Learning to live a permacultural life … one day at a time! … by Damon E. Farnham
On a bit of a whim this morning, I queried YouTube for ‘military marching drum’ and found this video (above) near the top of the hit list.
What an AMAZING display of musical skill and choreography.
There must be some sort of esoteric science behind the military drummer. Besides simple cadence, a drum line like this provides an ethereal fuel that I could march behind for 100’s of miles … non stop. Just add water. 😉
Rained pretty steady most of the day, so Hunter (aka Hooey) and I pretty much stayed indoors. I read a book (Yellowstone: Hellfire) and Hooey just clowned around most of the day. By about 5P, she could no longer self-entertain, and started driving me nuts. So, I broke out a laser and put her in ‘cat mode.’
Never a dull moment around here … lemme tell you.
We got about an inch (0.93 measured) of rain today and a max wind of 14.1 MPH. Not bad considering what the folks a bit closer to the Atlantic have experienced. No complaints here!
First few ‘bands’ of Hurricane Florence passed through. Not much rain, just fast moving, dark clouds and moderate, variable and gusting winds.
Watch the black duck segment closely. Watch how she keeps tilting her head up to watch the high speed clouds passing overhead. Interesting.
Used the Mavic Pro drone to monitor storm conditions from about 300 to 400 feet AGL (above ground level). Always impressed with not just the 4K video shot by the drone, but almost more so its onboard flight management computer. That damn thing will hold a perfect GPS-based position fix (aka ‘hover’), even in high, gusty winds. Truly amazing piece of consumer technology.
Had to arm wrestle (wing wrestle?) the young chickens into their coop tonight. The bone-heads wanted to stay out in the approaching storm. Young and dumb … just like human kids. 😉
Found mamma hen’s (not the best of names, but she answers to it!) pirate nest, which made my day. She’s the hen that hatched about 14 chicks in a compost pile earlier in the Spring. She’s a natural!
Got 550 gallons (2000 liters) of fresh drinking water stored in the two IBC totes.
After Hooey and I got all the animals bedded down for the night, we sat on the patio with a bottle of wine and watched the storm clouds race by … without dropping much rain.
Just a quick product endorsement for Dr. Naylor’s Blu-Kote veterinary germicidal/fungicidal spray … and a newly discovered method of cleaning the highly staining purple med from a wooden floor … with cheap vodka!
If you haven’t seen this video before — or maybe you have, but are sad, depressed, anxious or otherwise in need of an emotional pick-me-up — do yourself a favor and watch it.
This world needs more great stories like this … with happy endings. 😉
A bit longer video today … I got a little chatty during the garden irrigation project today. I’m still a little flummoxed regarding the PVC water line pressure variation observation (high, low,, high). I bet I can solve it with 30 minutes (or less) of web research, but I just haven’t found the time (yet).
Got the new Springfield M1A (6.5 Creedmoor) rifle demonstrably zero’d at 100 yards with only 10 rounds. I looked a bit closer at the yellow target later on and noted three of four center-of-mass rounds in a sub-MOA (less than 1″) group on target. Sweeeeeet rifle. Will probably end up re-zeroing it at 200 meters next.
Product Endorsement: Hi-Lift Jack PP-300 Post Popper.
Hunter was in rare form last night, barking at something. I can generally tell by her bark and behavior whether she’s barking at a deer, coyote, skunk or ‘unknown.’ Last night was an ‘unknown,’ as her bark was less excited, but more scared, and she came upstairs and barked in my ear (at 2AM!).
She has ‘that look’ on her face this morning … like ‘sorry about that barking thing last night … we good?‘
And, check out those talons on her! I probably cut her nails about once a year. Why? Because more so than ANY dog I’ve ever seen, she grooms herself and actually gives herself a mani-pedi pretty much every night. I watch her work on individual nails, trimming and shaping them. No joke.
As you can see, she’s pretty damn good at it.
You DO NOT want to be on the receiving end of those talons. Especially if you’re a skunk. Just brutal. 😉
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. 😉
First, I had the whole chicken nest relocation SNAFU with a side order of snake in my face this morning.
Then, I had a polite, but terse conversation with a Verizon Wireless CSR after driving about 15 miles to the nearest store to pay a bill for a service I haven’t used in probably 3 years.
Me: I’d like to pay my bill please.
Her: Do you have your account number?
Me: Sure, it’s [9 digit number on the email they sent me].
Her: That’s just the last 9 digits, I need the whole acct number.
Me: I haven’t memorized the account number of one of probably 5 wireless service accounts I have, and which I haven’t used in years. Can you look up my account with my name?
Her: So, sorry, you’ll have to use the web site.
Me: I tried, it didn’t work, that’s why I drove 15 miles to see you.
Her: Yeah … sorry.
I think you get the picture. They want their money, but neither their website nor their human CSR are able to take payment. Uuugghhh.
So, that’s the backstory to this video. After leaving the Verizon store, I jumped on the highway to run another errand (buy some ammo, but NOT because of the Verizon episode).
As you can see, I come upon a guy driving slower than the posted speed limit in the fast lane, who shows NO interest in yielding to me or all the other faster moving traffic approaching from behind us. I give the guy some time to get his head out of his rectum, then opt to just swing over to lane 3 (slow lane) to pass the two numb-nuts in lanes 1 and 2.
As it turns out, the grey Chevy in lane 2 was some sort of LEO, because he turned on his blue lights as soon as I pulled back in front of him in lane 2.
Eventually, he just passed me and gave me some stink eye as he did so. I smiled, waved, and lipped ‘thank you’ [prick].
Could have ended worse, but still, this has just been a day to be put behind me and forgotten. I wish they made a [safe] pill for that.
Saw this story (see photo below) in the news this morning.
Read the article. So, the next time you reach for the toilet paper and find the roll empty, don’t freak out. Imagine instead what it would be like if you were on the ISS and somebody used the last ‘plastic bag’ or ‘rubber glove’ and didn’t replenish the stock. 😉
