Flight of the bumblebee

Boring part short, right after work I headed down to the house and did some work inside the house. The adventure begins in the garden...

*before you begin reading... I request that you download and play in the background...

Now then... I noticed Melissa mentioned yesterday that I cut down the "tiny tree bush thing" in front of the future garage. Well, I cut down most of it, but the main trunk still remained so today cutting it down was one of the things on my "to do" list.

First order of business was to move 2 boulder sized dead tree stumps (circled red) that were placed on either side of the live trunk (blue). I did so and was promptly attacked by a big brown bee/beetle thinggy (lets call this one Goldy). I responded like any normal guy who's previously gone through the excrutiating pain of a bee sting. I ran for my life, arms flailing, cursing at the top of my lungs for the thing to get away.



I looked out the window from the master bath at the stump. Goldy made repeated passes over the thing taking a few seconds to fly around for a few seconds then diligently took her post over the dead stump. Occasionally a big black one (Blackie) would join her and then fly off and take his post at the lemon tree.

Maybe there's still work inside the house for me to do? No paint. No sander. Need to consult with the boss before I start taking down the trim. Nope. Nothing to do inside for now. Crap.

Back to the stump.

So the dead stump is a foot or two to the right of the trunk that I want to cut down. After a few minutes worth of staking out the joint, I notice they are more focused on the stump than the live trunk. All of a sudden, I see Goldy disappear into the surface of the dead stump. DISAPPEAR. INTO the surface. There's a hole in the dead stump (yellow arrow). In a split second the thing has instantly changed in my mind from a stump into a really big hive. Good LAWD.

So anyway, I figure since maybe they're focused on the "hive." They'll ignore me while I try to cut down the trunk. It takes me a few minutes to sneak up "behind" the stump along the fence. Not long after gaining the courage to approach and raise the saw to start cutting, I'm attacked by a black bee/beetle/bug/thing. *insert cursing and running around waving a sharp object dangerously around here*

After several tries over the span of an hour (most resulting 3 passes with the saw then taking off around the yard and taking cover in the safety of back porch) and more bees appearing from the surrounding trees to help their brethren, the voice of reason finally chimes in...

Even if I manage to cut down the rest of the trunk, I still have to dig up the roots which requires that I stand in that area for more than a few seconds.

I'm going home. Defeated.

Why oh why didn't I move that stump straight out to the street when I didn't know about the hive.