Less list
On Friday I got busy working on the new list which included two carryover items from the prior week. I knocked both of those items out. The first was to install a new pump in the recently refurbished pond. The new kit includes a new pump, an enhanced filtration box and a fountain attachment to add some visual and audible flair to the feature. The second item was installing a wireless charging upgrade for my Tesla. I ordered this accessory way back in early May but it only showed up about a week ago. The pad integrates with another accessory, a USB hub that I bought from the same company about 6 months ago. It was annoying to have to wait so long but the end result was what I wanted, integrated wireless charging that looks like it came from the factory.
On Saturday I made my second trip to Home Depot in as many days. Both trips ironically included grabbing more sand and sod. This is a result of rather oppressive rain that we have gotten during the last week which has flooded parts of the property that were not elevated several months ago. I now have dumped somewhere around 2000 pounds of additional sand in the chicken run which seems to at least gotten it to a level where standing water no longer pools in there. I can’t do anything about the sand absorbing the moisture but at least the hens won’t be standing in water if they choose to hang in there.
The sod again was to address some standing water on the sides and front of the coop. The birds drive me crazy as they are very lazy when it comes to their drinking water. We have four clean drinking sources in their area but they insist on drinking disgusting, dirty, bacteria riddled ground water if it is right in front of them. I have been throwing sod in as many of those spots as possible but I keep finding more.
By the time Deb came over for a visit late Saturday afternoon I had pretty much all list items crossed off except mowing the property which was not going to happen because it was just too damn wet. If I still had the old Craftsman mower I might not mind plowing through the mucky areas but I was not about to do that to my nice new Husqvarna. I will mow once we get a couple days in a row without significant precipitation.
On Sunday morning after tending to the chickens I installed another Ring camera in their area on the back of the coop. The wide angle of the Ring camera covers nearly double the field of view of my shitty DVR cameras. My intent is to just use Ring devices for surveillance out there eventually. I have the front and back chicken yard covered so far. If I added three more I would be able to monitor it all.
Late Sunday morning I headed out for a quick ride where the focus was talking about some recent news in the EUC community. I published the video as a premiere in YouTube. Basically what that means is you schedule the video to be released at a certain time and subscribers to your channel get the notification. Then when that time comes a live chat is part of the video UI which allows the creator to interact with the viewers. Premieres have been around for awhile but I don’t utilize them much. I probably should rethink that because the video got a big surge in initial views from doing it this way.
Another change I have made is adding “Chapters” to my videos. Many people are too ADD nowadays to be able to sit through a 20 minute video. With chapters the video timeline is broken into segments based on timestamps. I think that helps with viewership as well since people can just view whatever parts interests them.
Cindy was working more on her green thumb this weekend. She was busy working on her huge collection of plants that have been collected over the last 6 months or so. She was especially excited that some of the poinciana seeds I brought home from work sprouted. Poinciana is one of Cindy’s favorite trees so she is hoping to be able to nurture the seedlings into the real thing.
Katie and DJ came over Sunday afternoon to hang out. Babysitting DJ has now elevated to an entirely new level. He can basically run at this point so he needs to be monitored/chased down at all times to keep him from getting into trouble. If you turn your attention elsewhere for even 5 seconds he could be gone in a flash.
I don’t have another three day weekend again until Labor Day, I miss them already.