Day 9 ~ After the Flood
by Jo Rebeka on 07/22/11
Admittedly, WE probably wouldn't call it a flood, but when you live underground, even a mild sprinkle can feel catastrophic. Yesterday you saw what happened at the gangsta hangout, but of course the Fritizens had a better plan to begin with, building their city on the storied plains of the New Persia (also know as Behind the Garage). Not only does this allow them to build a stately entrance to their city, it also has better drainage.
Even so, when the rains came down, the Fritizens responded with an amazing flurry of activity, which primarily centered around dragging stuff up out of the nest and disposing of it in designated areas around the perimeter. I'm pretty convinced now that they really are trying to replicate Mt. Silpios... the area to the west of the main entrance is developing a decided bulge, and over 80% of the frit they harvest is being deposited there.
Oh speaking of harvesting, frit, after a couple of days of inactivity, the fritizens got busy and picked up the remaining Floribunda frit. They did everything but lick the platter clean!
When I peeked out there this morning, even these tidbits were gone. I'm thinking they may be ready for their next color test.... so far I'm not really discerning a big pattern in what they prefer, though they did pick up the Z-99 faster than anything else.... big surprise there! But if they think they're getting anymore of that precious vitreous ambrosia, they are sadly mistaken.
During the storm (night before last), this was the scene on the plains of Ant-ioch:
...pretty much total pandemonium, ants scurrying everywhere, dragging sticks and elm seeds and divans and color TVs up out of the ground. I wish I had a video of it, it was fairly amazing, and for the most part they seemed to know where to put things, though I did see a couple of them hesitate... mostly with pebbles and little sticks, which they deposited on the opposite side of the hole from where they have been putting the frit.
If you look closer, you can see the level of frantic activity at the city gates....
And imagine my surprise when I saw 3 of them struggling to carry this:
Okay, two of them are struggling and one is telling them what to do with...... that big hunk of styrofoam(!) Who knew even artist ants are plagued by unrecyclable, earth-unfriendly packing materians? However, if you look to the right, somebody is working with a much more interesting material! I think that's a bit of the Floribunda blend, it's really too pink to be Z-99...
But this is definitely Z-99, and it's a monster chunk! Speaking of monster chunks, I do still have some coarse (#3) and some chunk Z-99 left, if you feel the need to drag a little bit home to your nest...... These gals struggled mightily to drag this hunk less than two inches from the main gates of the city. I wonder what they're planning to make with it?
Tune in tomorrow ~ the Queens' Dream will be revealed!
