Little Gray House

Jack and I bought an ant farm a while back. On the box, it said we could send away for a free supply of ants. Only after purchasing the ant farm did we discover that indeed, the ants were free, but shipping was $4. Cheap gimmick, but we still ordered our ants about six weeks ago.
We set up the ant farm, filled it with the proper sand, and waited.

A few days ago, we got an email update from the Deluxe Ant Farm owner himself, Uncle Milton. He said that our ants were on their way and that we should check our mailbox frequently to make sure the little guys weren't out in the heat or cold for too long.

Today we got home from co-op around 6:00. The ants were here, and had spent probably five hours in the mailbox. In the cold. The directions said that we were supposed to put them into the refrigerator for 15 minutes to 'settle them down' so that they wouldn't bite as we attempted to transfer them to their beautiful new farm. Uncle Milton's farm has a barns and even a tractor.

We watered the farm since the ants were supposed to be thirsty after their journey. We started the first tunnel for them as instructed so that they could quickly acclimate to their new home.

We took the test tube of ants (female only, it's the law)from the fridge, and attached it to the farm.


We were all very excited. See the little test tube attached to the side? Uncle Milt has this all figured out. Trust him, he's family. If the ants don't move, it's just because they are 'waking up'.
Seriously, how long can this 'waking up' take? And why are all the ants, save for the one climbing up the glass, all curled up? Do they sleep like this? This is a lot of waiting. It's starting to get boring.
Very, very boring ants. All 'asleep' in the test tube except for this lone ant who keeps going back to them trying to wake them from their lovely slumber.

Is it wrong to cry over dead ants? Because I must admit I teared up a bit. If we wouldn't have been so stupid as to order them, they never would have been subjected to the terrible ride through the postage system, only to wait hours, freezing, for us to return. How long did they suffer, the poor little ants?

Yes, I cried.

But my hope is for this one, lone ant. The survivor. I fed him a crumb of meatloaf that he doesn't even have to share. I wanted to make him bread pudding with lots of vanilla sauce because that's the real comfort food.

But meatloaf ain't bad comfort food either.