Great photos. Don't the wrens "chalk up" the room?

I hope that Wardney's plan doesn't include a sprayer.

Chalk up? You mean bird crap? Actually, they were very neat, very good house pets.

I think about it now, the Mommy wren had a new metal roof over her nest, almost against the ceiling upstairs. No wind, very little threat of anything molesting her eggs, chicks. She picked a good spot.

Well, my hunting buddy Moe was off work yesterday, he stopped and got the key for the King's house. Just wanted to go up and check everything. Here's his comment after he came back home: "I was impressed. Everything looks so nice inside and out."

As much as Moe has helped at King's, I'll have a key made for him today. And I need to hide a key, up there someplace.

About Wardney's plan. It involves about 10# of hamburger, lots of help and a keg of beer. I talked to 3 folks yesterday that would be glad to come up and help paint, all 3 are good at "cutting in" around windows and doing trim. Think I can round up another 5 or 6, and we'll do the rough painting. Probably 3/4's of the house we can paint from either the ground, or standing on the roof. Not much ladder work.

Not sure? It'll probably take 6 gallons of paint or a little more. Just as well do it all.

Sounds from the old shack, Saturday night.

[img]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e16/reddsnow/th_001_zpsa095mwm6.mp4[/img]

Hopefully that'll work. Turn up your volume.

Operation "White Wash" is on for 9 am, tomorrow.

Not much notice, but I'll invite everyone. Take "Bass Lane" across both bridges, turn left on "Sundance Trail", that's where we'll be. Food is cooking as we speak!

There was some talk on this thread about wasps and I'd like to hear some opinions about how to get rid of them from my pop up camper. Seems they found a small hole at the bottom of the door hinge and are going in and out all day. The camper is in the closed position. Sometimes they have to wait for a few to pass to the outside before a bunch can get back in. Just inside the door is a pull out drawer filled with jack stands for leveling the camper. It's heavy. It looks like that might be home for these little bastards. I let darkness set in, then reached into the camper to remove patio blocks laying on the floor in front of the drawer so I could open it up. The blocks are used under the jacks. I got two removed. Reaching in for the third which is the one directly in front of the drawer I must have bothered the three guards goose stepping in front of the drawer. Man did I get drilled. I let things settle down, then hit the whole area with wasp spray, and with 'home defense'. When morning came there were lots of dead wasps at the door opening, but still active flyers. I hosed down the area again then shut the door. I can't find a suitable 'bug bomb' to deal with this concern. Something I can just toss in and close the door. What I've come up with so far is to hitch the camper to my truck, hose down the door area again with wasp spray, then move the thing down the road a piece, and perhaps hose it down again. I'm thinking if they fly out, they might not find their way back. I need this camper the weekend after Labor Day for our annual WTA convention, which doesn't give me much time to make sure I've vacated the source of my dismay. I would open the camper up before hauling it to the convention to make sure it's clear. I would appreciate any and all suggestions on possible solutions to my problem.

Thanks, Frank.

Hmmm, not sure. These "bug bomb" things, for them to work best, you should open up everything inside. Cabinets, drawers, boxes etc. Set them off and keep it sealed up as tight as you can, for as long as you can. When we set them off at the old shack, it sat there sealed up for a week or so, I didn't see any bugs alive inside, next time I went up. Lots of dead stuff, laying around. Forget, around $3 each or so?

If your wasps are like the ones we have, I figure there is new larva that will hatch out every other day or so? You'll need to find the nest, pull it out and stomp the thing or plunk it gas, or spray it with starting fluid or something.

This sounds goofy, but my ole buddy Earl had a nest of yellowjackets living in the wall of his house. They were going in/out of a little hole, Earl propped up the nozzle to his shop-vac, right at the hole. He turned on the vacuum, and then started pounding on the wall. He put a little water in the bottom tub first, I forget how many he did get, it was a quart or 2. But she worked.

I'd try to find the nest late tonight, if you can open the door, let them chill out for a while and then go to work on them. With a pop up camper, makes me wonder if there isn't more nests inside and around the fabric and folds.

My bride found a raid product on the internet. Just picked up the product at our near by Walmart. $7.50 if I remember correctly. The box has three 'bombs' in it that will each clear a room size area. I'll use all three if I have to. Going back up this weekend. After I execute the execution, I'll be dragging the camper back home to give it a complete cleanout. The hard part about this endeavor is that they fight back!!

Thanks, Frank.

Well Frank, how did the bug zappers work in the pop-up camper?

I've been decorating at the Old Shack. I've been buying these fruit bowls/candy dishes cheap, pretty nice collection.



I hung up 3 old eel gigs the other morning, in the front room. And a fishing pole that I found in the river. Think I'll hang up a few old traps in the other room, 2-A. I've got a painted cross-cut saw blade, I put it on the wall too.

It's almost that time of year, I'll need to drain the water system before long. Here's something I wanted to show you. When it was time to do the plumbing, I hired some guys that do it for a living, and told them first thing I wanted to be able to winterize the whole works, without a lot of work.

Hard to see in this picture, everything is sloping downhill. All I need to do is open the 2 valves under the downstairs bathroom. Open the faucets, take the little piece of garden hose and stick it in the commode, and open that valve on the water heater. Takes me about an hour.



Always something to do.

Them bug bombs worked really well. Wearing total coverage garb, I put in the first bomb with my five foot long clinker-picker. (the kind used with the old coal furnace) Did this at dusk, and was quick to slam the door. The next day, just before dark, I peeked into the camper. Did not see any movement, so I opened up the heavy drawer that I thought the wasps were in. Sure enough, I tore open the nest which was affixed to the drawer front and top of the cabinet. Saw some movement, so in went bomb number two. That did the trick. Hauled the camper home and popped it open to vacuum and clean. Man what a mess. I scrapped out the nest, and sprayed everything with Raid's 'Home Defense'. When I got to our trapper's convention, a two hundred mile trip, I popped open the camper. Three area yellow jackets dialed right in on that drawer!! Geez, I wonder what kind of calling card them things leave?

Frank.

Glad to hear the bombs worked for you. This was the first time I'd ever used them, darned sure worth $3 each. We cleaned up the dead bugs at the old house, a few weeks ago, honestly I don't recall seeing anything crawling around since.

Here's a couple pictures of the old stuff I've been hanging on the walls.





Just bought an old oil lamp today for $15. The electric up there is kind of hit and miss. Seems like every time the wind blows, the power will go out!