The Invasion Of The Ants

 It was a normal day at the Pumpkin Patch ... full of run fast, sit for two hours, then play crazy catch up.  With only 75 kids coming in, it was an easy morning, at least until we discovered the boss was out of gem mining bags.  

Each kid gets a bag-o-dirt they place in a screen to dunk in the water whereupon they find ...... wait for it ..... not gold, but GEMS!!  WOW!!!  Sometimes there are arrowheads or small rock dinosaurs.  OH MY!!  We are all appropriately amazed at what they find.

 Next up, my two hour stint in the office explaining to everyone at the window that we are only open for pumpkin sales until 2:00.  That's when we close, allowing the "crew" to set up the attractions.  At 3:00 we are open again to the public. Of course they are all coming for the attractions.

During that one hour of rest, I'm stocking the snack bar with water, soda, cookies, chips, ice, cups and everything snow cone.

 In between, I run back to the barn to the Ag-ucation center to be sure the puppets are put to bed.  This entire section of agriculture education (where does your food come from) used to be performed by Farmer Scott with a magic box.  A little abra-ca-dabra by the kids, turned tomatoes into pizza sauce and corn into tortillas.  Can you imagine doing that for 600 kids a day, 5 days a week?  The mechanical puppet show was a good investment.

 At 3:30 I jump on the hay ride tractor and drive for 3-1/2 hours non stop.  Oh I get to jump off ... every single round ... and entertain the crowd as I load them up.  Due to the distancing thing, we have half the hay bales to sit on, so there's lots of finagling to get everyone on.  I ask girlfriends to sit on husbands laps .... oh wait ............  no, that's boyfriends laps!!  There was a sliver of a moon last night that turned into a blob for my camera.  

It's interesting to note that going 5 mph during the day seems fast, but at night it feels slow as mud.  At long last it was time to close up. 

 I'm so tired when I get home, I really pay no mind to anything.  I'm only interested in my ice cream cone dinner and my soft bed.

This morning I had a very rude awakening.  I went to feed the dogs and found this ... a three inch wide trail of ants heading straight for the dog food bag.  Really?  It's not even sweet!!

THEN, with my trusty ant killer spray in hand, I discovered that trail led all around my entire laundry room ... something like 30 feet long ... to the washer water pipes.  I'm exhausted ... I don't need this problem right now.  So I sprayed them to death ... literally.

This after I discovered another much smaller trail in the kitchen last week.  I envision my house completely covered with ants. 

 I'm guessing this isn't going to get cleaned up any time soon as I'm off again for another day of kids, heat, sore feet, broken fingernails and fun with great people.