Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Call me lazy...

That's a good point. I keep my burning wood at the far edge of our property, just in case.

Haha I was staring at the picture looking for the hole where the dumb waiter type contraption was lifting up wood from your basement for you. I didn't even see the cart until a second look.

I thought about a firewood lift, but since I decided not to have a walk-out basement I would have to carry all the wood *down* the basement stairs first. Building the firewood storage right into the living room wall next to the masonry heater seemed like a lot less work all round

So... update on the wasp situation. I was trying to find a good way to encourage the wasps to relocate away from the house without actually killing them. I went out early this morning to see what time they became active (the nest is on an east-facing hill so the ground warms up early in the day) and discovered that during the night an unidentified animal had dug up the nest and presumably eaten everything that was not already on airborne alert.

It felt good crossing that task off my list.

Should be easy to identify with all the stings.

Probably a skunk or racoon after the grubs, yummy!!

I'll leave a dish of calamine lotion out tonight and follow the trail in the morning...

Looks like me in a monkey suit.

I used to have a bad problem with wasps in my mini barn until one year I saw this red, mud cocoon looking thing being built over the inside door on an old paint roller handle. Turned out to be a mud wasp nest. Watching her build it out of good ol' PEI red mud was fascinating so I let her finish. I only ever saw one of them at a time so it wasn't very intimidating.

I was later told by a friend and professor at the local vet college that it is wise to let them build as they are solitary, very docile unless physically handled and they don't defend their nests. Despite that, just their presence seems to discourages the more aggressive and swarming paper wasps from building nests close by.

My tenant is on her fourth year of rebuilding her home and I have never even had to complain about the noise.