I’ve suddenly found myself with a whole Saturday afternoon, completely open and unscheduled.
I was supposed to be working for Ed & Marta at Dover Heritage Days, but after just a few hours, the edge of a storm blew in suddenly and swept all the displays off the tables and almost blew the tent away. Some nice people helped me move everything inside the community center and lent me a phone to call the Howes to see what I was supposed to do with the alpacas. I didn’t know whether to just leave them and wait to see if it passed and set up again (they seemed completely indifferent to the wind blowing over the bouncy slide and the people scurrying around them), or what. At the time, the wind was really going (I heard there were 80mph winds in Topeka), so Marta sent Ed out to pick them up, but by the time he arrived 40 minutes later, it was all over and blue skies were moving our way. Except for the very edge, the storm completely missed us–just the wind and a little rain and some lightning–but since he’d already dragged the trailer out and a lot of the booths had packed up, he went ahead and took the animals and sent me home.
Now of course, it’s a lovely day, and cooler than it was at 7am. I’m sure if I hadn’t called, the storm would have hammered us. It’s like lighting a cigarette to make the train come. But it felt strange driving off toward blue skies at noon.
Anyway, the long and the short of it means that my afternoon is actually free! This never happens!
I don’t quite know what to do with myself. I think I’m going to work on my project for an upcoming Craft pattern I’m writing, and make some sour cherry jam, and see what what I can’t do about the swarm of minute, annoying fruit flies that has appeared in by kitchen. Maybe I’ll catch up with laundry. Maybe I’ll just lounge outside and eat bonbons. Except that I don’t actually have any bonbons, unfortunately.
A whole Saturday afternoon! How do you like that?
Can’t remember the last time I had a Saturday afternoon to myself. Enjoy!
We had success with a fruit fly trap consisting of an empty jam jar, half full of water, with a little splash of apple cider vinegar, a pinch of sugar, and a drop of dish soap. The sugar (helped by the vinegar?) starts to ferment after a day or so and I guess the whiff of alcohol proves irresistible to fruit flies. The dish soap breaks the surface tension so the little buggers drown.
I have a pretty successful vinegar trap now, but I didn’t add the dishsoap or sugar–I’ll have to try that. So do you not even need a lid? Mine has cling over the top with a few holes poked in it.
It helps a lot, but they’re still around.
I have a fruit fly trap that I made with a clean wine bottle and a paper funnel. you put the paper funnel so the small end sits poking down into the top of the bottle. Inside the bottle you put about 2/3 of a cup apple cider vinegar.
As long as you don’t have any fruit/compost/other tasty treats sitting out on the counter they will flock to it like nothing else. You just have to make sure that the funnel doesn’t lean against the inside of the bottle’s neck or have a opening that is big enough for them to fly back out of.
I’ll have to try the soap version.
I saw this post about two minutes after reading your blog–maybe it can help with your fruit fly problem?
http://www.theidearoom.net/2009/09/fruit-fly-trap.html
Jelli Donut’s recipe is working like a charm. I used a mason jar & stabbed the lid with a fork to make 3-4 tiny holes. With the other traps I’ve made in the past (the funnel ones also work great, but I’m always nervous I’ll knock them over–I’m clumsy), the flies all get trapped, but they keep flying around inside, which means they can theoretically get free if something happens to the trap. The fruitflies seem to like the sugar/vinegar/water solution even better than just vinegar. And adding the soap to the water to break the surface tension does the trick! They immediately sink. It’s brilliant.