I Kill a Black Widow Spider. Shudder. Only Slightly Sorry About the Fungi Stomping.

Hard to see here, but a disturbing discovery that brings out the killer in me.

Connie's Post
it was a late start to our farm day, 10:30am, owing to my being physically sick, sick, sick and finally owning up to it. however, being ill was COMPLETELY forgotten upon discovering a black widow spider in the crevice of an upturned plastic trash container. eck. its such a visceral, nasty response--seeing this disgusting thing that could kill someone with ONE BITE. like your chest gets all tight and and your world collapses into one thought which is kill, kill, kill this this loathsome thing with its huge berry-like abdomen all shiny black with the red hour glass and long, long legs . KILLit, KILLit, KILLit. eh.

in response, gerald quietly handed me a stake and in front of him and my kids, i grounded that stake into the offending arachnid until i heard the abdomen pop and i shuddered at the sound and relief that it was DEAD DEAD DEAD. i have a liberal leave policy about bugs and critters. i leave all sorts of spiders and bugs alone. but this one HAD TO GO. right after that, gerald said his brother Pete and he had discovered four black widows while going through the wood posts. a big "no playing in the log pile" lecture was delivered to the boys, still stunned to see momma's blood lust up.

That still wasn't the end of the rampage. we opened up the vineyard and throughout our walk, i stomped down these puffballs that had sprung up in the aftermath of Ernesto. to me, a mushroom growing in the grass is a squished mushroom. its the mother in me. but when i googled for the fungus, i found that plenty of people eat them. http://www.mykoweb.com/cookbook/puffballs.html and that's cool, but the irrational momma blood lust said this--a potential object for my little guy's mouth--must die. must protect babies. must. oof. what a start to the day.