Homemade Yellow Jacket Trap

I woke up bright and early this morning and decided it was a good day to cut my Rosemary and make some herbal medicinal supplies.  I grabbed my big colander and scissors and went out into the yard to attack my rosemary.  I was cutting away on one section of one of my Rosemary and decided to move to another section.  After I moved, I was happily cutting away when I noticed a yellow jacket next to my hand.  I moved away a little bit so I wouldn't disturb it.  Then I noticed another yellow jacket sitting on the colander I was holding, so I kind of moved the scissors next to make him to make him move.  He flew in a little circle and landed on my shirt.  I looked down at him and noticed another one on my pants, another one on my arm and several swarming around me...AAHHHH!!  Instantly, I went into self-survival mode and started screaming, jumping up and down, running in circles, and swinging my scissors around like a baseball bat to try to deflect them.  No matter what I did, they stayed right next to me, so I took off for the house as fast as I could go.  I opened the door and ran inside.  When I was in the house, I looked down and was grateful to see I still had my colander of rosemary in my hand. 

I waited about 15 minutes and grabbed my colander and scissors and tiptoed back out to my rosemary, but this time I stayed as far away from the "contaminated" area as I could.  Moving as little as possible, I began very quietly, cutting more rosemary.  It felt sort of like I was stealing someone else's rosemary, as I was forced to cut it so cautiously and quietly.  Needless to say, I never cut rosemary so fast in my life. 

Wasp Trap
Bottle and 2 inches of Kool-Aid with extra sugar

My next mission is to kill those yellow jackets without using any kind of spray, as I don't want chemicals anywhere near my herbs.  I heard one time that you can get a bottle and put a couple of inches of sweet liquid in it and set it outside and the yellow jackets/wasps will fly inside to drink the liquid and can't get out.  I've thought about this often because I know my hummingbirds can't get to the feeders sometimes because of the yellow jackets/wasps.  I just set the trap a few minutes ago.  I'll let you know how it goes.  I put 2 inches of Kool-Aid in the bottle and EXTRA sugar.  Hope that will lure them in, then we'll let the trap, hopefully, do what it's supposed to do.  I think I'll get my binoculars because I have no desire to go next to that bottle and look inside to see if any of them have been trapped by the enticingly sweet liquid inside. 
I did notice something as I stealthily crept over to my rosemary to place the trap in a strategic spot.  If you notice, to the left at the top of the bottle is a dead sprig of rosemary.  This sucks for me.  I know that if I don't hurry up and get that dead sprig off of the plant, it will keep dying back until I'm forced to cut off a whole entire limb.  The reason this sucks is because the dead sprig is in the vicinity of the enemy, and the enemy is dying to sting me because I interrupted their nap time.  After it's been dark for a couple of hours, I'll go out and cut the dead sprig off when the yellow jackets are sleeping.  Until a little bit ago, I completely forgot that yellow jackets and red wasps LOVE LOVE LOVE my rosemary.  : (

My Grandson, The Herbalist

My oldest grandson, Kyle, is 14 years old, and has "career goal # 2" lined up.  When he was four years old, he decided he was going to college to major in art and computers, because that's the two things that he loved more than anything.  That's been the "Big Plan" for years and I've encouraged him to follow his dream ever since then, but about a year or two ago, he became interested in herbs.  At first, he was drawn to the planting, smelling, and cooking aspect of herbs, which is what draws most of us in the beginning.  About six months ago, he really has been drawn to the healing realm of herbalism.  When I make my medicinal herbal supplies, he always has a lot of questions and wants to know exactly what I use to make each item. 

It was a couple of months ago when I realized his questions went way past normal curiosity, he was actually intensely interested in herbs and essential oils.  I came upon this realization when we were talking one day about the different aspects of herbal healing, and Kyle said, "I want to be an Herbalist."

I was so stunned.  I had no idea that Kyle was THAT interested in herbal remedies.  We talked about his decision to become an Herbalist for a little bit and while we were talking, it came to me that for the last couple of years, Kyle really hasn't talked about college, art and computers.  He'd lost interest in that career a long time ago and I didn't even notice.  He's so happy with his new career goal and I haven't seen him this interested in anything in years.  Now that I know that's his goal, I'll encourage him all I can.  I'm tickled pink to have a budding Herbalist on my hands. 

T3 has finally been released

It's been such a long wait for us but as of yesterday afternoon our family-based herbal website is finally complete and has gone LIVE LIVE LIVE!!!  It's an Herbal Preparation website about educating people on natural, chemical-free ways to care for their family and homes.  We're very excited about our new project and hope everyone loves our website as much as we do. 
Please visit our website, www.timetothyme.com

Babies and Spikes

Last night two of my grandsons were spending the night with me, their two brothers were next door spending the night at my sons house with his three kids.  Brayden, Hunter and I were getting ready for bed when I heard thunder.  I told the kids I was going outside to watch the lightening and asked if they wanted to go with me.  We all went outside to hang out and watch the lightening show.  After a little bit, I went out in the yard with my flashlight to look at my cactus.  I have two cactus that my husband got for me in August 1992.  Both of these cactus have been in the house since I got them.  I was always afraid that if I put them outside they might die and I loved them so I never took them out.  In March I broke down and put the tallest one outside.  When I put it out by the fountain I measured it and it was exactly 31 inches tall. 


My beautiful 20 year old cactus

When I looked at that cactus last night, I noticed something on the top of it.  I thought it was a grasshopper and I leaned over to knock it off.  To my stunned amazement, it was a new little branch growing on my cactus.  I looked again and noticed another one, and another one.  I couldn't believe it, in almost 20 years that cactus has never grown anything except three inch long spikes, now, all of a sudden, it has three babies.  This morning I decided to measure that cactus to see if it's grown taller since March because it just seems like it's bigger than it used to be, and now it's 35 1/2 inches tall.  SHOCKING!!!  In March it was 31 inches tall, that's 4 1/2 inches it's grown in THREE MONTHS!  I'm so proud of the new growth and how tall it's grown that tomorrow I'm putting my other 20 year old cactus outside too.  Apparently, if I'd put them outside 20 years ago they'd be humongotoid godzillacactus by now.


My beautiful 20 year old cactus and its
very first little baby branches

The spikes all over the whole cactus have ALWAYS been brown. Now, the spikes all around the crown of the cactus are green at the base and they're longer than they've ever been before.  You should have seen me carrying this cactus from the living room to the fountain.  It was so scary.  The pot is about 18 inches tall and wide and VERY heavy.  The cactus was 31 inches tall with 3 inch long spikes.  While carrying it to the fountain I was poked by the spikes so many times, and let me tell you, it hurt bad.  I'd swear poison was in those spikes.  I dread fall when I have to carry it back in the house because apparently, It's gonna be taller than ever with branches full of spikes, eee-gads!  I think when that time comes, I'll find some man-power to help me.  Better someone else to get stabbed this time around, as I've been stabbed by that cactus for 20 years.  But if worse comes to worse, I'll pick that sucker up myself before I let the cold weather have it, because it is my baby, after all.

Much Needed Rain and New Project

So when the thunder and lightening woke me up early this morning, I was very grateful for the impending rain, as I totally forgot to water my poor thirsty herbs and cactus yesterday...and the day before that...and it's very likely, from the looks of them, I forgot to water them the day before that.  Sometimes I wonder why they don't go on strike.  I hope they never catch wind that there's such a thing as a strike because I'm sure they would be the first plants in line to join the strike brigade.  It's really sad for them that they still have to survive the HOT part of being from Texas in the summer.  I've barely survived so far, and it's only the middle of June, (pant pant).  I must be more diligent in my watering routine or my babies will pay pay pay.
My sister, niece and I have been working very hard on a project and we are in the hopes that all of our pain and suffering will be for naught and our little project will be up and running very soon.  Just as soon as we get the go-ahead for our project to get under way, I'll tell you more about it, but for now, we're keeping it quiet until we get all of the kinks worked out.  We're very excited about it and can't wait until we can begin the next phase of our life. 

Yellow Jackets, Porch Swing and Morning Ritual

Porch swing, "transportable" plastic chair, & baby greenhouse

This morning, as every other morning, I set about preparing for my morning ritual.  I collected my coffee, house phone, cell phone, blue ink pen, notepad, Aromatherapy book, lap pad to lay my book on, small wicker basket to put ALLLLL of my stuff in, and headed for the backyard where I sit for a couple of hours every morning to reading/studying/devour my book of choice for the day.  I either set in my comfy plastic chair (because I can move it wherever I want to sit), or on the porch swing.  Today I decided to sit on the porch swing, as I haven't set there in a week or so.  When I set down, I felt like my knees were up to my chest.  I got up and looked at the swing and realized the legs of the swing set had buried themselves into the ground.  I know from past experience that if I pull the legs out of the ground, they're just gonna sink in again.  So I decided to take the easier route and raise the swing up.  I raised one side of the swing, then went to the other side and reached up and put my hands on the chain to remove it from the hook so I could raise it...that's when I noticed movement.  I looked and about one inch from my hands was a big yellow jacket home with about 20 yellow jackets all looking at me and let me tell you, they did not look happy at all.  Of course, this made me squeal and jump, which scared me more because I know they attack, as I've been the recipient of many attacks from those horrid beasts.   I squatted down and tiptoed away.  When I got around the corner, I ran in the house and told my husband where the angry little things were.  While I hid in the house, like any sane person would, he went outside and killed them, then I went back out and raised the other side of my swing, and set about completing my morning ritual. 

View from porch swing

This is the view I see when I sit on my porch swing.  It's our pasture, but not our horses, those belong to the neighbor, but they look real pretty in our pasture and help create a calm, relaxing feel.  See my poor Mimosa tree?  Last year it was so beautiful, but the drought last summer almost killed it.  Most of the limbs are dead.  I want to cut them off but if I do, the tree will be nearly naked.  I think I'll wait until fall to do it.

Panoramic view, how pretty.  No wonder I like to set in the back yard in the morning.

3rd Annual Gentles Family Reunion

This past weekend, we had our 3rd Annual Gentles Family Reunion.  Every year we rent three HUGE cabins right by each other at Beaver's Bend in Oklahoma and our whole family stays for the weekend.  We had so much fun.  Our family is pretty big, so it's really hard to get all of us in the same place at the same time.  This is the 3rd year in a row to try to get everyone at Beaver's Bend at the same exact time and this is the 3rd year in a row that we were unsuccessful.  Perhaps next year it'll happen.  Oh!  Wait!  Never mind.  My nephew just joined the Army...for the 3rd time, and him, his wife and two sons are moving to Alaska in 5 or 6 months and won't be able to come to the reunion next year.  They're so lucky, they get to move to someplace nice and cold while I remain behind in TEXAS.  If there's anyone in the whole entire world that shouldn't live in Texas, it's ME.  Too hot.  And when I say it's too hot, I mean it's TOO HOT!


Passion Flower

While we were at Beaver's Bend, I saw this beautiful flower down the road from our cabins.  It's intricacy and delicate appearance qualified it as the most beautiful flower I've ever seen.  This picture DOES NOT do it justice.  My mother said it was a Passion Flower.  It was so beautiful that my sister and I just stared at it for a long time.  The actual flower was probably about 2 1/2 to 3 inches across and 1 1/2 to 2 inches tall.  So beautiful.  I can't wait until next years reunion because we're gonna rent the same cabins and I'm gonna walk down the road and find these flowers again so I can stare at them some more and take tons of pics.