8 channels, Indepencier Day, Dog overboard, solo Sunday
Friday night Cindy finished off her 22 kill push up challenge where you do 22 push ups per day for 22 days to bring awareness to the PTSD epidemic with US veterans and the corresponding high suicide rates. On the final day she actually did not do any push ups and instead concentrated on the real reason the movement started, showing the pictures and names of 22 veterans that are no longer around as a result of PTSD.
She originally shot the video in her phone using the Facebook Live app. I thought it was really touching stuff so I extracted that video and turned it into a YouTube video. Even though I am actually a pretty emotional person, I don’t express it outwardly very often. Cindy on the other hand has the gift of not only being an emotional, caring person, but also being able to reflect that out to the world around her. I think the video is a perfect example of it.
Saturday morning I was out early getting the weeding done before I once again had to drive into the office to work on a server issue. I managed to get home right around lunch time after getting the issue handled.
Saturday afternoon Cindy and I headed out to the coop to install the upgraded surveillance system. We replaced the Samsung 4 channel 720P box with a Night Owl 8 channel 1080p system. The Night Owl is backwards compatible so I could leave the existing Samsung 720P cameras in place and just add the four new 1080P cameras to the system.
In total it might have taken us around 90 minutes in the hot sun to get the new system online. Now we have full camera coverage of the back yard as well as a view of the bar park and the west part of our property towards the road. Of course the cameras are not going to prevent a coyote attack but will make sure we know exactly how/when/where it happened.
Saturday night we got out to see the new Independence Day. I was mostly a fan of the original even though it had a some dumb moments. Well somehow 20 years have passed and the movie follows that timeline in real time. The 20 years gave the Earth time to prepare for a new attack using the alien tech left over from the first film. Unfortunately the 20 years evidently was not used to hire some good writers. The movie was really, really dumb. Early on I thought the film was going to be decent with it reusing most of the cast from the original except for Will Smith. The special effects are as cool as you would expect but nowadays that is expected.
The story, dialogue and acting in the movie is pretty much atrocious. I described in Facebook as seeming like the target audience for the film were People of Walmart subjects. Repeatedly during the movie I was laughing out loud, not because of humor but because of stupidity of what I was seeing/hearing. Let’s just say I was very disappointed in the film and would not recommend anyone laying out additional cash to see it. Catch it on Netflix in a few months while you are drunk. It gets a C-. Before the movie we at least had a nice dinner at Stir Crazy so it wasn’t a total washout.
On Sunday I started off with a run on the treadmill. I didn’t feel like slogging through the humidity. Cindy was heading out early for an all day cycling seminar for a possible job opportunity down the road. After taking a shower Sadie and I jumped in the truck for a trip to Rural King. I had the GoPro along so Sadie got to star in her first vlog entry during the drive. I was going to Rural King to take a look at their electric fence supplies which turned out to be pretty extensive. If I decide to electrify the fence I will probably get the majority of the stuff online but it’s good to know I can run out and get stuff to fill any gaps at RK if needed.
When we got home I rolled into a number of chores including weed whacking the yard. I did 5/6 of the yard with my new battery powered DeWalt unit. For the majority of the yard it works well however trimming along castle stones is not one of them. For whatever reason the trimmer head on the DeWalt spins counter clockwise, the opposite direction my gas powered trimmer spins. With the way I hold the trimmer and the direction I normally go it just doesn’t do a great job against the uneven stone surface. When the battery died I switched to the gas trimmer and was apply to knock down the castle stone barrier with ease. Even though the cordless trimmer has good power it doesn’t approach the brute force the gas trimmer can apply to targeted areas. I’m ok with having both in my yard arsenal.
I was a sweaty mess after working in the hot sun so I went in the pool to cool off which of course Sadie was excited about. When I go in the pool when she is around we play the “splashy, splash” game where I go side to side in the pool and splash water on her as she runs around the deck. After splashing her for awhile the deck was quite wet. I was moving to the opposite side when I heard a splash from the deep end. I turned and saw Sadie had slipped in and had just gone completely underwater. I was concerned for a split second and quickly moved in her direction however she popped up and immediately started swimming towards the steps on the other end. I praised her repeatedly as I dried her off for getting out on the pool herself.
Even though I spent a good portion of the day doing chores both inside and outside the house solo I didn’t mind much. Sometimes I am most productive when I am in that situation.
We got through the weekend without any further chicken incidents, continuing our revised free ranging schedule that keeps them in the coop longer in the morning and back in the coop earlier in the evening. Our hope is shortening that window will keep the chickens out of harms way during dusk/dawn timeframe when the attack on Cocoa occurred.
I have a short week coming up, being off Thursday and Friday as well as having Monday off for the 4th of July. I hope to get my shelter constructed over the sprinkler controller and water cleaning equipment during that time. We also will be going to the Miami Supercon on Saturday, staying overnight and returning Sunday so that will be a different type of experience for sure.