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FCL : Day in the Life : Sun May 12, 2019 (Mother’s Day)

Q: What does one do on Mother’s Day, when their Mother passed away two months ago?

A: Get busy. Stay busy. Try not to think about it. 😉

Just kidding … sorta. I did indeed think about my Mom today. Fond, pleasant memories. I miss her so much already … and it’s only been weeks since she passed.

In today’s video, you will find a good contrast to the “coyote incident” the other day. Got to save a life today … instead of take one.

Picked up a new Cub Cadet ST 100 string trimmer (ah HA, that’s what you call it!) that was on sale today and put it through its paces. Impressed. Like it. Glad I got it. Plan to use it A LOT.

Deuce was sort of a loose cannon today … but what’s new. While I may come across a little cavalier about his personal safety today … I’m glad Luna didn’t crack his skull or knock his teeth out for being a punk-ass puppy.

Happy Mothers Day Mom!

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FCL :: Day in the Life :: Monday October 8, 2018

As I described in the opening segment … I was on my first cup of coffee, doing my morning situational awareness review (SAR) (news, weather, etc.) when it dawned on me that I was hearing something … a bird of some sort … that struck me as … different. I thought, hmmm, sounds like a baby chicken. DOAH! I forgot about the duck eggs in the incubator in the window sill behind me!

Sure enough … first baby duckling had hatched! As you may recall, I found a clutch of duck eggs in a next next to my duck pond, and couldn’t find the mother duck. Thinking perhaps a coyote got her, I moved all 20 of the eggs into an incubator. I’ve incubated over a 100 chicken eggs, but never any duck eggs (until NOW!). I did some research, and estimated their hatch date to be the 10th of October. Obviously, I was only 2 days off. We ended up with three newborn ducklings by the end of the day, and there is still about 7 eggs in the incubator, with one showing signs of hatching now.

Also found that one of my mamma rabbits dropped a litter of 10 to 12 new rabbit kits into a nest box over night.

Then, I found a free-ranging rabbit of mine with a whole nest of maggot larvae in an open wound in her neck. GROSS!

Spent some quality time with the pupperino (Deuce). He and Hooey helped me unfurl a big ol’ hay roll in the freshly seeded ‘park’ next door, which we’ll need to distribute over 1.8 acres today (Tuesday).

Long day … but a good day. Country living at it’s best.

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FCL :: Day in the Life :: Monday 9/17/18 (Part 2, CZ Scoprion Evo 3 S1 Upgrades)

We got a little bit of ‘outside time’ today, but not much. Periodic episodes of heavy rain and big thunder BOOMS.

Spent some time at the gunsmith bench installing a few mods on my recently procured CZ Scorpion Evo 3 S1 carbine. Today I added a Yeti Wurkz Switchback pistol grip and HSI trigger spring upgrade kit. Over the next two days, I’ll be adding Magpul MBUS front and rear flip up sights, Strike Industries LINK foregrip, and a F5 Manufacturing 50-round drum magazine. I haven’t found a sling option that I like yet, so I’m still farting around with different styles.

Ooooo … Clif High just popped up LIVE on YouTube, gotta go! Bye.

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FCL :: Day in the Life :: Friday 09/14/18 (Hurricane Florence … meh!)

So, I guess Florence slowed, grew, jinked South, and sputtered along Westbound at 6 MPH. What I can tell you is this … in Efland NC (~ 183.65 miles from the NC coastline) we received 0.11 inches of rain (measured) and a maximum wind of 17.4 MPH (measured). Nothing to write home about (figuratively).

It was overcast, drizzly and gusty winds all day. In other words … boring. 😉

Took the opportunity to assemble and test the County Line 3-point hitch mounted post hole digger and 9″ auger. Works pretty well. I need to figure out why it got out of balance and shimmied so much when removing the bit from the hole under PTO power.

Counted between 10 and 12 new baby bunnies (kits) in the litter big mamma (aka ‘Smudge’) dropped yesterday. They all look good, viable and healthy.

No updates on the 20 duck eggs I stuck in the incubator the other day. In about a week, I’ll pull them out and ‘candle’ them to see how many of them are developing inside.

Took an afternoon nap, got up, went out, and damn near killed myself pulling down a ‘widow-maker’ tree that had succumbed to the gusty winds today. Caught the episode on video, for your viewing pleasure. Lesson Learned: NEVER spontaneously intervene in a widow-maker without planning and safety gear. Stupid mistake … dodged a bullet … wiser for the faux pax.

Another day … another learning opportunity.

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FCL :: Day in the Life :: Tuesday 09/11/18 (Hurricane Florence Prep, Day 2)

Long day … long video. Sorry.

Decided to move the badonkadonks back into the barn pasture to provide them with more shelter during the upcoming hurricane. Had to clean up the barn pasture, fix a section of fence that I crushed with a felled tree earlier in the summer, and move the winter hay bales into a different pasture.

After all that work making room for a 18-wheeler to deliver a shipment, the truck driver chickened out, so I had to meet him down on the paved road and tractor the pallet myself. Same driver that delivered a shipment about 9 months ago … and he pussed out then too. I should have known when he called me from an I-40 offramp about 10 miles away and said … “I need you to give me directions to your place.” I replied, “don’t you have a GPS?” No. “Do you have a map book?” No. “Think maybe you should have researched your route before you left the warehouse?” Lemme call my dispatcher, maybe he has a GPS.

Then I get a second call from him … “I’m looking at a dirt road.” Me: “Yup, I told your dispatcher I live on a rural farm, dirt roads, long gravel driveway, tight turn or two.” Him: uuuummmmm…

Whatever. No harm, no foul. Got the shipment (new Caravaggi stump grinder for the BCS 853 walk-behind tractor). Good sized thunderstorm moved in late in the PM. Got a few good shots with the Mavic Pro drone. Heavy late PM rain showers, but not Florence. Not yet. 😉

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FCL :: Day in the Life :: Thursday 09/06/18

The recently free-ranged rabbits seem to be doing pretty well. I found evidence of at least one of the getting culled from the colony by a predator (99% sure it was the coyote, as I found coyote scat in the field the next day that was full of white fur).

Bianca Houdini (nesting duck) hasn’t hatched any eggs yet. Any time now, assuming they are indeed viable.

Hooey and I spend a lot of time on the look out for that damn coyote. Used the DJI Mavic Pro (drone) to provide hi-def video surveillance from above. Saw the coyote a few times, but ‘no joy.’

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FCL :: Day in the Life :: Wednesday 09/05/18

A day or two after releasing 12 rabbits into the wild, and I’m seeing them all over the property. They’re not staying in or near the rabbit hugel I built for them in the woods, but I’m guessing some of them will eventually figure out it is in their best interested to have an underground place to hide.

Hurricane Florence is forecast to park itself overhead for up to five days later in the week, and drop upwards of 50″ of rain, so those rabbits better find some high ground, or learn very quickly how to do the back stroke. 😉

We setup on that #$% coyote that keeps stealing our chickens like clockwork. He showed up right on que … but never presented a good, safe, profile shot. So, the ‘game’ continues.

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FCL :: Day in the Life :: Tuesday 09/04/18 (Rabbit Release 1)

Released the first set of 12 rabbits to free-range out in the woods, having provided them with some basic infrastructure (e.g. Rabbit Hugel, wood pile briar, 5 gallon waterer).

Tattoo’d each rabbit with a unique identifier, so I can track their progress over time … living in the wild.

Freed up a lot of cage space for the next litter, due in about a week. Feels good to get these guys OUT of their cages.

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FCL :: Day in the Life :: Sunday 09/02/2018

After getting all the animals fed, watered, etc., I hitched up the new County Line Middle Buster plow and went out to test it in what we call the big pasture. The test went so well, I just kept on plowing … all day … and got the whole pasture done.

\I got the new PTO-driven, 3-point hitch mounted tiller assembled, but stumbled on the last step, cutting the PTO drive shaft down to the right length. The instructions SUCK. Later in the evening, I found an awesome instructional video from the fine folks at Everything Attachments (NC), so now (Monday, Labor Day) I know what to do.

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FCL :: Day in the Life :: 19-25 August, 2015

I haven’t posted a new FCL DITL video for a few days, so I thought I better catch folks up on our local shenanigans.

If all goes well, we should have some new ducklings swimming around in the pond soon.

Lost 2 or 3 chickens to a coyote in a three day period … so I’ve got some active countermeasures in place, e.g. 30-30 rifle. I don’t mind losing a bird to the coyotes once in awhile, but one a day is just unacceptable.