Schools are feeding silk worms and studying the renewal of nature this term.  Just in time, Daniel inherited an ant farm from a friend – we spent much of Monday afternoon trying to catch ants – the still air was pierced with delighted squeals “I got one mom”, only to be followed by disappointment when he realized he’d squashed it or rubbed its legs off trying to brush it into the container. Many ants met their ends (no pun intended) that afternoon.  I sat on the driveway with 2 leaves trying to outmaneuver the little devils, but didn’t have great luck either. One of mine drowned in a drop of water in the container (hello??), one just escaped all by himself, and I let the other 2 go in frustration; after all, two does not a colony build – especially 2 males.

So we left a jar out, on its side, with some sugar water in it, hoping that morning would bring a whole little colony for Daniel.  Not.  The dogs, probably Mac – of boundless energy and mischief, had partaken of sugar water and whatever ants we may have garnered in the night. When I opened the kitchen door, there she was grinning and bouncing and wagging her tail, as if to say “come see, come see what I did”.  I was a little put out to observe the meandering line of marching ants, trailing sugar from the bowl in the kitchen away and down and eventually out into the sunshine. Ha!  I’m not sure how I am going to solve this one, suffice to say it will involve the ants in the kitchen and sugar … possibly the gardener will be roped in … it will be a cunning plan – after all, my trustworthiness, and hero status in the eyes of my son are on the line here.

This entry was posted on September 26th, 2011 at 3:43 pm by Tina Rolfe and is filed under Reflections, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.