Sep 12-13 Biking and Baseboard

They don't really go together but these have been the only things of note in the last couple of days. I finished up the baseboard ...games room, closet under the stairs, darkroom ... but of course it all needs to be primed and then painted. It is just sitting in place (not nailed) because it is easier to paint off the wall, and it's easier to paint the wall with the baseboard not in place.

Just having the baseboard in place really makes the tiles look better -- no more gaps to the wall. I also framed the little 3' high doorway to the closet under the stairs. I'll have to make a door for it at some point.

We have decided to stain the doors rather than paint them. Of course that means that I will have to remove the trim around the basement pantry door since it has already been painted. I will also have to strip the paint from the door casing ... if that proves to be too difficult I'll remove it and rehang the door. That all sounds like something for next spring though. Sandy will have to do her staining thing on the door frames and doors.

Sandy went into Sudbury yesterday, grocery shopping and miscellaneous. When she got back, after dinner, she gave the first batch of 4x8's in the barn the final application of varathane. This morning we moved those down to the floor for storage and moved the second half up to saw horses for sanding and staining. She has now finished what she can do for the day ... sanding and applying wood conditioner ... and has gone into town (Loring) to pick up bread at the General Store, mail, sunflower seeds for the birds, deliver a cheque to Timbr Mart -- this is all exciting stuff !!!

I went into town yesterday and picking up bread was on my list, but all they had was white bread. I didn't realize that they only get one delivery of bread per week, and that's on Thursday ... thus today's trip. She'll pick up a few loaves and we will put them in the freezer. Perhaps I should be using the automatic breadmaker ??

I was going to go into town but I'm waiting for a call-back from the Ontario Firearms Officer. When I brought shotguns etc. over in August I declared them as usual and was issued the usual 60 day permit ... not. I pulled it out to call today to see about extending the permit to mid November from mid October and found that they had made a mistake and the permit expires Sept 26th not Oct 26th. If they don't get back to me I'll have to bring them down to Philly with us on the 17th then re-declare them when we come back mid October.

Bats in the belfrey -- before our trip around Lake Superior I put socks with the toes cut off over a couple of small holes at the peak to see if I could give the bats that are supposedly living there an exit but not an entry. We moved the ladder into place today (a two-person job) and I went up to check. The socks have not been disturbed, as much as I can tell, and there doesn't seem to be any more bat poop on the front step. Sooooo ... either that means that a) they are liking their new woolen entry and continueing to go in and out, or b) they have exited and have gone bye-bye, or c) they never really lived there in the first place and just like "hanging out" at our peak in the evening, taking a rest as it were, and dropping some guano as they chat with their bat-friends.

Sooooo ... I still want to see if they are hanging out here, right ? going in and out, right ? -- so, I put an elastic band around the end of each sock (right and left, or up and down as they hang) and we'll see tomorrow whether or not they have chewed their way out of the sock, which would be pretty easy. The trick is to give them an easy exit so that they don't chew their way into your house in desperation.

What a life ... although I'll take dealing with bats over some idiot with road rage.

That's it for today ... come bat, er back tomorrow for an update !!