Balrog's Blog

Monday, August 08, 2011

20110808 Soap Dem Bees!

Lots of bees behind the upper floor shutters, as I never go around and spray the way I do on the ground floor. I've gone through too much ($$) wasp spray and started reading online.

You take a little spray can (I happen to have)

And you mix 16 oz water, 1 oz liquid dish soap, 1 oz rubbing alcohol.

And spray.

And they drop like they've been hit by a brick

It was unbelievable. Highly recommend soapy water bee spray.

Stay away from them on the ground, they aren't dead but will be shortly as the soap keeps them from flying as well as from breathing through their exoskeleton pores. They can still get you however so keep away.

20110806 Ladder Innovation

So I need to get up to the 2nd floor, chase away the bees, take down the shutters, pressure wash the siding, paint the shutters black, scrape/sand/prime/paint the badly chipping window brick mold, sill and drip cap, and reinstall shutters.

On 9 windows, then there are 3 shutterless ones on the back of the house.

It was clear that setting up the ladder on one side of a window, moving to the other, was just not going to cut it. So I made a standoff. And used it. And reinforced it.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

20110726 Tornadic Activity

Once again, Mother Nature brought tornadic activity to Wilbraham (and Springfield and Chicopee) following essentially the same path as the June 1 tornadoes. The downed trees and damage were not as severe, but the width of the destructive path was much more far reaching, covering a path several miles wide. 92% of Wilbraham was without power, and a day later there are still sections without power--most traffic lights on Boston Rd are still out.The hail was up to 1" diameter but stacked up nearly an inch deep in the 10 minutes of hail. The rain rate was so torrential that sheets of water were shooting off the roof. These two photos were taken as the hail started, but as it got blacker and the 60mph winds hit, we headed for the basement.

After it was over, maybe 20 minutes later I saw that our yard escaped damage but our neighbors had 3 trees down across their driveway and power lines to the house.