Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Cupolas

Cupolas for sale!
 If you live in New England and have a big ol' barn, you really need a cupola to top off the building with a weathervane. They really give it a good look. Be careful though. A buddy of mine is a part time house painter. Once he was helping out a friend roofing and painting an old barn. At one point in his day, he was up at peak dabbing some paint to the wooden dome, when he upset a few thousand hornets peacefully, nesting in the cupola. Needless to say, he made a rapid retreat down the roof to his ladder, but not before the hornets had left their mark and messaged him that the pinnacle of this barn was their domain. He returned later in the fall and uneventfully finished throwing some paint on the cupola.
There's moral here somewhere. 
Some seemingly easy jobs can leave a sting?

19 comments:

  1. What a fun photo you have today! Not so fun is the story up upsetting the hornets nest. In you youth, I did that once with a wasp nest and I can tell you they weren't very happy with me and they let me know it in their own 'stinging' way.

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  2. I meant to say "In my youth". Sometimes I wonder why my fingers type one thing while my brain is working on something else entirely.

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  3. I've heard before that bees and wasps love to make there nests in these.. they do look good though..

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  4. Roofers and painters, especially, probably need additional stinging insect insurance as often as they're exposed.

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  5. Meh, now I want one. On a V. condo. Ridiculous.

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  6. I'd love a weathervane - might not work too well on a flat roof!

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  7. EW! Not a great place to find a hornets' nest! I'm glad your buddy was able to get down safely in spite of his stings.

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  8. A nice photo and nice musing today. Story about the hornets is not so amusing, though.

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  9. He was lucky to make it to the ladder without falling off the roof.

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  10. I don't have a barn, but I would love to have a cupola anyway!

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  11. He was lucky if he got out of the way of those hornets.

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  12. Ouch, but very cool copper cupolas (a little alliteration there for you, Birdman). xx

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  13. I like the variety of weathervane designs. Wow!

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  14. "Weathervane" .. I like the word in English as well as in french (girouette) and the thing itself . I like the mermaid !

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  15. One just needs to watch what is buzzing around or all the work will be in vane!

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  16. What a picture. I pity the guy on the roof though. Once at archaeology work I must have struck an underground wasp nest with my pickaxe. Angry wasps flew into my glove and made a disaster of my hand and arm.

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