its victim. Unfortunately the victim on Saturday was my Ryan.

I'm inside making baking soda paste. Meanwhile, my husband is running around the front yard stripping his clothes off because the hornets had gotten in his shirt and shorts. (I'm sure the neighbors enjoyed that show!) I run out to give Ryan the soda and see him in his boxers in the driveway! I was like "Dude! At least get in the garage!" At the end of the day, we were able to count somewhere around 12 stings that my poor husband got.

Oh and remember how I mentioned that our lawn mower has to be rigged in order for it to operate? It also has to be un-rigged in order to turn it off. My mother-in-law didn't know that and tried to run out there and flip the handle to turn it off, and she got stung, too! My father-in-law said that there were easily 50 hornets swarming around the lawn mower. And without any spray to kill them, we had to let the lawn mower (that Ryan had just filled with gasoline) idle until it ran out of gas.

Then the next day, Ryan and his dad, armed with 2 cans of hornet spray with a 25 foot spray length were able to go out and kill (hopefully all) the hornets. After they were dead, then Ryan was able to retrieve his lawn mower and weed whacker.

On Saturday night, Ryan commented that he hoped no one went in the back yard and stole our weeder whacker. I asked him if he was worried that someone would take the lawn mower. To which he replied, "Let 'em take it! They'd get their own punishment."