Jump to content

Randomness XVIII: Ex-Vee-Triple-Eye


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 15k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

On our trip to SoCal on Sunday we passed through an area on US 395 that used to be a healthy Juniper and Pinion Pine forest.  It's now a scene of desolation thanks to California's poor forestry practices that have made lightning strike caused forest fires into raging conflagrations.

Nevada has lost many hundreds of acres of previously healthy forest and the residences and other structures in these areas.

On a slightly more positive note, the fire that caused all this destruction is now about 80% contained.  That and our winds have shifted so the smoke is now being blown back into California.

 

  • Sad 10
Link to comment
Share on other sites

*sigh*

Yesterday largely featured an unplanned power outage. I didn't get to sleep until 3am, because, gee, my CPAP machine needs power, and there was none. 

I'm not really impressed with this lot. Our guys, yes. Their guys.. not so much. 

 

And this borked our plans to stay out; we hared off to a Nice Hotel for a night, made shameless use of their shower facilities (we still have no running water. We're going on month and a half now) and generally enjoyed being able to use civilised plumbing for a little while. I am sorely tempted to suggest making a habit of it, once a week; take Jasper along, if we can ...  but we wanted to Investigate some stuff, and.. that didn't happen. Andi's Very Irritated; he keeps making plans, and crap keeps coming up and ... "This is Crap*." Song title; look it up on Youtube.. 

 

However, I still have ten baby fooflets, Mumhen is still being a decent mom. Still don't know what got Fluffy. Will have to pick up a trail cam. And in the meantime, I am hoping it won't take a week to convince the other four that the coop is, in fact, safe. 

I am not having this problem with Mumhen and her clutch.. Seven mostly-black fooflets, who are probably going to take after Mumhen, albeit I have no actual idea who laid them, three brown-and-tan patterned fooflets that might look like Dottie (the Wyandotte), or .. anybody, really, because who knows. Marans are pretty good mommas, but the timing is poor. *sigh* And they're not quite big enough to make the hop into the Henitentary coop themselves, although they get out just fine.

I .. am going to have to build that little coop a new roof; while most of the coop is cedar, and is, therefore, ignoring the weather, the roof is really obviously cheap plywood and is ... not up to being outside. 

*mutter* I can, in theory, get my hands on cedar shake. Is this a good idea...? Who knows. Am I going to have time? Uh.. lemme get back to you on that one. 

 

Oh! And our owl is coming back. Did I mention the Owl Incident? He's a Great Horned, North American (a little smaller than his cousins over the moat), and I'll be glad to have him back. The mice and whatever else that are his normal diet won't, of course. Hopefully, he won't get himself hung up in the Anti-DFA netting again. 

 

*The actual scatological reference is a Bad Word. 

  • Like 9
  • Sad 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Sylverthorne said:

 

Oh! And our owl is coming back. Did I mention the Owl Incident? He's a Great Horned, North American (a little smaller than his cousins over the moat), and I'll be glad to have him back. 

 

I hope it's not looking at the flooflets as a midnight snack. 

 

You guys have had more than your share of trouble.   Maybe some of the forum members can do a collective dark working to align forces more in your favor.....

 

  • Like 11
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, OneBoot said:
On 9/13/2021 at 9:14 PM, ManvsMini said:
  • 1985 – Super Mario Bros. was released in Japan for the NES, starting the Super Mario series games.

 

Huh. I didn't realize I'm as old as Mario.

 

I'm...not sure if that makes me feel old or not. :blink:

If it makes you feel better, Mario first showed up in Donkey Kong in 1981. That makes me the same age as Mario.

  • Like 10
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Inarah said:

 

I hope it's not looking at the flooflets as a midnight snack. 

 

You guys have had more than your share of trouble.   Maybe some of the forum members can do a collective dark working to align forces more in your favor.....

 

 

Him - and his other nocturnal associates - are the reason the Henitentiary gained a miniature coop in the first place; the original arrangement couldn't be locked, and... well. Predictable issues. Although the netting having been in place at the time makes me think that one wasn't one of our resident owls.

Haven't had that happen again, as long as I remember to lock everybody up. 

But I'm irritated about the cheap plywood roof; that will have to be addressed. 😕

 

As for workings... I'd settle for as stress-free a well-drilling as can be got; and everything that's gonna go along with it; including plumbing, electricity, carpentry, cement pouring ... and we're getting into wet season, so that last one especially is gonna be a party. *sigh*

  • Like 9
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Sylverthorne said:

 

Him - and his other nocturnal associates - are the reason the Henitentiary gained a miniature coop in the first place; the original arrangement couldn't be locked, and... well. Predictable issues. Although the netting having been in place at the time makes me think that one wasn't one of our resident owls.

Haven't had that happen again, as long as I remember to lock everybody up. 

But I'm irritated about the cheap plywood roof; that will have to be addressed. 😕

 

As for workings... I'd settle for as stress-free a well-drilling as can be got; and everything that's gonna go along with it; including plumbing, electricity, carpentry, cement pouring ... and we're getting into wet season, so that last one especially is gonna be a party. *sigh*

Actually, cement cures best when it is kept wet.  As long as you can keep the are where the cement work is to be done from flooding you shouldn't have any problems.

The process of cement hardening is a curing process not a drying process.  If you put your hand near a freshly poured concrete slab, as in four to twelve hours after the pour, you will quickly discover that the process of curing is generating substantial amounts of heat.

GEM

Addendum:  For really large concrete pours they will install small diameter piping through which cool water is circulated to slow the rate of curing.  This helps to prevent cracking as in a large pour the amount of heat generated in the center of the thicker sections can actually cause the concrete to crack while it cures.

The Hoover Dam was one of the early applications of this technique.  They built cooling towers with pumping equipment to circulate cooled water through each successive section of the concrete pour.  With the high desert temperatures it was absolutely necessary to provide additional cooling for an extended period of time to the core of the concrete as each successive section was poured.

GEM

Edited by Green Eyed Monsty
  • Like 12
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...