Ottertail Country

Ottertail Country
Ottertail South

October 25, 2008

October is nearly gone!!

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Now here is a topic I debated even talking about.... multicolored Asian beetles. We all know and love 'em, especially in an older, somewhat leaky house. These critters have plagued this house since about what, 1997? '98? Somewhere in that zone. Lucy was really not happy about them, I tried to ignore them (it worked for a while). There is an Ogema area guy that has a setup for spraying houses to prevent these bugs from getting in. We knew that. Did we call him? No. Why? Don't know. I once bought a bottle of bug killer that had a little spray handle with it and I sprayed the inside of the shed door with the stuff. Beetles died and fell on the floor below that door for years. Did I make a connection between that and the house? No. Sometime in late August of this year, I called the Ogema bug man! Would he spray our house? No, too many to do already, sorry. Swede and BJ (fellow workers) and I have talked about these bugs alot lately. Swede gets his house sprayed and gets (almost) no beetles. We talked to a few people who get their houses sprayed. We talked to some people who SPRAY THEIR OWN HOUSES!!" We researched bug sprays on the internet and found the one's that we know work. We discussed getting a sprayer setup. I went home early and found the remainder of that bug killer, dug out my 'deck sprayer' (in the photo above) and went to work. Ran out of killer and made a trip to Rib Lake hardware for 2 more gallons. I spent about an hour total in the spraying mode, coating all the lower floor walls, eaves and windows. I could not reach the upper level without getting ladders out, and I was not sure this was even going to work. In a few hours the bugs showed up, and in a few more hours there were hundreds (a conservative estimate) of dead beetles on the deck and front porch. Obviously, this was happening all the way around the house This continued for a couple of days until the weather cooled off and the bugs stayed away. We have had maybe 10 beetles in the house so far..... I apologize, Lucy, for not getting this started years ago.



Here are some really bad photos, but I had to try to get them. Notice the tractor has three axles behind the cab, then a small trailer with three axles hooks to the fifth wheel on the tractor.



The main trailer then attaches to the first little trailer's fifth wheel via a long gooseneck. The item on the trailer is huge, yellow, and very big. Heavy, too, I would guess, not to mention it must weigh a ton. Don't know what it is, but it was made by Le Tourneau machinery company.



The back end of the trailer had SIX axles!! The trailer itself looked to be only a few inches clear of the roadway. This truck was at the Travel Center in Prentice.

Moving on......



I recently visited the Taj Mashack near Wintergreen lake. I helped Pat and Dan put some wood paneling on the loft walls. I noticed this somewhat glitzy hanging light, looking very nice against the wood paneling, curved windows, etc, in this "hunting shack"......



Most of the wood is now on the ceiling and upper walls, sheet rock will go on the lower areas.



A couple views of the cathedral ceiling on the east end....



and the loft on the west end.



Don't know if I used this photo before, but I really like it. It's in the window at Ball Amoco in Phillips. Not often you see a sign prohibiting 'flinging'.



Last Wednesday Ivan and I went to Chuck's house to help him get his steel roofing put on his house. Chuck had taken the old shingles off and prepared the roof for the metal panels. By the time we quit on Wed, we had the north side done.





On Thursday Ivan and Chuck had the steel panels on the roof by the time I got there. We discussed how to put the ridge cap on, and Ivan and I started on it. This photo is kind of fuzzy, but that's just Pat moving too quickly, as usual. By this time it was cold enough that we could not maintain a grip on the roof with our running shoes, so Ivan tested the traction barefooted. I asked him how it was and he replied, "Just like a pat on a cold tin roof...."





It worked pretty good, so I took off my shoes and socks and we got going on the cap. We did not feel like we could leave it for the next day, because it was supposed to rain (and it did rain quite alot on Friday). Note the bare feet on the guy touching up the paint job on the ridge cap when we were done installing it.



What a dunce I am. I'm on Chuck's steel roof, barefoot, in low forty degree weather and Chuck is on the ground, shoes on, using my camera. Doh!!!



Today, Saturday, I sawed and split the remainder of the old Maple tree that I cut down about a year ago. It's all on the trailer now, eagerly awaiting a chance to satiate the appetite of that wood fired boiler.....



We thought that we would be wise to provide an alternate power source for the wood heat system, so we retrieved Peggy's generator from the storage shed on her forty in Lugerville. I noticed a few bits of insulation peeking out from under the cylinder shroud, so I took all the outer parts off. Found a large pile of inslation inside, evidently from a mouse/mice habitation. So I'll need to clean it all up, get a new air cleaner element and see if I can get it running.

No matter how much of this junk I do, the list of 'to do' items never seems to dwindle....

I gotta go, Carlo


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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hurray for the fight against the beetles!!! I get angry every time I see one of those critters or the word 'beetle'.

You seem to take on more and more work. How is the wood furnace working out??

Lucy

yram said...

Hey cool...the beetle killer. Is that stuff bad to inhale? We must get some. Lots of those nasty bstds here too. Hey...I wanna live in the Taj Mashack. Very classy hunting shack. And...if you are so good at walking on roofs...come and clean my gutters and refill some light sockets up high.
Any maple left for carving? Yram

Anonymous said...

Getting rid of those pesty beetles is music to my ears!!! We have so many that find their way inside during those warm days. You may have to share you bug-zapping secret formula with us!

Kristi

Carlo said...

The wood furnace is doing it's job well, as far as I can tell at this point. We'll see how fast the wood disappears in cold weather.

The but spray is rated for use indoors and out, just cover your food prep surfaces. I can't believe it's any good to breathe it in. Yeah, the Taj ma Shack is looking pretty good. Ivan and I will use it late next week for bow hunting during the rut. I'll find the maple chunks.....

Remind me next September, Kristi. The job will not be too difficult.

yram said...

John has been doing some "flinging"! sheesh....great sign.

Anonymous said...

Wow that is one serious trailer...The thing must have been on the move for you to be satisfied with those pictures. I think I have killed the few bugs left in my house but now that I've started with the wood heat instead of the fuel oil there may be more...it will be a lot warmer in here. I made my first trip to the Taj Mashack with Dan tonight...very impressive...still a lot to do to be done..but as most projects go they will never be complete...Been in my house since '79 and it's still not done.