Old Boyfriends: NaPoWriMo 2021, Day 24

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Old Boyfriends

Old boyfriends
are also known as
“cut boyfriends”
or “parasol boyfriends”.
Old boyfriends originate mainly in the USA.
They are found in eastern and south central Texas.
They also can be found in parts of western Louisiana.
Old boyfriends are not commonly found in subdivisions,
but are considered an agricultural, rural pest. 

 

The NaPoWriMo prompt today  is to find a factual article about an animal, making sure it repeats the name of the animal a lot.  Then go back through the text and replace the name of the animal with something else – it could be something very abstract, like “sadness” or “my heart,” or something more concrete, like “the streetlight outside my window that won’t stop blinking.” You should wind up with some very funny and even touching combinations, which you can then rearrange and edit into a poem.

The animal I looked up was the leaf cutter ant. Photo by Katie Moum on Unsplash. Used with permission.

25 thoughts on “Old Boyfriends: NaPoWriMo 2021, Day 24”

  4. SAM VOELKER

    Oh~! Oh~! That stings~! But anyway the harmless leaf cutter ant is about gone from central Texas, and gone too is the Texas Horny Toad, a cute gentle little creature who harmed no one, but only a few left due to the leaf cutter ant which he lived on, being killed off. So now we only have those damn Fire Ants who carry a mean sting to worry about, who came up from Mexico and South. We never know how many may fall, and what evil we cause, when we misjudge things, one and all~!

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_lizard

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      1. SAM VOELKER

        Yes I keep up with such things. I also know that some of the ranchers surrounding the park lands do not like this, though they can not understand the balance.

        As you know by now my place is a refuge to all wild life. But it is difficult at times due to, at times almost being an island of refuge. I do still have several places with lief cutter (red ants) but have not been able to bring the toads back. I do try to keep the fire ants down but making a hole in the center of the bed and pouring boiling water into the bed. Works but I have a lot of acres to watch. When I first got the place I tried to bring back several endangered species. I got an incubator and brought back quail, had several coveys, but then a jerk bought the land across the creek from me and took care of killing every one of them in one year. (he is not in jail and another good neighbor owns the land, (not for that reason))

        Have you caught up with convincing those dogs that you did not abandoning them after all~? Isn’t it great that they never hold a grudge like people do…..

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          1. SAM VOELKER

            Yes, he will be in prison for a very long time. He was running a major ponzi scheme involving many millions of dollars and that property was his selling point, to get people to invest. He bought the place by only paying down with other peoples money and then got some big name athletes involved in promoting it.. One woman who lost all of her life’s savings, got drunk, after drinking a bottle of booze, and then went to his office to kill him, but she passed out before she could do him in. He raped the place of wild life was fishing in my lake, and killed anything that crossed his fence. As you can imagine, he and I did not get along very well. One of the first things he did was to put in a “Moto Cross” with loud bikes stirring up a clouds of dust, the Western part running right down my fence line~! His BIG promotion was that it was to be a sports place~!! (gun range, hunting, etc) He tried to buy my place too, but I told him to go to hell, then I went out one day and he had workers removing my fence to encroach~! Wow, it was MY fence on the other side of the creek, while his property was way on the other side~! I told him to his face “you do not need to be poor, to be poor white trash” At the time I did not know he was using other peoples money to do these things but my bringing the law in on it got him publicity that brought the end of it. I now have very Good neighbors and they have fixed a lot of the things he destroyed. A lot of the people who own property out here do not live on it but use it for weekend and vacation spots. These people actually live in Corpus Christi and are in the oil business, but she spends a lot of time out here and he comes out on weekends.

            The funny part is that he was supposed to be strong LDS Christian, and most of the people he stole from belonged to that church~!! You do not need to live in a city to have such people live next to you~!

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            2. SAM VOELKER

              It seemed like forever, I think that it only lasted about four or five years. That was before Shirley died, so it was over ten years ago.. He was a real (Trump like) “wheeler dealer”~! He bought (with funny money) the rights to the Austin Open Golf tournament, and also a “health club” in Austin, as part of his plans and talked several baseball, football and golf greats into joining his “club” which gave it credence. (all of this with front money, to show people “where their money was going”) They would have big parties over there and I was always invited, but never went as they were only to sell people to invest. He had a beautiful, nice, wife and two small kids. (they did not live there it was only his trap) He was removing that fence along (MY) creek, saying he needed as access for HIS horses to get water~! I had the law out here several times about the motocross; and AK47 shooting at his “shooting range”, but the law said that the noise and dust was not enough to bring charges against him… Must have had them paid off as well. Except for calling the law, I stayed out of the thing, mostly only knowing what was happening by reading about it and on the news. It was funny when that lady pointed a pistol at his head and was going to kill him, but passed out in front of his desk, dropping the gun.

              Hay I have an interesting thing happening here that parallels your note about nature balancing out their selves. I have several both Mexican and Texas buckeyes growing around my house. I usually spray both those, and the Mountain Laurel with “BT” in the early spring to control the caterpillars, which are from a small moth, I bet you know of them as “bag worms”. I plant a lot of things for the benefit of butterfly’s but these things just eat up the plants.

              Well this year that snow, ice, and cold did not let me spray the “DT” in time and the bag worms took over becoming plague of biblical proportions. All I could do is look for the ultimate deliverance from Yahweh.

              But then a beautiful thing happened that I have never seen before. The painted and indigo buntings, blue birds, Carolina wrens, tanagers, chickadees, and other tiny birds have started swarming all over those worms. A beautiful thing to see, but I have not gotten a good photo yet because they flicker around so fast that they are hard to photograph. But I am enjoying those worms more than I ever thought I would~!

              “BT” only kills after they eat it on the leaves and will not harm anything not on that plant~!

              “BT” Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki (Btk)

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            4. SAM VOELKER

              I try to stick to organics as much as possible except when taking care of wasp, which is a little more difficult at a distance but must be taken care of when they get too close to people.

              I think that BT is like an organism which attacks the worms stomach and is not supposed to bother anything else. I also use other things such as boric acid on ants and it chews up their little legs~! And because I use “DE” in my backwash filters in my rainwater system, I have a large supply around my place and I also sprinkle it gently on top of fire ant beds, It also kills those little devils by getting around their little legs and things. “DE” is Diatomaceous Earth and is the skeletons of microscopic plants and will not hurt anything else but bugs (even in water) clinoptinolite is similar and also an interesting mineral to use around the house, but I have none.

              The only spray products I use is a brand called “EcoLogic” Their products are made from Essential Oils such as lemongrass and cornmint oils. Smells real nice and will not hurt animals or birds if used with care. I think that it should be available in Mexico~!

              I have always been against “Roundup” and it is over used in Mexico as well as the US. I really believe that it may be a major cause of cancer and some day this will be admitted by the big chemical companies.

              I do not over use any chemical at all, a fly swatter and Tami take care of fly’s and bugs in the house.

              There is one interesting thing we did when we built the house. Because I did a lot of research on old Texas homesteads and how they were built because I wanted to learn how they survived without modern conveniences. I saw something interesting on most of them. Their porches and galleries always had the ceilings painted a sky blue. Research showed me that this kept such things as dirt dabbers and wasp nest off the porch ceilings. Guess they were the color of the sky~?? I did this on my house and it worked~!! Another thing is that the outer walls have 6 inches space instead of the usual four and are filled with solid foam insulation, no room for roaches or bugs getting in the house that way.

              There, you now know how I take care of things that are BUGging me, (well almost).

              Happy Sunday, now back to that income tax… It is really difficult this year because I had more medicals stretched out than usual and must be sure to get it all~! Far beyond Rhyme or reason.
              SAM
              PS: Have you checked on Janet (slmret) sense you got home~?

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