A trip to the top of Mt. Whitney

Are you getting itchy for a little ride out of town? It's been a long and very cold winter and sometimes you just need a change of pace. A day-long road trip down Highway 395 along the dramatic High Sierra Mountains might just make your day. We live just a few hours drive away from the highest mountain in the United States, well, at least in the lower 48 states. Mt. Whitney is 14,495 feet tall.

Back in 1957 my husband hiked to the top of Mt. Whitney with his Boy Scout Explorer Troop. It was quite an adventure for these teenage boys and now Norbert said he would take me on a hike up there so I could see what it looks like. But I don't think I'd make it to the top and I already have a good idea what that looks like. I have a picture of it taken by my friend Marty Skaggs as he flew 150 feet above the peak of Mt. Whitney in a RF-4C Phantom reconnaissance jet. In the picture you can even see the shelter at the top of the mountain. What a thrill that must have been. If you don't want to hike up Mt. Whitney, you can get a great view of it from the Visitor Center that's just south of the town of Lone Pine. Are you beginning to get itchy yet?

Rid of the little black ants: Thanks to all of you who shared your personal recipes with me on how to get the little black ants out of my house. I think Eileen Judd is on the right road by making the environment hostile and "taking the welcome sign down." She continually sprays the ants with a mixture of ammonia and water. That seems to do the trick for her.

Bob Eddy also makes his own homemade poison potion by dissolving a tablespoon of Boraxo powdered soap in one-half cup warm water along with one tablespoon of sugar. He puts a little bit of this bait on a piece of wax paper and the sugar attracts the ants and when they return to the colony the queen and the worker ants eat the Boraxo and they die.

Bev Parr said that she bought a large container of very inexpensive black pepper and sprinkled it all over the place. Wherever she saw the little ants, she dumped the black pepper. That included around the garage and on the steps into the house. She may have sneezed a lot, but that got that job done.

It's great if these homemade remedies work and aren't as poisonous as the commercial ones because we sure don't like the idea of strong poisons on our kitchen counter tops. Now, who has a remedy of getting rid of annoying moths at night - other than smashing them with a fly swatter that is.

-- Linda Monohan can be reached at 782-5802.