Bad day on the farm!

Monday I mowed the yard and started weed eating but ran out of string and couldn't get the head off the weed eater to replace the string. Had to wait for husband to come home so he could do it for me. By that time it was too late to do any more so I decided to do it on Tuesday morning.

After feeding the boys and cleaning the barn I got my tall rubber boots on, didn't want to run into a copperhead while mowing along the creek. Didn't have to worry about that!

I finished around the house started along the fence by the back of the house. When I got to the end of the yard I started around behind the propane tank.  The tank sits about 3 feet below a hill that runs up the the fence. There are two lilac bushes, a spice bush and some Peony's along the hills edge right behind the tank. I had weed eated right behind the tank at ground level and started from the Peony's up on the bank cutting the tall weeds. I felt the string hit the trunk of the smaller lilac bush....THEN...
I see a black cloud appear and time seemed to stop....no sound nothing but this black cloud.... HORNETS!!! The black cloud was hornets right in front of me about chest level, OK I must have run but I don't remember. I was at the end of the garden about 20 feet away and was being stung, a lot! I was trying to get the snap unhooked from the weedeater that was still running, finally got it off. I didn't through it on the ground but laid it down gently being stung the whole time????? I should have thrown it down and run! 15 more feet away from the still running weedeater, finally got the stinging hornets off me, turned to see where the rest of them were. Thank goodness for the propane tank, I couldn't believe it the hornets were attacking it. I grabbed the weedeater, shut it off and made a WIDE circle away from the garden, actually I was in the road walking to the other side of the house to see just how bad they got me.
this is what stung me, bald faced hornets....(picture taken from the internet)

I knew they stung my elbow, little finger, leg and stomach but how many times I didn't know. Talk about stinging, burning and itching....Holy Cow!!!! Put the weedeater on the patio went inside to strip off my clothing that was covered with grass and stuck to my skin because I was sweating,  OUCH!!!

This is what I saw when I looked out the window after about 20 minutes, they were still after the tank. Damned mean hornets!!!
I counted 5 stings but there were two more I over looked. I got stung three times on my elbow. I couldn't find the Benadryl then remembered that I had given the last two to Petey when he got snake bit!!! But I did have some generic severe sinus and allergy meds, looked at the ingredients and it was the same as Benadryl. I took two! Then hit the shower, a very painful shower! Thank goodness they didn't sting me back or my face.....I am REAL lucky that 7 stings is all I got with the amount of hornets that must be in that nest; the nest is larger than a riding helmet!!!!!

Another scary thing is I have been mowing with the big riding mower right past that nest on the hill and have come so close to hitting it with the blower guard on the mower!

  Yesterday there was a very large purple spot on the side of my finger right between the first and second joint in that finger. There is a large red spot around the top of my hand and around me thumb too.

My arm and elbow are really swollen and you can see the red where the poison has spread. I have put Benadryl cream on the stings, something called SkeeterStick and an herbal spray and still the itching is driving me CRAZY!!!! Where the redness is it's pretty hot too. I read that hornets sting is like a mix of honey bee and wasp......Holy Crap...This is my first hornet sting and I hope I never hit one of these nests again. I thought yellow jackets sting was bad.....this is about 4 times more painful and itchy!!!!

I'll tell you what, from now on when I am running the weedeater I am really going to scout out bushes and overhanging trees and look for these gray nests. I do have to admit that the hornets are beautiful a black and ivory body and the nest has the most beautiful swirls and silvery colorings I have ever seen but I think that I prefer to see them on the internet......definitely NOT in person!!!