Busy, busy, wasp.

Hello family, friends and followers.

Being back home on our mooring, has meant we have been especially busy with boat jobs and shopping. Having done our fenders, laundry and opening the copious amounts of post, it was time to get serious.
For the past couple of years, I have been wanting to repaint our engine room, but with us having both Paddy and Marmite, it was a bit of a logistical nightmare. Pets and paint really do not go well together, especially when you have a dog with a fluffy coat and a cat which likes to get into everything. But since we lost the pair of them last year sadly, it now means I have no excuse. I can now get on with the engine room paintwork. The first job was to strip everything out and rub everything down.

I painted the ceiling and the walls in Moonlight White Gloss from Wilko.

It has given it a fresh new look. Last time I painted the wall is a cream colour, but we are both loving the white. The walls and ceiling got two coats.

I then turned my attention to the bottom half of the walls, which were done in Donegal Green. They also got two coats.
Yesterday I Keith's drill, with a wire brish attachment, to get rid of the rust and loose paint off the engine room floor, before applying a coat of Red Oxide.

This morning I did the first top coat of Red/Brown by Epifanes. I will decide tomorrow if I need to do a second. Tomorrow, I will begin to paint the shelving which sits over the generator and hot water tank.
Whilst all this work was taking place, we noticed Wasps flying in and out of one of our bunkers. Last year we had a nest in the very same bunker and suspected we had the same again. I opened the door to be met with several Wasps. None of them were angry, but they were curious. I needed to get into the bunker to get to some paint and a tarpolin which we needed. I actually pulled part of the nest away from the wall, this did not please the Wasps, so we left well alone for a while, before closing the door.

My thinking was we would leave the Wasps alone to do their thing, because once the weather cools, they would leave the nest and we could then have our bunker back. But our neighbour is allergic to Wasps stings.

Today we took the decision that we would have to dispose of the nest and to do that we would have to kill the Wasps. Whilst in town we bought some Wasps powder, which seemed to quickly do the job, once we had puffed it over the entrance to the bunker. We will leave the nest overnight and have another look in the morning. I feel sad that we had to get rid of the nest, but we could not take a risk, what with our neighbour being allergic. She had said she had had a few already in her boat and that was what made us decide to take action.

Pop back soon xx