Uh Oooohhhh! Bugs!

Last night while helping a beginning tyer I picked up my bag of hackles. It is a monster Zip-Lock bag holding many cubic feet. There are dozens of capes, dozens of saddles and a number of full skins.

And there they were at the bottom of the bag, pupae!

Immediately I started tearing through everything else looking for more. Surely the hackles were not the only victim? Moth balls went everywhere because I could not know where the bugs may have crawled… and laid an egg.

Then I was worried about all the bear skin pieces I was to send out today, even though they just got here and had been through a quarantine.

This morning I decided to survey the damage in the hackle bag. I set out a clean area and started unloading the hackles carefully, cleaning each as I went. Thinking about the luck involved in the bugs hitting the bottom of the bag where less-favored hackles tend to congregate, wierd thoughts started about always standing the bag up and how I have been harping at my son to keep the big bags closed.

Finally, at the bottom of the bag, there they were, about a dozen small white grains which I carefully swept up to examine. Basmati rice!!! Someone had nailed me! I do not know who… The woman that has let me live with her these last 29 years is a redhead… With a sense of humor. I have been known to pull a dirty trick or three in my life… My son is 15 and knows I am a hacklaholic.

So many suspects… And a red-faced clown in the middle.
art, the red-faced one

After that you might have to change your handle to “Hapless”. That was a good one. I think your friends and family may have way too much time on their hands. Jim

Wow, great joke. glad no damage was done.

Eric

hap, suit yourself, but I have used the yellow pyrethrun for years. Strips sold at most livestock supply houses or hardware joints. I cut them in to one inch squares. I do think they work better, a lot better than ‘rice’!!! lol :slight_smile:

Jim -

I thought hap’s account was very “artful.”

John

Perhaps the well-meaning culprit merely added the rice to help keep down the moisture level in your hackle bag? :rolleyes:

I have been meaning to get some of those for quite some time. My wife really dislikes the smell of mothballs and that may be her “out” as the culprit… But she is crafty enough to want to make it look like she could not have been the one…

Diary entry: 20 January 2009

The shack nasties have finally become acute. The redhead is really bugging me this time. I decided to spread my entire fly tying kit in a thin layer across every available surface of the house, in order to examine them for nonexistent vermin. This really annoyed SWMBO, who proceeded to replace my collection of beads with rice, and fed me $135 worth of brass and tungsten last night with my chicken. The chicken tasted funny, and my teeth hurt. This morning, I cannot find the cat, and SWMBO has collected the entire contents of my tying kit into a single box, which she shook violently before giving back to me…

PS. there are fleas in the woodshed where I slept last night.

Note to self: check under the woodshed for hibernating bears

Hap take no chances ship that bag to me ASAP for inspection and destruction. Hey what are friends for.

Everybody is grinning, ain’t nobody talking… They seem to be laughing behind my back. I see waterboarding in their future…
art of confusion

DG
Bad enough when you read my diary, but posting it is way over the line! :wink:

True story: I have a very small scar on my throat from a tumor biopsy many years ago. Ask me what it is in front of said redhead and she will immediately tell you it is “His vasectomy scar.”

Then there was the time I was looking at photos and found one of me with eyes open. I flipped it across the table and said “Now there’s a picture that does me justice!”
She instantly flipped it back “You don’t need justice; You need mercy!”
art of paidback

Tim
Your generosity is only exceeded by your lapidable traits… :slight_smile:
art

Rice, chicken (feathers); sounds like somebody was trying to whip up a strange batch of arroz con pollo.

…time to put a rubber binder around the thumb lever on the kitchen sink sprayer, aim it towards the mid-sink area and sit back and wait…:cool:

Ha ha. Jeremy, that is a staple in my April 1st arsenal!

Now that’s just mean. I like it. Jim

Now that you’ve said what it is it’s funny, but man that was COLD what they did to you!!! I don’t know if I’d put that many hackles in one big bag, at least with one per bag you’d only lose one IF you got a bug somewhere not all of them.

Glad to hear everythings is okay!!! but it was a good joke, how they kept from laughing when you were going nuts has to add to the fire!!! Hey but at least you know what your short of and can order more. You should tell them thanks for the joke but going through the bag I’ve found I’m out of a few colors I’ll have to order some.

Fatman

I’m thinking they would call my bluff if I said I was short colors… This is a small portion…
art

Lol,LOL,LOL,LOL.

Great gag! I gotta try that one on somebody.