At my other farm, I raised them in a 'chick pen' up in the 3rd floor attic. The new chicks always imprinted on my Basset Hound, Rufus, who always helped me 'check on the chicks.' When grown, they would follow him everywhere.
Posted on 11/18/2023 6:28:34 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
Thanks!
Those beds will look nice; I like the look of metal beds.
Our projects this week:
Insulating the north outside wall of the kitchen for the winter. Our kitchen sits on a crawlspace that needs insulation - but I am NOT crawling in there! Forget it!
Building a new ‘Puppy Pen’ in the barn for our Mama Dog and her new litter of puppies 1 week and 1 day old, today. 6 of them. Four females and two males. We think? LOL!
Cutting plexiglass for window replacements in the area of the barn that will be the chicken coop.
Moving the mule and steer around to take advantage of the last of the grass for the season.
Hanging a new gate into the barn yard - Done!
Never-ending chores are just one of the joys of being a homeowner.
Fortunately I’m one of those people who always has to have at least one project going at all times. If I don’t have something to keep my brain busy when I’m not working I go stir crazy.
You mentioning the crawl space needing insulation reminds me that I need to drag an electric cord out to the chicken coop so I can power the tank heater than keeps their water thawed during cold weather.
Not anymore, in East Central at least, although I don't think we got as much as they predicted. I'll take it. Knocks down the dust for some time.
Between my paid birthday off, Thanksgiving and a PTO day I have coming, I finagled to be off from work until Dec 2nd starting tomorrow.
11 days to get stuff done.
Flocks of red-winged blackbirds have been coming through - the ground is almost covered with them at times. It’s quite a sight to see so many birds, whether on the ground or taking off en masse. Yesterday, there were a couple of juncos, looking for something to eat in the front hosta beds - typically, we only see juncos in the winter so they are migrating in.
I’m not sure how much it rained here. I turned my rain gauge upside down after the first freeze a few weeks ago.
Couldn’t have been over half an inch at my place. Like you said, enough to knock the dust down for a few days. When it’s this dry every little bit is welcome.
At my other farm, I raised them in a 'chick pen' up in the 3rd floor attic. The new chicks always imprinted on my Basset Hound, Rufus, who always helped me 'check on the chicks.' When grown, they would follow him everywhere.
“11 days to get stuff done.”
Woot! Woot! :)
I have EVERY ‘day off’ and it’s true - the work EXPANDS to fill the time allotted, LOL!
Even though the Red-Winged Blackbirds are bullies, I’m always happy to see them; it means my other Winter birds aren’t far behind. :)
Right now I have various and sundry Woodpeckers, a few Blue Jays (also bullies!) and WAY too many Sparrows - that need to move to warmer weather! I am only feeding BO Sunflower Seed and Peanuts in the shell right now (the Blue Jays like those) so there really is NOTHING for the Sparrows to eat, but they’re all over the feeders anyway. Jerks.
No Cardinals or Juncos yet, but soon! I’ve had a few Nuthatch around all Summer. :)
Whoever thought ‘importing’ Sparrows from the UK was a good idea was absolutely wrong!
Day 1 - my feet hurt so my butt’s glued to this chair for the day. Kinda chilly out there anyway. I don’t want to even stand to do dishes.
I’m looking at/for wind sensors on the interwebs. Price ranges from tens of dollars to thousands. Trying to find a happy medium but it’s not going well.
I will be going out to do one thing here shortly. Try out the new mini sprinklers that came in today. Garden doesn’t need watering. Just going to run them for a minute and check out the pattern and coverage.
We used to watch two fat ladies back when they were on TV. Never missed an episode.
I thought they were hilarious...and very talented cooks. Love them to this day. Saw them first on PBS many years ago. :)
For anyone unfamiliar, you can watch full episodes on You-Tube. The opening of the show is so cute with them in their side-car motorcycle...which is how they travel around. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu9yUU0fTAk&list=PLJS6gfE_0L-X6s7D11Fb5hOFuGw-YhJ0Z
The other ones are basically the exact same as the very first ones I got that were sold as something to put on a riser stake sticking in the ground which is how I used them. Since they look identical to the same brand of "inverted" I tried the old ones inverted. Come to find out, they also work inverted. Those first ones also have an adjustment for spread that will close down all the way to the point of shutting them off while the ones sold as inverted don't.
Those things were working just fine but when I saw inverted types, I thought it would be nice to not have dripline in the way when raking, cultivating or when the mole pushes them up, simply walking without tripping on them.
So I bought some junk inverted and now I'm back to the in ground ones but used inverted, plus their twin sold as inverted. When I buy more, I'll get the first type since they're adjustable all the way down to off. Saves needing shut off valves to water specific beds or zones. $0.82 each.
Irrigation has been the cheapest thing I've experimented and learned with. Also the easiest.
Hours of research on multiple occasions and I finally found some helpful tech info for wind sensors in the manual of an obsolete analog input module.
Wind speed sensors predominately use one of two methods, frequency generator or reed switch closure.(obscure insider secret)
Engineering formulas are sometimes given to figure Slope and Offset but the math is way over my head.
The Met One is unobtaimium
The RM Young 5103 is a commercial grade $1,100 wind speed/direction sensor.(7" propeller)
I'm watching a couple of ebay auctions for used ones. Auctions end tomorrow and are currently $53 and $99.
The Davis Instruments 6410 is a replacement anemometer for their Vantage Pro2 weather station and is $225 new.
Davis Instruments are high end homeowner to low/mid range commercial grade.
The info above is from the X-320 and as mentioned, obsolete. The new version is the X-420 and is $330. I might be able to use a $170 analog input module but I'll have to contact them and make sure it would work.
Then a couple of pages down in the X-320 manual, I find this;
I've been looking at the 200SS-V soil moisture sensors($48) for months but everything I read says you need their special gadget to read the signal($70 per sensor) and then another one to convert it into a signal that a logic controller can make use of($215 for up to 6 sensors). Evidently not so. You just need the info above for Slope.
As with the wind speed sensors, I still need some sort of analog input module, either the $330 or $170 version but I already knew that. I just had no idea what to put in for Slope and Offset.
Without the above info, I've been looking at having to get a full Davis weather station for $550, a module to plug into it to get data from it but only to monitor current weather conditions for $450 and then a IO controller to do things, like close the drop down sides in high wind, with the data for another $500.
I already have everything to open/close sides and vents depending on temperature. I really didn't want to have to spend $1,500 to close sides when windy.(even if having a full weather station would be cool)
At least I now know that for $225, I can get a new decent quality wind sensor and then I just need either a $170 or $330 analog input module.
I'm hoping to get one or both of the R M Young wind sensors though. You can buy new cups for the $225 Davis unit but you can buy every single part for the R M Young. (and it looks so cool - rocket/bomb/plane thing)
And if money was of no concern, here in ice storm land, this would be the one to get.(ice resistant coating)
“Fun” night last night! With a list of things to do (plans to make a couple of recipe components) & a crochet project to finish, the power went out at 9:20 .... just like that, no warning, no brown out, no ‘blinks’, just OUT.
Yesterday was rain, with heavier rain in the afternoon. We had 3/4 inch by dark. The main front was still coming & getting more intense with a thin ‘red’ line on radar. The wind picked up - I had the front door open & could see through the storm door the wind blowing the maple tree that is 8 yards off our porch - kept turning the motion light on. Then the power went out.
My SIL next door was wrapping up a book club meeting, so the ladies left. My brother was in his taxidermy shop, working on the eyes/ears of a big buck his partner got 3 years ago - trying to have it ready for the partner’s retirement party early next month. He was at a point where he could not stop - finished with a headlamp & lantern my SIL brought him from the house.
As I said, I was getting ready to finish a project & start some cooking. We got the candles out & flashlights. The outage was localized to our narrow, winding 2 mile rural road (as usual). I was bored, so I drove the road up to the fire station & couldn’t see anything obvious (the last outage, our next door neighbor had an old pine that came down on the line, partially into the road). We didn’t start the generator - figured the lights would be on fairly soon.
According to the ‘outage’ map, a crew was ‘dispatched’ almost immediately. At 12:30, I was happy to see a “scout” truck going down the road, spotlights on the lines, checking each transformer. Once I see the ‘scout truck’, the repair crews are close to being on scene. I told mom I figured the power would be back on by 2 (outage map estimated 3am to 6am). The power came back on at 1:40. I just could not go to bed before that time, so I finally got to bed around 2:30.
I’m ok as far as getting food ready for tomorrow - will have to do a few extra things that I wanted done last night. The crochet project, as long as I calculated right & made some good decisions (won’t know until I start the last part), should be finished today - I need it for tomorrow. I’m sorting canned jams/jellies into boxes to hand out tomorrow to the out-of-town folks I won’t see at Christmas. As for how much rain we got - maybe 1/10 shy of 2”! It’s a foggy, soggy morning ... good day to stay inside and cook/crochet. Thanksgiving day should be sunny & upper 50’s, perfect for The Feast! :-)
Thanks for the link!
Cheap phone + online convert from mp4 to gif = choppy video
There are two of the Inverted Rotor Spray and two of the Vari Spray running and despite the video, they're outputs are identical.
The vari spray is meant to be upright but works fine inverted. I had those running for 2-3 weeks with no issue. They'll go from about a 10-12 foot circle down to 3-4 and below that, kinda spit instead of spray. The adjustment knob that will also turn it all the way down to off which I like.
The one below is what screwed up after a week. Senninger is supposed to be good stuff but this particular model didn't do well for me.
Darn, it's Thanksgiving tomorrow and I already ate the harvest. I do have a young goat buckling out there.
Just pulled chicken out for tonight and the ex is coming to get the boy tomorrow night. Have no idea what time. I've got some salmon in the fridge. Guess I'll do that tomorrow for lunch. Birthday is Sunday so maybe I'll get some snow crab clusters. I did get a turkey from work but I'll save that for one of the cold days coming up.
Right now, I'm going to go climb the truck n ladder crane thing and disconnect from tunnel frame #2 and dig a little on holes for the rest, especially #3.
Finally got my temp/humidity sensor outdoors. It's 49 degrees with 48% RH in the shade of the house.
I think I found a wind speed sensor for $35 that I'm 98% sure can get to work. It's a good brand, rebuilt with a better coil and seller has 100% positive feedback. He also got back to me today with a question on the frequency I need to input even though he's visiting family.(What's the frequency Kenneth?)
I'll still be watching those used RM Young units. It's a surplus/resell type seller, big volume, say everything works and hope for the best kinda thing and they do have negative reviews saying things didn't work. But if I can get an $1,100 wind sensor, that parts are available for, and get it for less than $200, I'll fix it if it doesn't work. I do that with cars. I want a rocketbombplane for my birthday dammit.
Harris Seeds is having a black Friday sale that will last through the weekend.
Glad you were able to work around that! We have a similar situation...we are at the END of the line, as far as our electricity goes.
Beau has been asking them for YEARS to replace some of our power poles that are rotting out, but so far they’re saying they’re sticking to their ‘replacement plan’ and we ain’t on it!
Oh, well, supposedly a ‘super-duper-sunspot-flare’ is on its way to fry us all, so I guess new power poles will be the LEAST of my problems in the near future. ;)
This is the FIRST Thanksgiving in FOREVER where I get to show up as a Guest and don’t have to bring a thing. Life Is Good! :)
(I know your feast will be well worth the effort!)
I just put the pecan pie bars in the oven. The side dish was very time consuming - I baked it & will just have to warm it up tomorrow. The cranberries are cooked/cooled & the pineapple drained for the Cranberry Fluff. I will whip the cream tomorrow & put the salad together - didn’t want to do it tonight, thought it might fall apart.
My little great-nieces have been sick, probably can’t come. This is very disappointing because I was counting on them to eat a lot of the Cranberry Fluff (very pink color - they love pink).
The 2nd stocking is not done - on this one, I did not crochet the cuff as part of the stocking, but worked it separately. I put in stripes & since I’m not an octopus, I just didn’t seem to have enough hands/fingers to deal with it. So the cuff is a separate piece that I will crochet on with a slip stitch - hope it’s the right size & looks ok. I have that yet to do tonight - couldn’t do it by candle light - yarn was too dark.
Saw a deer jump the back fence this morning & the juvie red-shouldered hawk kept me entertained a good while. It was hunting in the pasture & sitting on the fence directly in front of the kitchen window - didn’t see a squirrel all day LOL! All I needed was a Tom Turkey to strut by .... we do have turkeys on the place (a couple that are a “smoke” color variation - pretty birds).
Have a great Thanksgiving tomorrow - maybe one day I will find myself in ‘guest’ status ... sounds heavenly! :-)
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