The Yellow Jacket Battle

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed much to my dismay, a colony of yellow jackets had established itself in the back yard. The clever, industrious insects had found a perfect location in the ground at the base of the bamboo cluster. This particular spot afforded them a maximum amount of warmth from the sunlight, even though now the sun is getting quite low in the sky. The overhanging bamboo created a natural awning to deflect rain (which there has been very little of) and a thin layer of fallen bamboo leaves covered the entrance hole leading to the yellow jacket's subterranean nest. Unfortunately this location happened to be right next to a stretch of grass that still requires mowing at this time of year. It was while doing this that I first noticed the nest. Luckily for me, the population was still relatively small at the time, but the insects still made their presence known by buzzing around my head. I was able to finish the mowing and retreat before getting stung, still not totally sure if I'd come across an actual nest. I kept my eye on that area and by the following week, it was obvious that there was in fact a colony and it had grown rapidly. Yellow jackets were pouring in and out in a constant stream, from their hidden entrance under the leaves. Several years ago, I'd dealt with a nest that was located very close to this one. In that case though, the entrance wasn't constructed beneath leaves, so I was able to deliver an effective dose of poison during the night. Even then, it was still risky because looking straight down onto the hole with a flashlight, I could see a few yellow jackets positioned for sentry duty, staring up at me. I quickly dumped a container of diazinon right onto them and the entrance hole. Within a day, all activity had ceased. Problem solved. With this new situation though, I couldn't be sure where the entrance was located without first raking bamboo leaves out of the way, which would seriously compromise any element of surprise, along with my own safety. I mulled over the tactical challenges for a few days, while observing the yellow jacket traffic increase even more, as the grass grew taller. Last Friday night, I decided (unwisely) to soak the area with some store-bought yellow jacket / wasp spray. I waited until just after midnight and approached the nest with spray can in one hand and a red-bulb flashlight in the other. (According to the internets, yellow jackets can't see into the red spectrum.) I'd made sure that there were no other visible light sources from within the house and I left the patio door open in case I needed to get back inside quickly. This plan was doomed to fail from the start. The weak, red flashlight didn't help much in my trying to locate the general area where the entrance hole was concealed. All I could do was begin spraying onto what I hoped was the approximate area. A few seconds later, I heard buzzing sounds and felt winged insect bodies literally bouncing off my face. I began backing up quickly toward the direction of the patio door. I turned sideways and in the dark, my foot caught the edge of the cement patio slab. The next thing I knew, I was going down. I sprawled hard onto the patio, my head barely missing the edge of the brick platform that the outdoor fire-burner sits on. My left elbow jammed sharply up into the side of my ribs and in the process, the knuckles of my right hand took a good skinning. With the wind knocked out of me, I got up as quickly as I could and retreated into the house. Amazingly, I wasn't stung once, but I was bleeding and feeling some considerable pain from the fall that I took. 

Pavilion Guard - 0
Yellow Jackets - 1

The next day, I observed the yellow jacket colony traffic was as active as ever. Maybe even more. The last straw was getting a visit from the next door neighbor who said that a young child had been badly stung from "the yellow jacket nest on YOUR side of the fence" and that someone else had required an emergency room visit, due to the stings. I apologized profusely and promised I'd deal with the yellow jackets. I Googled pest exterminators and found a guy who came over last weekend. For $125.00, he took care of the problem. He arrived with a full bee-keeper's suit and utilized a metal probe that delivered a neurotoxin straight down into the heart of the yellow jacket colony. While he was working, I watched from the bedroom window and was chilled by the size of the pissed-off swarm that spewed out of the ground like water from a garden hose. His bee-suit was covered with yellow jackets, trying to sting him. One thing I found interesting was the exterminator deployed a white powder rather than any kind of spray. Whatever it was, it worked well. While writing the check, the exterminator guy said to me: "I don't mean to offend you as a customer, but what you tried to do last night with that spray can was really dumb. That was a huge nest I just killed and you could have been badly stung, even at night. Sure, there's lots of redneck solutions on Youtube and such, but yellow jacket nests aren't anything to fool around with, since they can kill people, even people who aren't allergic, because each individual yellow jacket can sting 6-7 times before they deplete their venom. Multiply that by hundreds and there ya' go."  

The score has been settled. For now. 

 

      

        

Some Very Extreme Weather

 Portland isn't known for so much rain at this time of year, let alone the intense thunder/lightning storms that have moved through the area in the last 24 hours.

Streets turn into rivers as storms surge

Lightning leaves hundreds without power

*** 11111011101 ***

Heavy Water

Powerful storm kills one, wreaks havoc throughout region

 This kind of weather is to be expected around here, but this particular storm wanted to be noticed. -One more reason to be relieved that D.T. chose to have those massive trees removed from The Pavilion.  

The high winds have subsided but the rain just keeps pouring down non-stop...

Just As Predicted

"Rain returns to the Northwest, expect a lot more by Monday"

"PORTLAND, Ore. - At long last, the rain has returned. But what a great run summer had. After a stretch of over 100 days of blue skies, warm temperatures and summer fun, broken just once by a piddling .04 inches of rain many weeks ago, Northwest weather reality has returned along with the rain drops. KATU Meteorologist Rhonda Shelby says to expect rain today with steady rain Friday night, followed by showers on Saturday."

It was indeed quite a run. 121 dry days. 

Once Again, All Good Things Must...

"One more day of sunshine and mild temperatures, then real fall weather arrives."

 - Downspouts cleared
 - Garden hoses stowed
 - Water spigots winterized
 - Foundation vents insulated
 - Furnace inspected
 - Filters cleaned

Bring on the rain!

Heat wave: One more day of searing sun before a slight cool down

Heat Wave

Another Exciting Yardwork Story

Some time in a long past decade, two trees that were growing alongside The Pavilion, gave up and died. For some unknown reason their trunks were cut down to around six feet and allowed to remain standing. That wasn't the end of the story for those trees. In fact they moved on to a new life. Of sorts. They became home to a hungry, fast growing ivy colony. The ivy flourished and thrived on the flesh of the dead trees. Over the years the ivy crept upwards, clinging to the wood and formed a huge dense bush that sprouted some little flowering buds that emerged every late summer. Long whip-like 'branches' grew from the top of the mass and hung down towards the ground, requiring a major trim at least twice each year. As the person who always did the trimming, I came to despise that stuff a little. Those tendrils were surprisingly thick and rubbery. They resisted electric shears and cutting through them with "loppers" was a time-consuming, tedious chore. In recent years I noticed that the dead trees hosting the ivy were beginning to lean towards the side of the house, being slowly pulled down by the weight of all of that parasitic vegetation. A few weeks ago there was a shower of thick, wet snow. It didn't stick around long but just long enough to assist the vine growth in pulling the dead trees down. The space along the side of the house became totally blocked off due to the huge cluster that had tipped over. Fortunately my neighbor-buddy Dale came by a few days later with his power winch and we were able to rip the dead trees out of the ground. The ivy fought back though. It had a death grip on the trees and the ground beneath. It took me a couple of more days of work which finally resulted in Dale's 25 foot flatbed trailer loaded to the limit with tree trunk sections and a massive tangle of vines that we hauled away to a landfill site that accepts large amounts of yard debris. Now there's a large open space between The Pavilion and the house next door. As much as I disliked the ivy, it did actually serve as sort of a "good neighbor fence" where it had been growing along the property line. So ironically, I kind of miss it now since for so long it had hid the neighbor's back porch, which with all the clutter isn't a pretty visual....

A Word Of Thanks...

A Different Kind Of UFO Report

This is a sad development for a couple of different reasons. In spite of being known for a lively and diverse music scene, Portland has a truly crappy selection of radio stations. -At least as far as the Rock n Roll music category goes. Now it just became a bit worse. It's true that one can't expect much from Corporate Radio, which is the norm these days. One can expect to hear the same songs played over and over again, sometimes hearing the same one replayed within an hour or two. Those redundant play-lists along with the massive amount of time taken up by commercials is what I loathe about Corporate Radio. I miss the old days when my favorite local stations were privately owned and operated. In this era of MP3s, satellite radio and internet podcasts, it would seem that there isn't as much interest in plain ol' music coming over the airwaves anymore. I do enjoy the convenience of being able to load my own play-lists on my computer or playing CDs, but at heart I'll always be a radio person. Even with the annoying commercials, I enjoy letting the radio station surprise me by what comes on next and letting the DJ handle the job of spinning the tracks, while I am involved with my own thing and not being tied down to my computer or a set of earphones. Whenever I'm driving, the radio is always a component of that activity. I'd go crazy without it. Now I will be deleting my most used car stereo preset. Yesterday my favorite FM rock station, 101 KUFO FM was killed off without any prior warning. Now it will serve as a conservative news station, hosting the likes of Glenn Beck and Lars Larson, a local blowhard/Rush Limbaugh wannabe. As if those gasbags weren't already getting enough airtime on the AM dial, now listeners will be treated to hearing their hateful pontifications in stereo. How nice. I'm already missing those repetitive play-lists. Another aspect I'll miss is discovering new artists that I might have otherwise never heard of. The other local rock station 92.3 KGON, plays a strictly "classic rock" format, that much of which I don't mind and even used to be really into, but it shares the same Corporate Radio stigma of badly lacking in variety. KGON has been around since I was a kid and used to be privately owned. Now I think of it as the "Official Tom Petty / ZZ Top Station." In a few hours of listening, you'll feel like you're stuck in a time loop spanning the 70s to the early-to-mid 80s. I can handle only so much of that. A DJ who once worked at KUFO, wrote a decent little epitaph for that station. Other (former) KUFO listeners have been voicing their displeasure over this abrupt termination. There are some examples to be found here and here. An online forum dedicated to Portland radio is discussing it here.

Screenshot from the former KUFO website

You'll be missed. For the most part.

Winter Redux

Indeed, it has returned for a spell.
Current temp here at The Pavilion: 23 F

As funnyman Dave Salesky, who also moonlights as KATU's meteorologist predicted:

"By early Friday morning it will be 21 degrees in Portland. The high temperature in the city for Friday will only be 35 degrees. The frigid temperatures will continue into Saturday. That day’s low will be 19 degrees and it will only reach 34 for a high. Friday’s expected low temperature will break the previous record of 23 degrees in 1969, and Saturday’s low temperature will break a 1962 record of 20 degrees."

UFOs Over Washington

It's been many years since I used to faithfully listen to Art Bell, just about every night...

Back then I held a night job as a field rep/courier for a local convenience store chain and the radio in my company car was my best friend. It was during that time when I discovered "Coast-To-Coast AM With Art Bell". His live radio program started every weeknight at 11:00 PM. By that hour, I was racking up the miles, burned out on listening to music and ready for something different to keep me alert behind the wheel. Art Bell never failed to be entertaining --and even informative. By informative, I mean he always began his program with a summary of current events in the news. That is, usually anything that was politically provocative or just plain unsettling. Art had a penchant for scary stories. His voice had a subdued intensity, a tone that seemed to convey impending doom mixed with equal parts dry sarcasm and solemn exasperation. The rest of his radio program included taking un-screened calls from listeners all over the USA. Politics were a major subject of discussion, which frequently led to chats of Black Helicopters and general topics involving any number of government conspiracies or cover-ups. Back in those days, the internet was rapidly becoming available in average homes. This added a new dimension to the program, as Art's callers often said things like: "It's true, cuz I read all about it on the internet!" Many callers frequently expressed fear of a UN takeover, "New World Order," and/or the coming collapse of civilization due to the Y2K scare. Understandably, many people considered a lot of Art's listeners and callers to be of the "Tinfoil Hat Wearing Crowd," but damn, that stuff was often quite entertaining. Listening to Art Bell, late at night while driving my company car on back country roads, the soft glow from the dashboard created a sort of 'creepy story around the campfire effect.' I definitely enjoyed it when Art covered spooky, paranormal topics. Apparently this worked well for him, as his program moved away from politics and became almost totally devoted to the "Tinfoil Hat" material.

I won't go into the rest of Art Bell's history, as anyone can read about him elsewhere. I did get to meet him once (really nice guy in person) and I still miss his radio presence, since his most recent retirement.

The following article and video addresses something that Art Bell fans would likely be very interested in. I know quite well that it's easy to perpetrate a UFO hoax that even the local media will cover. Nowadays, RC Toys like miniature planes and helicopters outfitted with lights could easily make aerial spectacles, especially at night, that could appear as totally unworldly. I'm sure not ruling that out in this case, but what really interests me much more than the blurry video, is the comment by Ms Patterson, about "Four fighter jets went screaming overhead" (presumably) into the airspace of the UFO and when later questioned by local media, the AFB denied scrambling any fighters that night. Huh?? You guys either launched some jets that night... or not. Maybe Ms Patterson hallucinated that part, or in her elder years, enjoys making up stories to the local media?

Sounds like an X-File to me, Scully. ;-)

In the embedded video, you also get 2 UFO stories for the price of 1. The first story is about a UFO (Unidentified Falling Object.)

**One thing that continues to irritate me a lot is the snickering, guffawing of most media talking-heads, whenever this sort of story is aired. Imagine if they (news anchors) were allowed to emote their own feelings so freely on any other stories they cover? (Okay, so that happens daily on "Fox News.") It's for this very reason I'd bet more honest people don't come forward with their own accounts of things that don't make easy sense to the mainstream media.

For what it's worth, the talking heads on KATU were (as far as I know) the only local station to cover this story. Good job. However, they made themselves look foolish with their closing buffoonery. With Weatherman Dave Salesky leaning down into his hand, doing a nasally E.T. impression, the story wrap-up was so painfully predictable.


Residents see Flying Saucer over Vancouver Washington




**Update! It WAS another RC toy hoax; in this case, a radio controlled helicopter!

Dueling Chainsaws

Yesterday a final milestone of progress with an ongoing project, was reached here at The Pavilion.

I'm happy to report 99% of the remaining timber from the pine tree(s) cutting of 2010, was carved up and hauled away. Although the final completion of the job took longer than I'd envisioned (almost a year in the works) I was able to help a neighbor friend (Dale) out who needed some firewood and do so without the hassle and expense of renting a wood splitter. I had also farmed out some of the wood to another nice guy (Stan) who came by again yesterday with his chainsaw and splitting maul, to help get it all done. Also another neighbor friend (Dustin) came by with his quad, which was so instrumental in towing the wood-laden trailer out of the back yard. We worked from early morning until late afternoon, taking advantage of the mostly sunny weather. All that remains are 3-4 wood wedges that Dale couldn't have possibly squeezed into his trailer, one large stump base that is slated to be cut into "souvenir disks" and a couple of rather huge piles of sawdust that I will continue gathering up.

With all of that wood out of the way now, I can begin focusing on the regular yard maintenance that needs so much attention every spring. Mowing the lawn at least, will be easier though, not having to weave around all of the trunk sections and hopefully now those insidious blackberry vines won't be getting such a toehold. I truly loathe those things, in all their nasty evolutionary perfection. Once in a great while I have the satisfaction of ripping them out of the soil, roots and all, but all too often they just break off an inch or so beneath the surface, soon to emerge again with renewed, vigorous intent. Quite possibly they share a chuckle with the Holly Bushes and Ivy Vines, my other sworn chlorophyll-based enemies with whom I do annual battles.

Chapter 2011

2010... all but gone

The passing of a decade doesn't feel the same in this, the 21st century.

I recall New Years Eves of the past, like 1979-to-1980 and 1989-to-1990, which seemed like huge and exciting milestones at the time. Something about those years with numbers beginning with 19 made 12-31 feel monumental. The countdown to the new millennium - and a new pair of preceding digits. Now that we're here in this century, ("the aughts") the end of a decade feels quite undramatic. The celebration of it seems even a tad superfluous. Why is that? Yeah, so we had some new distractions like iPads, Teabaggers, The BP Oil Geyser, Lady Gaga, Haiti and WikiLeaks, understandably 2010 wasn't a very pleasant year for a whole lot of people. In my opinion, 2010 won't be missed much and may even earn a place in history as being a remarkably depressing end-note to the first decade of the 21st century.

The local/home environment that I'm taking care of, known as "The Pavilion," has witnessed an interesting year as well. It began with D.T. overseeing the removal of the two massive pine trees on the property (previous pictures) and the subsequently huge job of cutting, disposing of and storing all of the timber the tree service laborers had left behind. At the time of this writing, I can finally say that most of the timber has been spoken for, although there remains a lot of cutting, stacking and storing to do. The tree removal is still the biggest (ongoing) 2010 story here.

Ponderso limbs finally gone!

Given that this winter is likely to be wilder than usual, I'm very grateful in knowing that there are two less potentially destructive problems to worry about...

Seasons Greetings!

From The Pavilion Guard - In Port Townsend, Washington

Rare and Destructive Oregon Tornado

Luckily a safe distance away from The Pavilion, outside of Salem:

Tornado cuts a path 5 miles long across Oregon

Photos, video and extended coverage of the Aumsville tornado

Early Taste Of Winter

I'm glad I had already winterized The Pavilion this year. The foundation vents are sealed and the plumbing is insulated. Just a week ago, even while cutting firewood, none of that seemed at all necessary yet.

Then And Now