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Sunday, June 17, 2007

The Cicada wants to be my boyfriend

In case you haven't heard, Chicago is presently infested with the "17 year Cicadas." In my area, they have been manageable but today I had a fatal altercation.

After battling with my weed wacker for weeks I finally threw it in the car and drug it to Ace Hardware. Thank you bald Ace Hardware guy in Forest Park for fixing me up! I'm officially boycotting Home Depot! Anyway, I took it home, cranked it and started working and then I noticed a few Cicadas in my yard. The next thing I know, the things are dive bombing me! I think they thought my weed wacker was another Cicada tryin to get it on! So one of them comes flying at me and my reflex reaction was to use the weed wacker as a sword or some other weapon, and, you guessed it, the Cicada was chopped to smithereens! I feel bad about it! Sorta. I kept trying to tell myself that the news people said they will not hurt me but it didn't help. Every time one came at me I tried to fight it off with the weed wacker. At one point I hit my grill and a everything on it went flying. I was screaming like a 5 year old. I don't care what they say, these things ARE dangerous! I thought about asking Mr. Wonderful to fight them off me while I finished trimming the backyard but they freak him out as much as they do me. At some point I just gave up. These things are only suppose to live for 3 weeks. The weeds will just continue to look like crap for a bit longer...

Here's a few pictures from today. I think my favorite thing in my garden these days is the watermelon. I think the leaves are so pretty! I had to redirect it because it was headed for the patio. I didn't realize that these things actually grab onto whatever is in it's path. Am I suppose to have a trellis or something?

Rose Garden after straw. It actually doesn't look so bad and the roses are all doing pretty well, even the sickly one that I thought wasn't going to make it.

Garage garden with straw. I think I've killed the grass around these beds by letting the crap that I dug up lay on it for too long.
Foundation bed


I finally decided to try my hand at composting! Since I have no container whatsoever but lots of stuff to compost, I decided to throw it over beside the garage and see what happens. I don't plan to leave it there because I'm worried that it will damage the fence or the garage. I also won't be putting any food there because I'm way more afraid of rodents than I am of Cicadas.

One final note on Cicadas. I googled them and I think it's actually the male that makes the noise so I guess those were girl Cicadas attacking me.

5 comments:

  1. Gina,

    The roses are looking mighty pretty.

    I cracked up on your story about the cicadas and the weed wacker.

    I don't think you're a country girl like me. You must've grown up in the city.

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  2. HA!!! Sorry, your story made me laugh. I would've reacted the same way. We have cicadas here but they're not that bad. In WI, my mom tried to mow the lawn and they attacked her the same way, she ran off screaming.

    I agree that I wouldn't let your compost rest against that fence because it looks like a nice new fence. We bought our composter at Whole Foods for like $30 and it has a cover so we can put food in it. But we have a small yard so that was our best option.

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  3. Too funny about the cicadas. We had "Brood X" of the 17 year cicadas down here in Indianapolis a few years ago. There are always a few cicadas every summer. Last year, I caught a cicada killer in action killing a cicada in mid-air. Check it out here...
    http://maydreamsgardens.blogspot.com/2006/08/violence-in-garden.html

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  4. Great story!

    Glad to see another blogger from this area.

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  5. Good Grief Carol!! That is a horrible story about those Cicada Killers! It kinda makes me feel sorry for them.

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