Little Things

It is amazing how often it is many little things that will get me rather than one big thing.  In the garden if it was one tree monster that attacked, I could maybe fight it off.   At least I could distract it by shouting, and have it run after me and away from the tree.  But no, it is many mealybugs.  Although small they are many.   If I don’t deal with them, they will deal with the plant and then move on.  Bit like the invaders in War of the Worlds really.  Their appetite is insatiable.
I am a numbers man.  Boy am I a numbers man.  If I am shovelling, I count the number of shovels.  If using the pick, I will have a rest after every 20 or so strokes.  The following highlights for me how bad I’ve got it.  When I am walking on a path, if my left foot stands on a crack that is like One Nil.  Then it does it several times and it becomes Four Nil.  When the cracks are an uneven walking distance apart, what goes around tends to come around.  The right foot starts standing on the cracks.  Before I know it, it is like Four Three.   Who will win?  The crowd goes wild.  In my head anyway.  Those games are so memorable I do not remember one result.
I think of the number forty.  It can be 1 x 40 or 8 x 5.  Both figures equal forty.  I tend to be able to deal with one big one.  Many small ones can be another story.  It never ceases to amaze me how one big thing may be unacceptable to me.  Then it is broken down into a number of smaller parts.  Each by itself may be seen as acceptable or not, but before I know it, 40 is reached and I am seen to be in favour.
We have a grove of fruit trees.  Sounds impressive.  Grove sounds like it could go on and on.  In reality it is a small area where we have put four fruit trees.  We have a Lemon, a Guava, a Cumquat, a Mandarin tree.  Four.  They are being attacked.  Not by one or two big fruit tree loving monsters but by sooty mould produced my Mealybugs.  Lots of them.
They can be dealt with by dealing with the pests and then washing off the sooty mould.  One big thing attacking our plants would be easier to deal with.  Instead it is many smaller things.
In areas where foxes are endemic, they need to be kept away from vineyards or else they can destroy them.  One big fox doesn’t do it, but many small ones do.  We have less of a problem, but they are here.  I was exploring a creek bed, and I knew somehow that I was being watched.  Upon looking around I got the surprise of my life to see a fox hidden and watching me.  In North Queensland where I am from and lived for over 20 years, they are no doubt there, but I had never seen one.  In this area I have seen two.
I guess it is a bit like weeds.  Getting out one big one may cause damage but dealing with many small ones is harder for me, and they seem to multiply so easily.
Give me one big thing any day.  Many smaller ones can get underfoot and trip me up if I am not careful.