It is raining today so that put the kibosh on any outside plans I had for today.  I am kind of glad about that because the other day I was working on getting all my pots, etc. up to put into storage and I had a little experience that made me throw down what I was working on and literally run away.


I had all kinds of stuff in pots this year and I was pulling out the dead stuff and dumping out the dirt into a big bin, so I could reuse it next season to fill in stuff.  I paid good money for that organic potting soil, so I always reuse what I can.  Anyway, I had been dumping out small 3" plastic pots for about 20 minutes, which is a totally mindless thing to be doing, so I was not paying any attention.  I just happened to look down and see that the dirt
from the pot I had just emptied was moving so I took a twig and scratched the dirt around and there was a BIG, FAT BLACK WIDOW SPIDER.  I threw down the twig, ran about 30 feet and screamed like a little girl. 


When I was at the farm every day, a spider like that would not have drawn a second glance, other than to make sure it wasn't where somebody might get their hands on it accidentally.  Good thing I was wearing gloves, though. A black widow bite is extremely painful though rarely fatal so I wasn't in any real danger. Life-threatening reactions are generally seen only in small children and the elderly and I am neither of those. I was bitten by a Hobo spider when we lived in Oregon and they are much more dangerous.  It wasn't pleasant, but I survived.  

Black Widow