WFMW: A Surprisingly EASY Way To Kill Yellow Jacket Nests In Hard To Reach Places!

After I posted about our bee nest in the soffit last Monday, I began to hear buzzing in the wall above my desk—not a good sign!  I had flashbacks of the bees which poured through the wall into my living room  a few years ago! 

A friend recommended SEVIN. She said she had a nest of yellow jackets behind her siding and SEVIN took care of it.  She just waited till after dark so that all the bees would be “in” for the night and then used a turkey baster to shoot the powder into the entrance. 

I immediately got out my can of the powder.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with it, SEVIN is a white powder sold in garden departments to keep bugs off of tomato and garden plants. 

Sure enough, there is a warning on SEVIN that says "extremely toxic to bees". The powder apparently sticks to their legs and when they track it into the hive, it kills the entire nest. (Yahooo!)

Sure that bees would soon be pouring into the house, I decided to forgo waiting for dark, and apply SEVIN right away. 

A turkey baster would have forced me to get too close to the active nest.  So my clever friend suggested I use a spoon to flick it up there.  Talk about ingenious!  Is it any wonder I loved having her as a study partner in high school?  Lol!

I found a nice springy long-handled plastic spoon and took my can of powder to the porch.  Standing upwind and as far away as I could, I began shooting spoonfuls of SEVIN into the places I saw bees entering and leaving the soffit.  Even though only a small amount stuck to the wood (in the right places, lol!), it made the bees swarming mad!

By evening, there was very little activity in the nest, and the buzzing in the wall had diminished.

By the next morning, all was quiet and there wasn’t a bee in sight!

Yippee!!!

SEVIN definitely works!  I’m a little disappointed with my aim, lol!  But I’m completely happy with SEVIN!  And I didn’t even have to hire someone to come in and dismantle my house!

Just keep in mind that SEVIN is a poison, and you want to be careful if you have children and/or pets.  Always read the label carefully and avoid unintended exposure.

For more great tips, check out Works For Me Wednesday at We Are That Family!

This Yellow Jacket Nest Has Got To Go!

We could really use some advice!  Yellow jackets have built a nest in the soffit above our porch.  There is no good access point to spray them. And no easy way to take the soffit down--it’s nailed, not screwed.

This is the Bigger Picture from a different angle.  The bees are coming in and out at the right end behind the face board.  There is a seam about a foot to the left of the gutter, and then a vent on back further.  We aren’t sure how far back the nest extends. But we think it goes pretty far.

A few nights ago, he used a fine tube to spray a small amount of gasoline (yes, you read that right) as far in as he could from the end and it didn’t kill the nest.  In the past, he has had great success using this method as the fumes kill the ones on down in the nest pretty fast.  But no such luck this time.

Any ideas???

There is only one thing worse than dealing with a sprawling nest of angry bees, and that’s doing so from a ladder!

A Photo Journal Of My Porch and Deck Projects

If you’ve known me long, you know that when we added the two porches to our sunroom, it was a hurried thing.  After a hail storm damaged our roof, the insurance company agreed to replace it and we had a limited time to get the work done. We had always wanted to add a porch and felt it made sense to go ahead and do it before the roof was replaced.  That way, everything would match.   

It wasn’t an expenditure we had planned on.  It just felt like it was now or never. 

So we built just what had to be done to get it under roof.  We left many of the finishing details, like wiring, steps, lights, etc. undone.  Which is fine.  We’re still kind of thinking about what we want to do.

That said, we have been doing little things to both maintain our investment, and make it more enjoyable while we think.

Back Deck

Last week I finally got around to staining the decks.  I’m not real happy with the color.  But at least the wood is protected.   I can always go darker next time.  From a distance, though, it looks ok.  :)

We looked at several options for a deck skirt.  In the end, I went with something unconventional and really pretty inexpensive. 

I bought several screen-replacement rolls from Wal-Mart.  After I unrolled each screen, I cut them in half long-wise.  Then I stapled one side of each strip to the bottom edge of the face boards, and tucked the other side under the mulch.  Does that make sense?

I like that it inconspicuously keeps out leaves and critters and takes NO upkeep.

As for steps, we set a few 2x6’s on cinder blocks.

I know, it’s kind of hokey, and I just noticed they aren’t even level, lol!  But, remember, it’s a temporary fix while we think.

When I stained the deck, I added a light coat to the steps—which helped.  A little.

A few more hosta plants, too.  :)

As for the very back side of the deck, what a mess!  I wasn’t at all sure what to do with it.  But it felt like we needed some sort of steps on that side, too.  Last year, we used a giant log among other things as a stepping off point.  However, it stuck out too far for me to get between it and a nearby tree with my mower.  So I set out to change it around this spring.

My teenage sons and I moved the giant log to the back of the deck--closer to the house--and added a few more cinderblock steps in a gentle curve. 

 

Then, in place of that big log we had up front, I arranged a tidy and more compact set of three cinder blocks.  Finally, we added some plantings along the edge of the deck, and I stained everything that showed, lol! 

It will do for now!  I know steps wouldn’t cost that much to build.  It’s just that we aren’t sure yet where we want to put them, yet.  We are hoping that having various places to go up and down will help us decide where we would use steps the most. 

Side Porch

I also stained the side porch, along with the old set of green stairs we are making do with.

I guess it helped to tie things together.  Remember, it’s all just to make it look as nice as we can until we decide how we want to finish things out. :)

I still need to add the screen deck skirt to the bottom of this porch.  Until I do, I’m using the white gate and a couple ratty boards to keep the puppy from dragging everything we own underneath it. 

Ask me how I know she would do that.  (I’ll be getting another roll of screen very soon!)

Cushions

The last “deck” job I tackled over the last few weeks involved my 17 year old chair cushions.  I hated to pitch them because they are larger, more comfortable and much more durable than the expensive replacements you get these days.  The cushions are covered with a vinyl-like mesh that is easy to rinse clean.  However, the colors just weren’t working for me.

So a few cans of spray paint later, my chairs have a whole new look!  I really like how they came out! And something I learned in the process?  The can of paint that costs more but says it will paint twice as much as the cheap-o cans?  

In a scientific experiment my husband would be proud of, I determined that it took two full cheap-o cans to adequately cover one cushion.  While the more expensive can literally covered four cushions beautifully!  From now on, I will be buying the better paint!

Well, that about covers my little deck projects.

Tomorrow, I’ll tell you about a whole ‘nother job that was both sad and gross--all at the same time. 

Pictures!

I’m almost at the end of my blogging break.  But I thought I’d drop in with some pictures of what’s been happening in my little nook of Indiana.

First, we completed our second porch just before my parents arrived from Pennsylvania.  Here are some pictures of us scurrying around to wrap up the project!

It was absolutely beautiful weather to be working outside.  And the trees were beautiful, too.  :)

The boys all chipped in, holding, fetching, and hammering.  It really was an all-out family effort.  The little guy even got his own set of tools and tool belt--just his size.  Oh my goodness, he was cute!  All serious about his work!

We’re so glad we finished in time for Mom and Dad’s visit.  It was worth all the late nights hammering away.

Here’s a picture of the finished porch with deck, looking out into the trees.

Mom and Dad are sure enjoying it!  And so are we!

The favorite activity is, of course, checkers.  I took this picture looking out through the patio door. 

We say goodbye to my folks tomorrow morning.  They will be leaving in what is looking like some pretty stormy weather, according to the forecasters.  We need the rain.  But I wish they didn’t have to drive in it.  Keep them in your prayers!  They plan to break their trip into two days.

Then I’ll be back to find some sort of normal schedule again.  And hopping around to see what I’ve been missing with all of you!

Hugs!

My Bargain…Did You Guess?

I looked everywhere for a swing I could hang on my new little porch last week.  All with no luck.  The stores are done with outdoor furniture, I suppose. 

But I did find this!

Menards had one unfinished log swing left in a box upstairs in their clearance area!  It is too large to put on our porch.  So it will eventually find a permanent home back by the pond.  For now, it sits by our porch, waiting for a coat of stain. 

It was only $59.00!  I don’t think that was a bad price, was it?  :)  We are enjoying it right where it is!

Though, of course, I like to sit upright when I swing, Lol!  Anyone want to join me for a cup of Pumpkin Spice Coffee?  I could so use a break with a friend!  What do you say, an afternoon coffee break around three?

This next week will probably find me just as hard-pressed as the last two weeks to get anything posted here. 

We have that soccer tournament this weekend, and then my parents arrive next week from Pennsylvania for a visit.  We only get to see them twice a year, so everyone is excited!

For the last few days, I’ve focused on readying the house. 

• My little guy’s room has been converted to a guest room.  (He’s happily camping out in our room.)
• I’ve installed a few safety items in the guest bath. 
• I made several batches of breakfast cakes and cookies to put in the freezer.
• I got out the fall decorations (as per my middle son’s demands) and peppered them around the house.
• And I’m presently working on removing some of our area rugs that pose tripping hazards.  That wouldn’t be a big deal. But in exasperation, I went and nailed them all down a while back (don’t laugh!).  The boys kept shifting them across the room during their wrestling matches. 

When I roll all those rugs up, the clean spots beneath them will no doubt make the rest of the carpet look filthy.  Sigh.  But I’m not planning on hauling the shampooer out.  There are too many other things on my list.

This evening, I’m dragging the boys along to the store to restock our pantry.  They will be thrilled, of course!!  (Not!)  But my boys do like to eat, and with all the building projects going on, I’ve just about used up all my reserves.  Plus, I doubt my parents would like to be served expired beans and stale crackers, Lol!

Anyway, I just wanted you to know why the posts are so sparse around here.  I’ll be back before you know it, clogging your readers with my rambling thoughts.

I’ll also be announcing several cool giveaways!  If you like inspirational family films, you’ll definitely want to check back in a week or so! 

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!

Sweet Porch Progress!

This past weekend, my husband finished building the deck under our new little porch!  It looks really nice!

And we are already loving it!  Sitting right here, we can now watch the boys play soccer in the yard.  And the weather has been just perfect! This is one of the views.  :)

After the boys are in bed, we’ve been sneaking back out to sit for a spell.  I wish the warm fall nights could last forever!  Last night we listened to several barred owls calling back and forth to each other.  We also heard a pack of coyotes not far off in the woods. 

I really enjoy living out in the country.

Later this week, my boys have a soccer tournament.  They went undefeated during the season, and we very proud of how they all worked together.  It promises to be a fun soccer-filled weekend!

Then, next Wednesday, my parents are driving in from Pennsylvania for a visit.  The boys have off from school Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for fall break.  So it will be a fun time of visiting!  I suspect there will be checker tournaments and campfires, scrabble games and movie nights. 

After all the long hours and hard work we’ve been putting in on the porch projects, we’re excited to be able to just “hang out” next week. 

If I get time today, I want to take some pictures of the bargain I found at Menards!  I’m not telling you what it is, but I’ll give you a hint.  It’s made of wood and will be the perfect place in which to enjoy the fall leaves around the pond.  :)

Tomorrow Is The Big Day! Prayers Appreciated!!

Don’t you hate it when the scope of a job becomes a living growing thing?  And the cost seems to multiply right along with it?  We’re kind of in the thick of a situation like that now.

What began as a simple addition and roof project has been expanded.  While removing the fascia on the sunroom between the new porches, we discovered a problem. 

The original builders used pine boards instead of cedar.  And besides not weathering well, carpenter bees have made Swiss cheese out of them.  And it appears to be the same around the whole house.

Where there is gutter, the wood was never even treated beneath them. 

As much as we hate to, we really need to replace it all.  In a perfect world, we would have had plenty of time to do that before the roofers come tomorrow morning.

But it’s just not going to happen. 

For the past several weeks, my husband has had to put in extra long days at work to keep a highly visible job on schedule.  So, we’ve been working on the project by spot lights after he finally drags himself home.  Fun, right?  Lol!  Not really.

Last night, three friends worked with my husband (using spot lights) to tear off the hardest to reach boards and get them replaced.  Because of the height and the overhang, they had to lean over the roof to do the job.

I found it kind of stressful to watch.  But, they managed to stay safe and do a great job!  Again, we are SOOO very thankful for wonderful neighbors!

But there is still lots more to do, and the rest will have to be done while the roofers work. 

One way or another, my husband will see that the work gets done.  But it is going to be a super crazy busy next few days, and I would really really covet your prayers, especially for him.

Pray:

• For safety for all.
• That he’ll be able to locate the (still) needed cedar lumber and supplies tonight.  (We bought out every decent board our local Lowes had last week.)  And that we’ll get a decent price.  Obviously, this wasn’t in our budget.
• That the roofers will be willing to work around and with us.
• That my husband will be able to manage his project at work, as well as this project, without loosing his mind or his job.  :) 
• That we’ll not forget anything important, and that we’ll be able to rest in the fact that God is in control.  Even of the unexpected.

Thanks friends!

Porch Project: Huge Progress!!

I have to show you what my husband and two friends were able to do Saturday while the boys and I were at soccer.

They went from this… to this on the front side! And from this… to this on the back side!!

We have a little more trim to get up and then the roofers can come!  The house will look very different with green shingles.   

I can’t tell  you how thankful we are to have such wonderful neighbors.  Two of the men gave up big chunks of their free time on  Saturday to help my husband.  One was here at 8:30 in the morning and didn’t leave till the felt was on at 8:00 at night.  And the other gave several hours out of his afternoon to help with the sheeting. 

I think we’re going to have to have a neighborhood cookout when we’re all finished!

We’ll be working on the trim and more bracing this week.  Then we can pick away at building the deck floors as time and money allow.  I’ll keep you posted on our progress!   

Porch Project Update: Materials

Looky here what the UPS man brought me last week! 

Gee, I wonder who could have ordered this?  :)  My name may have been on the shipping label.  But I promise you, a nail gun wasn’t on my shopping list!  Lol!

It’s a Porter Cable nail gun for framing, and it had the best reviews (I’m told).  After trying it out on some really hard lumber, my husband thinks it will work fine and speed up the building process.  Yay! 

I happen to think it will also make him the envy of every man on the block!

As far as lumber goes, we were able to snag the perfect laminated 2x4 beam from the used supply place.  The beams we got off Craig’s list turned out to be too large.  So we’ll probably resell them.

Then, we picked up (or ordered) the rest of our lumber from Lowes.  A time consuming and UN-exciting task.  Just ask our boys.  There are only so many legal stunts (translated: ones that don’t make Mom freak out) you can do with a cart while you “hang out” in the lumber isle.

I’d like to say we got farther on the project than playing with testing the nail gun.  But our soccer schedules were just too demanding.  That, and the Star Wars party we hosted on Saturday evening.  (I’ll tell you more about that later this week!) 

Since we need to have our porches finished by the second week of October, we’re hoping to begin construction this week! 

Stay tuned for further updates!

Crazy Woman On The Loose!

Want to join me??  I’ll promise Chocolate and Coffee!  Lol!

This has been a week of projects, soccer and a myriad of other things.  So I think the best way to catch you up is to use bullets.  If they’re good enough for Kim (Homesteader’s Heart), they’re good enough for me!  Lol!

• House Party’s Star Wars The Clone Wars Season 3 kick-off party.  (I forgot to tell you, I’m one of the lucky ones to have been picked to host one!) Tonight is the season premier on Cartoon Network.  But we’re DVR-ing it and showing it tomorrow night at the party.  The boys can’t wait to beat the tar out of each other with the pool-noodle light sabers we made!       For favors, I hit the jack-pot at the dollar spot in Target, where I found all kinds of Star Wars items!  And did you see that Kroger has Star Wars gummies for a dollar?  Although my older boys groaned, I couldn’t resist!  Hee-hee!  I hope to tell you more about the party next week!  Oh, and those white light sabers in the foreground?  I picked them up at the Dollar Tree.  They’ll no doubt last 33 seconds.  But they LIGHT up RED and make really obnoxious sounds.  How cool is that???

 

• Porch Project Update:  We poured more cement pillars to support the decking.  This week I’ve been hunting down deals un used lumber.  We picked up some laminate beams off Craig’s list last week.  But I was excited to learn of a supply warehouse that actually stocks reclaimed lumber.  We’re checking that out tonight!  We would love to save some money on the rest of the lumber we need!      It doesn’t look much different than last week.  But trust me.  We spent quite a few more hours digging more holes and mixing more cement. 

 

• Peautified.  I’d like to say I’ve been beautified.  But I’m afraid it’s more like poodle-fied.  I got a perm Wednesday.  Because I refuse to give up the big hair of the eighties.                                                                                                                                                                             Only, it turned out much bigger than I imagined.  Lol!  What can I say?  I went back yesterday to get some of the “bigness” cut off.  I now have fairly short hair and lots of curls.  And no, I’m not about to take pictures for you!  :)                                                                                                                                                                               My only consolation, is that my six-year-old hasn’t said a thing.  And if you know six-year-olds, you know they would be the first to ask, “What happened to your hair?”

 

• Soccer.  We’re still in the thick of fall soccer.  Practices on weeknights.  Games on weekends.  This weekend, we only have two games.  But Sunday’s game is over two hours away.                                                                                                                                                                                I love my boys, and I love soccer.  I love my boys and I love soccer.  I love my boys and I love soccer…. And I do.  But, it’s kind of hard to blog (cook, clean, mow, etc.) when you spend so much time in a lawn chair.  :)

I feel like I ought to have a few more bullets.  It sure feels like my week is fuller than these measly four.  But for the life of me, I can’t think of any more. 

Maybe it’s just that I can’t think anymore!  Lol!  Like I said, want to join me?  Craziness loves company!

Have a super weekend friends.  I can’t wait to catch up with all of you real soon!!!!

Project Porch X 2: Footers Poured

Did I promise you pictures yesterday?  My bad.  (teen-speak for, sorry)  I must have been delusional.  Chalk it up to a day that got away from me. 

But I have them today!

It’s going to take some vision, mind you.  Because it isn’t pretty.  Yet.  :) 

This is the first area we are adding to.  We’ll be extending the flat roof of what we call the sunroom to almost the same length as the tall roof of the house.  It will eventually be converted to a small porch to shelter the door and (possibly) hang a porch swing.  You can see the new footers for the posts in the foreground. 

Picture the porch, bordered by flower beds, and connected to a small patio area at ground level.

And this is the second area.  The other side of the same room.  On this side, we’ll be extending the roof much farther.  More like 14 feet, to make a large covered deck. 

We got the footers poured over the weekend, and I got to play mason’s apprentice.  You know what that means don’t you?  I got a workout helping to mix cement.  LOTS of cement.  Lol! 

I’m still feeling it in my arms.  But it was worth all my pain to show up my big bad boys.   They each took the hoe for about a minute.  I laughed when their eyes bugged out and they handed it back.  I guess Mom isn’t as old and decrepit as they make me out to be.  Of course, then I had to compare me muskles with theirs.  Lol!

And when we were done, I crafted this highly romantic and elegant  (yes?) stepping stone from my husband’s and my handprints.

The boys made “dog piles” and this:

All in all, we had fun (if you can call it that) and the first step is complete.

We’ll be working each weekend and hopefully have both porches (minus the deck) finished by October.  Because the second week in October is when the roofers are scheduled to come out and put a new roof on the whole house. 

Changes, changes, changes!  I’ll update you as we go!