With a tropical storm/ hurricane predicted to affect our weather this weekend I decided to take advantage of my first non-rain evening of the week last night to get out on the mower. The new bahia sod that we put down grows like weeds in the summer and was in dire need of trimming. I figured if we get buried in rain from the storm I wouldn’t have many opportunities to get the mowing done. I really like the new Husqrvana tractor, it does a great job of powering through even thick wet grass. I even got to try out the LED headlights as the sun disappeared as I finished up the last section of the yard. I emerged from the backyard tired but glad that something could be struck off the weekend to do list.
Last night I also packed up my Gotway Monster which I sold to a guy in NYC. I just bought a second suspension style EUC and I am selling my Monster and my KingSong 18XL to offset the expense. Now that I have experienced the tangible benefits of suspension EUCs it made sense to me to move out a couple of my non-suspension wheels that were seeing minimal use anyway.
The Monster does have some fond memories associated with it. It was one of the two wheels Cindy and I took on our northeastern road trip three years ago. I recall zipping around the boardwalk of Rehoboth Beach, the streets of Boston, and the carriage trails of Cadillac Mountain in Maine on the wheel. Hopefully it serves it’s new owner well on the rough streets of NYC.
This weekend I have things to tend to that will keep me busy as usual. At least my left knee is slowly improving. There is still a limp but it is more a 75 year old limp instead of an 85.
If racial rioting, acidic politics, and global pandemics weren’t enough to keep your attention, our area now has an incoming tropical storm to deal with, Isaias. No storm is good news but the best part of this system is it is not expected to develop into a major hurricane, due in part to high level Saharan dust that is in the vicinity. The other good news is it is moving at a pretty rapid pace so it shouldn’t stall and dump rain that can be measured in feet instead of inches. The current track has it touching the east coast of Florida Saturday morning before it moves north. We have been hit with over a half foot of rain in the last few days so a tropical storm is not something I welcome right now but it’s sure better than a CAT 3 hurricane.
For the third day in a row our property has gotten hammered with rain. Although the back of the chicken yard has remained standing water free that hasn’t prevented the coop platform and run area from being under water. I plan to pick up 10 bags of sand after work to at least get the chicken run above sea level. So far I have not seen any evidence of the coyote trying to circumvent our new 8 foot tall fencing but I will continue to be monitoring the situation daily.
Last night I was up until midnight shooting and editing videos for the V11. It turns out it was good I did because the wheel is getting shipped back out for repair or replacement today hopefully. My ass is dragging.
I had my first dentist visit since the pandemic started. It was pretty uneventful outside of some procedural changes like calling from the parking lot so they let you in, filling out a Covid questionnaire, and having my temperature checked. Hopefully by the time my next check up arrives in February things have gotten better instead of worse….
The past two days we have had prolonged rain deluges that have dropped probably 5-6 inches of rain on the property. This is exactly the scenario which would flood out the chicken yard and other spots around the property in the past. I was pleased to see as I surveyed the standing water that all the spots where we added fill and sod there were no puddles to be seen. It feels great to not have quite the same degree of swampland as I had become accustomed to over the last 15-20 years.
I have been frustrated with my 3D print farm. With 8 printers in the room it seems like there is never a period of time where there isn’t something wrong with at least one of them. Right now I have four with one issue or another. It truly has become a part time job as many nights after tending to the chickens my next stop is the hobby room to keep the production line flowing, fix printers, or grab parts for orders.
On top of all of this I have my brand new V11 that sounds like it has a contaminated bearing sitting in there like a doorstop after riding in the rain. Not knowing how long that will take to resolve is adding to my angina.
On Friday when I got home I headed outside to get the extension poles hung on the last side of the chicken fence. As I completed the process I shot Part 1 of a video talking about the install, both why we were doing it and how it was supposed to work.
I had the last post secured in less than an hour, setting Cindy and I up to hang the fencing on Saturday. We got started with Phase 2 mid-morning Saturday and worked efficiently. After hanging the first couple sections Cindy and I developed a system that allowed us to work pretty quickly. By the time we stopped a little after noon for lunch we had the fence initially hung around the chicken area. During the afternoon we went around and did some more zip tie-ing, attaching the extended fence to the existing fence below. When we were done it almost looked like the chickens were in prison but as long as it keeps jump happy predators out I didn’t care. That feeling was reinforced when I saw on the new fence Ring cam that a coyote had jumped the outer fence around midnight the night before.
Cindy and I were both beat up from the all day work outdoors. Deb came over during the evening and I offered to buy us takeout dinner, Cindy certainly earned it. We just chilled and hung out. Cindy and I both slept like rocks Saturday night, we were mutually exhausted.
Sunday morning I had planned to take my new V11 on an extended ride to Home Depot however as soon as I took it off the stand and started rolling it I noticed it sounded different. I hoped the noise would subside but I wound up turning around less than a mile into the ride to go grab another wheel. It was making a scraping sound, almost like the bearings were bad. I have a bad feeling it was related to riding in the rain the weekend before, something that normally is not an issue with an EUC. So now I will be in a holding pattern for who knows how long until the dealer and I come up with a plan for remediation.
I wound up first grabbing my MSX only to realize it was only half charged. I then grabbed my KingSong 16X which had enough juice for the trip. I immediately missed the V11 suspension as the road surface bumps and cracks sent jolts of pain up my sore lower body and back. Katie, Cindy and DJ met me at Home Depot for a family home improvement shopping trip. I threw my wheel and gear into Katie’s truck for the trip home.
We got absolutely pounded with rain later in the afternoon. I am sure we got at least two inches if not three. The good news is all of the areas the we elevated remained puddle free, just as I hoped. Sunday evening I kept busy with video editing, 3D printer work and even got a chance to play a little WoW, something I have not done in approaching two weeks.
My hope was to get outside after work last night and get the last side of the fence extension posts completed. Unfortunately Mother Nature had different ideas with steady rain most of the afternoon so I had to postpone the work. My hope is tonight is rain free so I can get the last 7 or 8 extensions installed which will pave the way for me hanging the fencing material this weekend. I am excited to be able to let the chickens roam freely once the work is complete, I hate having to slam the door on their face when they try to get out.
Last night I hoped to get some time to just veg out and play WoW but a 3D project I had been putting off got worked on instead. I am trying to add a filament detection sensor to one of my printers that doesn’t have one. Not having it results in bunch of failed prints where the filament ends but the printer doesn’t know it so it keeps “printing” in thin air instead of stopping and prompting you to change the filament roll. Of course the project ran into a snag which I hope to get an answer to soon.
Getting the fencing done is my big goal of the weekend but as always there are many supplementary tasks to fill in the free time cracks and crevices.
Last night Cindy and I made our first appearance as guests on another Live Stream. We were on with Black Cobra talking about EUCs and other things for about 90 minutes. Erwin is a real nice guy and it was a fun stream for sure. I wouldn’t be surprised if we do it again some time.
Our office went to a mask required mandate last Friday. The county itself did the same on Tuesday, requiring all residents to use face coverings when inside public buildings with a few exceptions. For me it means I throw on a mask when I leave my office which I occupy by myself. I don’t leave it often so it isn’t very impactful for me. For employees out in public spaces it is the opposite with mask wearing all day long. I tried to ease the pain a bit by 3D printing a bunch of straps that are designed to make ear worn masks more comfortable by allowing you to hook them behind your head instead of around the ears.
Of course there has been some bitching and complaining about the mandate but to me it’s a no brainer. With the numbers continuing to escalate we can’t just sit on our hands and hope it goes away. A mask doesn’t prevent you from getting covid although it does definitely reduce your chance. It’s most important role is to knock down your transmission circle if you are an asymptomatic carrier. So many people just don’t understand that. Please don’t give me the breathing your own CO2 is bad bullshit. It has been scientifically proven exhaustively that this is an absolute falsehood.
I wasted little time before heading outside last night to resume mounting the fence extension poles. This time I utilized the wheel barrow to conveniently move supplies from one mount spot to the next. It went very well, by the time I finished up for the night I had extension poles on 3/4 of the fence perimeter. I am hoping to get the remaining poles mounted tomorrow night and then over the weekend I can concentrate on getting the barrier hung up.
Once I got out there I of course released the chickens from their captivity. They seem so excited when they are allowed access once again to their yard. If chickens could smile, they would have been sporting big toothy grins. I am really looking forward to completing the work so Cindy and I can resume letting the hens roam without feeling the need to be constantly looking over our shoulder for coyotes stalking the yard.
Tonight Cindy and I are going to be on the live stream of The Black Cobra at 6:30. (look him up on YouTube) He does a weekly EUC themed talk show where he has various people on in the community to just shoot the shit. Last night we hooked up with Erwin for a few minutes on Skype just to make sure everything was good to go. He is a cool guy with an outgoing personality so I think it should be a fun time.
It’s an odd thing that not once but twice my hobbies have resulted in people all over the globe knowing who I am. The first time was via my hardcore calisthenics days where I was involved with the Bar-barians and posted countless workout challenge videos. Now courtesy of my EUC/PEV obsession much of the same has happened. If you have been in the EUC scene for a decent period of time, no matter your geographical location around the globe, you probably know who Duf is. I’m not mentioning this as bragging point, it’s more of an oddity and weird side effect of living in such an interconnected world as we do today.
Last night after work I stopped at Home Depot to get upgraded hardware to attach my fence extension supports. I grabbed a big box of 3 inch high quality deck screws and a container of 3/16 fender washers. When I got home I grabbed some supports and got busy.
I decided to align the mounting plate with the top of the fence. This allows it to be low enough on the posts so I can do additional securing down low where it matters. I used a level to get the new poles straight from a left/right perspective. There wasn’t much I could do on the in/out plane as most of the wood posts have some degree of bend to them.
Despite only using two of the four available mount holes the metal extensions felt locked in to the wood posts when I snugged them up. If I didn’t use the bigger/longer screws and fender washers there was no way the hardware they included would be sufficient. I got the back fence line done in about a half hour or so. Tonight I want to start placing posts down one of the sides. I would love to have the posts mostly done during the week just leaving attaching the fencing for the weekend, which is going to be interesting since most of it will require working on a ladder.
This morning as I was putting the chicken food out I noticed the live trap was closed. I had it open but unbaited last night. Evidently a small palm rat was curious, went in the trap and activated the door. I have seen two of them scurrying around at night on camera so I was happy to have snagged one. I sat him in the garage while I got ready. I did give him a small piece of bread to eat while waiting. When I came out to leave he had eaten it all.
We had a nice ride to the customary drop off point. When I opened the door and told him he was free he came out the door and paused for several seconds looking at me. In my animal loving mind it almost felt like he was saying “thanks for the bread and not killing me”. After the pause he scurried off into the underbrush, hopefully to live a life where he does not impact human beings.
Another sad animal story happened on the property this weekend. I started smelling something dead around the coop area. I saw nothing at first but upon closer inspection I saw the carcass of a snake half hanging out of the hardware cloth that lines the bottom of the chicken platform. Ironically it was probably targeting the palm rats and misjudged it’s ability to squeeze through the tiny squares and died. I felt bad for the snake as well and sad that I had not found it and freed it before it kicked the bucket.
Friday when I got home I was welcomed by the box my used Prusa arrived in. Despite the efforts by the seller to mark the box as FRAGILE, UPS looked like they tossed it around like a football. The top of the box was crushed and it looked like lid was opened and sloppily re-taped. I was frustrated by UPS not being able to read or just not giving a shit. I was lucky, the printer still was intact and printed just fine.
On Saturday I was grinding pretty much all day long. In addition to normal chores I wound up doing mowing and weed whacking of the property with an assist from Cindy. It was brutally hot and humid. I also finally got around to replacing the piece of screen on the lanai that had a tear in it. Cindy patched the rip by hand awhile ago but we noticed the tear had reopened. At the time we thought it was just from exposure to the elements. However once I replaced the screen section Cindy caught Sadie just before she tried to create her own exit point, which is how it got ripped in the first place. Seeing that confirmed that Cindy’s patch job only failed because Sadie ripped it open, again.
Replacing that section of screen sucked as I was sweating profusely as I was alternating between sitting on a dry rotted plastic bucket that was breaking and crawling on my aching knees. I had not replaced a section of screen in awhile so perhaps my technique was rusty as well, adding to the difficulty. The section wound up looking nice and tight at the end which is all that matters.
When I ran to Home Depot earlier I picked up yet another security device for the chickens, a Ring Spotlight cam. I already have a Ring device on the front of the coop, this one I wanted to put on the rear fence line. My only concern was having the coop WiFi signal reach all the way back there which it luckily did. This device has two way audio, bright LEDs and even a siren if needed. I am hoping to be able to proactively monitor any coyotes that are scouting the fence line as well as possibly scare them away with unexpected bright light.
I finally got to slow down as evening arrived when Deb came over to hang out. We watched Angel Has Fallen with Gerard Butler where he reprises his super Secret Service Agent role. It was entertaining, with my sense of enjoyment probably chemically enhanced from the wine I drank. I’d give it a B+.
On Sunday after paying my bills I wanted to go out on a new range test with my production V11. Supposedly there were changes made to the production model which were supposed to result in longer range of the wheel. I wanted to test that out. The ride took a very wet turn on the return trip from Ave Maria where I rode through rain, torrential at times. The final numbers I came up with did not seem to be an improvement at all which was slightly disappointing. Overall I love the wheel and the range, even if it less than I expected, is more than I would use in my normal riding situations.
While I was on the ride the fence extension materials were delivered by FedEx. I was very surprised they delivered on a Sunday as I never knew that was an option with FedEx. I cracked open the hardware to take a look. The extension poles are massive but I am going to need to improvise some. They don’t have a kit specifically made for a round wooden fence post so I ordered the closest thing they had, a pole for a split rail fence. The mounting surface is a large rectangular plate with four screw holes. I will only be able to use two of the four holes if I want to be able to mount into the beefiest section of each post.
The other thing I will need are longer/better screws. The screws they include look drastically undersized and barely cover the size of the holes in the mounting plate. I will be getting long aggressive woods screws with fender washers to apply pressure to a larger area. I hope to start attaching poles this week after work. It will be a lengthy process for sure.
