so waht ya doin today?

[fiver]

I think I'm gonna mix up some Borax with some Jello and set it out for bait.
some of the ant's are by-passing the bait I set out for them, so it figured I would try the sugar route.
I will probably end up at the hardware store later today and will check on the crystal stuff.
I know it works on other little critters too none of which are helpful.

 

[RBHarter]

At this point the sawmill is a break even tool . The cost , set up and labor I think are going to far and away be eclipsed by the returns . A 2×4 stud is $2.50 and a 2×6 is $2.85 . I'm looking at 300-350 plus top and bottom plate for 400ft of end and inside walls , add headers in 6×8 and a current plan that calls for wood floors and cabinets .......I'm not much of a finish guy now but I'll bet I'm pretty good at it by the time it's done .
In seeing 15-20,000 BF of lumber for the finished house running $0.65-15 BF the investment is like buying reloading gear for 45 Colts , 45-70 and 264 WM . The tools are still in great shape when the 264 is shot out but what you saved on ammo is enough for a brand new Lija barrel or 2 .

 

[smokeywolf]

fiver,
For ants we use diatomaceous earth, but has to be reapplied after rain or watering. Other thing we use is 1 part boric acid to 2 parts sugar dissolved in water. soak cotton balls with that. Ants will carry that "food" back to the nest.

 

[Ian]

Good tip on the cotton ball so they can nip off bits and carry it home. We make a sticky gel out of powdered sugar or corn syrup and borax, works well on the tiny black "pissants" but most others ignore it. My boss told me recently that the diatomaceous earth kills insects by plugging up their Spiracles. I too had always understood that the stuff was like broken glass to humans and cut up their waxy chitin layer so they dehydrated. He said for mites, yes, but for scorpions, beetles, and ants, it suffocates them, which is why it becomes less effective when rain washes it into the soil.

 

[fiver]

I have seen the syrup and cotton ball thing too.

the way I'm doing it is to mix the borax with just barely enough water to dissolve it.
then use that to mix in and coat the jello-sugar mix into a dry sand like composition, this allows them to carry the solids back to the nest for the workers there to break down and feed the babies and queen.
hopefully I can get them all and especially the queen, instead of most or just the ones that drink the syrup mix.

it works out to about 1 tsp of Borax and 1/2-1 of hot water [mixed well and long] then that is mixed into 5-6 parts of the sugar/jello mix.
the jello is because it has both sugar and protein.

quite often ants will bypass sugar in favor of protein and then you end up mixing in something like a little peanut butter to get them to take the bait.
by using the jello I bypass the whole guessing at which one they want.

 

[Brad]

Made it to Burlington.
Drove by Riverside on the way. Anyone know the significance?

 

[fiver]

it's all one word.

 

[smokeywolf]

I could cheat and look it up on the net, but I think I'll go the honest route and say, 'can't say that I do'.

 

[Pistolero]

No idea. Maybe not beside the river any more but in it with all the rain.

OK, cheated and looked it up. Only a serious trekkie would get it.

 

[JWFilips]

Ian,
I was interested in your "lighting Bug" post!
Last summer here in NEPA We stated having rain and no sun in late July and it lasted into much of December! It was the darkest wettest year I can ever remember in my life. However...... We had more Lighting Bugs then I have ever seen since my childhood! (I actually set up a digital camera at night and let it take time lapse shots Interesting but noting exciting) Being an Old guy I get up a number of times a night to use the John! (Damn Prostate) I would stand by the bowl and watch these bugs outside my bathroom window every trip!

When it stated getting cooler I started seeing the flashing in the grass ( glow worms) These lasted into to first hard frost which was late October! Most interesting thing I have ever seen in my life!
Jim

 

[Brad]

Nobody knows the future birthplace of James T Kirk?
The town even has a marker

 

[Rick]

Isn't he to be born in France?

 

[Pistolero]

That was Picard, the Capt of the later show's ship.

Heck of a good marketing job. Apparently the original story line was just
"born in Iowa", and the town just decided to run with it. Apparently they are
doing well and other authors are buying into it.

Smart folks. See a bandwagon going by, hop on!

Bill

 

[Rick]

Oh yeah, maybe San Francisco then.

Kirk was the good one, he'd say nuke'em scotty. Picard would say number one talk us out of this.

 

[Intheshop]

3 of the boys made it home today...

My D.I.L. had a baby shower so all the womenfolk were there. Left explicit directions for us to stay put here at the house..... So we had a test N tune with a bunch of hotrod recurves and a cpl longbows.

Finally hung the big honkin flat screen the boys bought us last Christmas. It had been sitting on a cpl 2X4 blocks on top of an antique trunk. Bought the hanger frame off fleabay a cpl months ago. I couldn't do it by myself so they helped.

Now,finally can move the trunk back to my BR from whence it got borrowed.

I had "pulled" a bunch of black cherry outta inventory awhile back to let it acclimate in the shop..... going to make a "non reproduction" table to go under the TV. I liked to keep one of my rifles on the trunk before so now they're getting a much nicer mooring. Thinking a very gentle bowed front,on the top.... with a traditional trestle leg set. Maybe a "hung" rebated shelf to hold the cpl components?

 

[Pistolero]

Do you make drawings before you start or just know how to do it? I'd hate to cut a piece
of black cherry wrong.

Bill

 

[Intheshop]

Old school drafting table.

 

[Intheshop]

Me and a bud went in on an "estate find" on a BUNCH of cherry and walnut. Worked out good cause he's more walnut,and I'm more cherry..... so it was sumthin like 70/30 for both of us. The guy was a very serious wood worker..... had it stored in pretty decent old barn for 10-20 years. And that was 10 years ago that we got it.

Buying "lots" is the cheap way to go.... just need friends to split it with.

 

[462]

A friend spent several days, earlier in the week, recuperating from a serious hernia repair, but is up and mobile, so I treated him to lunch. He's four years younger, was a Huey pilot, but didn't get in-country till '72 when things were winding down, then spent the remainder of his hitch in Germany.

 

[fiver]

if James T. Kirk is born in the future, why has he been annoying me since like 1968?