Summer Projects on Vacation

We arrived at Mom's a couple days ago. We didn't find anything worth reporting on the way down and then not much happening except getting started on the projects.

The first thing we did was trim back some tree branches in the front yard. Now you can actually see the flowers and the truck isn't getting whacked when we park it.

FabHub's main project for this trip is to paint the eaves and window trim. He started by pressure washing and scrubbing the eaves yesterday - and then he took the gutters off today. So he washed again.

Those oak leaves are hard on a house.

The only thing of note is that the ladder below is not very friendly. It is perfectly healthy ladder. It isn't any more wobbly than the day it was purchased, which really isn't saying much.

This ladder is fine for climbing on the roof as long as someone will hold it for you, but if you have to stand on it and scrub eaves or do something that your helper doesn't want to get covered in - well you might want to try something else.

Like the ladder below. It has several sizing options since the pieces slide together and it makes FabHub feel much safer, which is important.

Good news is the price wasn't bad and it fits in the back of the truck for easy transport back home so that we don't have to buy another one up there.

My project for this trip is two part - Part one is to stay out of FabHub's way unless he needs a ladder held or something. Other than that, he doesn't need any ideas of new ways to do things. Part two is to kill wood bees. I recently discovered there is a way to do some serious damage to those dumb bees and carpenter ants. I found the website www.carpenterbees.com and learned all about how those bugs makes their homes in wood and then I found out that the website's physical home is located about an hour from Mom's house. I also found out that one of the main ingredients in their product is permethrin. So I picked some up at the local lawn and garden store, but they didn't have the "puffer" to blow the powder in the bee holes. I tried another idea, but that didn't work so well. So I ended up just sprinkling the powder around the entrance hole of some carpenter ants in an oak tree and that stuff messed them up! I hate to be destructive to their little families, but they should leave us alone!

Since my "puffer" idea didn't work and we couldn't find one anywhere locally we took off for the website store. They had just what we needed. I got a puffer, some of their dust, and an additive for the paint that is supposed to keep bees away.

So here is me working on my project. Find bug hole, puff dust in, and see if anything comes out.

I used the lawn and garden powder in the yard and followed a wood bee to her home and gave them a shot. A few minutes later I went by to see what might have happened and the carnage was evident. There were eight adult bees in bad situations. They should have stayed in the woods.

We have a bad infestation of the bees at home too, so there is much dust puffing in my future.

In other non-bug and work news:

We went yard sale shopping this morning. There weren't many on a holiday weekend, but we found some stuff that we thought we needed.

Then we stopped in at the local 4th Celebration today, which is early, but allows us to go to another one tomorrow. They had a farmer's market and lots of things for kids to do. A band was playing some good music and a local guy was there with his smoked pulled pork for lunch. We might try that at our next picnic.

Now it is time for FabHub to take a nap and me to see about dinner.

Next up is a trip to another 4th party. See you later.