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FCL :: Day in the Life :: June 11, 2018

Our day actually started at about midnight, when a huge thunderstorm passed overhead with a few lightening strikes on the property, one that destroyed our internet router/modem.

Spent some time (0:45 min) standing out on a spot on the property known to have the strongest AT&T wireless signal, chatting online with a Century Link CSR. Finally got a technician scheduled … but not for nearly TWO DAYS (without Web, music, TV, phone, …). Aaaarrghhhh.

Used gun maintenance supplies to clean and fix my Rigid finish stapler. Well worth the time and effort. Now I know how a pneumatic nail gun works on the inside.

Had a swarm of bees take up residence in one of many vacant bee hives I have stored in the workshop rafters. I’m used to my bees swarming OUT of my hives and back into Mother Nature … not the other way around

Sans web access, I had a lot of time to just play with the animals.

As the sun started to set, I worked in the garage designing a 3-tiered platform for the wood soil block seed trays I made the other day.

Something … not sure what … deer (I hope) or coyotes (I fear) were tripping motion sensors along the property perimeter all damn day. More than usual. As we wrapped up our day, they went off again, so Hooey and I took off, me on the KTM 990A and her on foot, to do a quick check around the property. Didn’t find anything. Alas.

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Gaggle of Deer

We had a nice thunderstorm pass through a little earlier. One of the motion detectors on the perimeter started going off for a bit, so I wasn’t surprised to look up and see 6 or 7 deer on the driveway.

At night, Hunter can see a deer about a mile away. When the sun is up, I think her brain short-circuits and she seems to have less visual acuity.

When I was composing the video, she said she wanted to do a voice-over to redo that weak-ass woof of hers, then she choked and forgot to bark when I queued her.  One chance baby girl, time is money! You snooze, you lose. 😉

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Remote Motion Sensors: Guardline “Long Range”

Historically, I’ve relied upon Dakota Alert sensors to detect and monitor motion around the property. I really like the MURS band sensors, because I can not only monitor activity from the Dakota Alert base station, but also with off-the-shelf MURS radios (e.g. handheld, mobile). For that reason, I still use the DA gear.

However … I recently started evaluating the 1/4 mile “long range” gear offered by Guardline. Each base station supports up to 16 motion sensors, which have proven to be very effective.

My only issue with the Guardline system vs. the Dakota Alert is in how the alarms annunciate. The DA alarms with a synthetic voice that says “Alert! Zone [#]” where # is zone number. The Guardline system associates what amounts to a ring-tone like on your cellphone with each sensor. I prefer the DA method, but am getting used to the Guardline tones. Oddly enough, so is my dog! I swear to God … when a tone goes off, her head snaps to where that sensor is on the property and she looks for ANYTHING there to bark at (e.g. deer, UPS truck, coyote, …). Smart dog.

2018.05.08 UPDATE … Guardline Sensor Range Test (Success!)

To test the new Guardline remote sensors, I recorded the base station while driving a tractor around a section of the perimeter path that took me through three discrete sensor zones, as you can determine by the three different “ring tones” heard on the video.

The senors are said to have a 1/4 mile range. In my case, they are 607 feet (0.12 miles) from the base station, which is well within published range. But, they are lower in elevation (down hill) from the base station, with a rather large stand of trees between them, so I was quite impressed they worked at that range, in those conditions.

Damn!  Look at all the yellow pollen on the surface of the two base stations (BTW, that’s the Dakota Alert base on the right, which monitors other motion sensors).  I just wiped them down last week.  Jeeze.