The Swarm

Most people I know have never had to deal with a swarm of bees. This week, I had to deal with my third swarm. The first swarm we had was back in Missouri, when we lived in a little town, and one of neighbors knew a bee keeper and he came and got the honey bees out of our tree. He was happy to have a new hive filled, and we were thrilled to get rid of the bees.

The second swarm we dealt with was here in Arizona, a couple of years ago. A swarm landed in a bush out front, and they found a way into the house. DH was in Ecuador on a medical missions trip at the time, so the kids and I killed the dozens in the house. Thankfully, the bees moved on the next day.

Monday, a swarm came and landed in the same bush in the front yard. I was babysitting, so there were 4 kids two and younger in the house, and several bees got into the house. These were not nice little honey bees, these were killer bees. We had plugged the hole the last swarm of bees used to get into the house, but this swarm found a new hole, and got up under the siding. They were setting up a new hive, under our siding, right next to the front door. Not a good plan. I was definitely NOT in favor of this plan.

It was an interesting day, watching clouds of bees outside my front door, killing the ones that got into the house. One of the twins tried to catch a bee, his Mama caught the baby first, and I killed the bee. This would not do at all. The bees had settled for the night by the time my two charges got picked up, so it was fairly safe to go out the front door. I prayed the bees would leave the next morning like the last swarm had, but I had a feeling they wouldn't. We could hear buzzing in the walls where the bees were setting up shop.

Tuesday morning, bees everywhere! Yeah, they weren't leaving. Buzzing in the walls was REALLY loud now! They were all over that bush out front, and flying everywhere. I had to babysit again, so I had the dad pull around to the back of the house so I could bring the kids in the back door. It was definitely not safe to use the front. DH was home, and started calling bee guys. We didn't want to kill the bees, bees are very important to the environment. The only way to capture the bees alive was to tear down the walls they were in, doing thousands of dollars worth of damage. OK, I am not that much of an environmentalist. We paid the $150 and had them exterminated.

Wednesday, still a few misc. bees around, not too bad. DH chops down the bee attracting bush, fills hole bees entered. None of us want to see or talk about bees. No one even wants honey in their tea. I hope we are done with bees now, isn't three swarms in a lifetime enough? We had wasps nests in Missouri too, but this last swarm was the scariest. Killer bees can be very aggressive, not the "just stay still and they'll leave you alone" types.

So, have I done any sewing this week? I quilted three baby quilts, none of them are bound yet. I planned out I Spy quilts for the twins, for when they move into twin sized beds. You know, I've made five I Spy quilts, and they've all been for boys. I'll need to cut some girly squares for Miss S.

On the first baby quilt I quilted, I was going to do a spiral type thing. I wasn't thinking, and started in the middle, when I should have started with a big circle first. Instead of ripping, I decided to turn it into a meander, but my brain wasn't thinking that way yet, and what I did looked kind of like a flower. I went with it, and quilted flowers all over the quilt. It is pretty cute, but took quite a while. I just want to get these baby quilts finished, so I just meandered on the next two. I picked the next quilt to be quilted, but I have other stuff to do too, so not quite sure what I'll work on next. My roll of batting came today, so I have plenty to keep me busy.