End of the World. Beginning of a new one. The Life of Amberwolf.

[Ricky_nz]

He he i laughed at your garbled sentence. Looking back through my chat logs there are a few like that from the week i was in hospital and thd one after. Mine were caused by drugs and lack of sleep. Yours im guessing are pure exaustion.
I hope with Tiny improving you can get some well earned rest.

 

[amberwolf]

Other than when she is stubborn and won't sit when she starts coughing, which can turn into the pukies if it keeps going, and the definite need to keep anything she can eat or drink away from her except when I can *make* her stay sitting/upright for at least 15-20 minutes (or longer) so it doens't slosh out again (cuz her front end is a little lower than the back), she's doing pretty good. I turned off the lixit except when I'm right there so I can help her stay upright long enough for water to flow down to the tummy and stay there.

Last night she did a little yanking yogi around by the stick, and this morning she went full at it, chasing him down to get the stick instead of waiting till he came by.



She did have a little siezure last night, though, after feeding time while I was holding her to get her to stay in teh upright "couch" (new training word for her) position (which she didn't wanna be in at that moment and so was being antsy)

(pic to edit in later)

so that dinner flows down to the tummy instead of being stuck in teh esophagus. This seizure was nothing like as bad as all the previous ones; she did arch her neck and stiffen, but this time her eyes went back and forth in REM for about 1.5 seconds instead of just being stuck wide open and sort-of-rolled-up. Then it was over and she was in recovery mode for about 20 seconds, then normal again. It's possible she has had this level of siezure for the whole time, and just never witnessed, but in almost two years you'd think that I would probably have caught one sometime.

I was advised that the new meds might contribute to seizures, so it is possible that this is a sideeffect, and if so we'll have to see about that with the vet, if there's any changes that can be done to help.


The other side effect, diarrhea, seems to be gone, and she's just got an easier time of going now instead of straining to get it out every time like always before.


One med she doesn't tolerate well is the Clavamox. I ended up having to stop giving it becuase it was making her puke no matter how I gave it, before or after other meds or food by any length of time. It might stay down for an hour before it came up, but up it would come.

After I stopped it she stopped ahving the bad pukies at the drop of a hat, where she had thsi awful retch sound like a sick wookie. Yesterday I restarted it but with just the larger pill (not both) before breakfast. When nothing bad happened, then around afternoon I gave her the smaller one. Still nothing bad, but she looked like it might if she got much more tummy activity so we held off on anything else for a long while, till nearly dinnertime, and then she got some water.

She's not all that happy about not being able to guzzle as much water as she likes and just puke up what doesn't fit, which has always been her M.O., but she's gonna have to live with it, or else never get to keep down any of what she slurps up.



Oh, and grass...she loves grass, but it sticks in her esophagus and gives her the retches, so...cant' have that. More often than not if I find a puddle of puke it's got grass in it too. Keep telling her "leave it" whenever she goes after some. Since it was cool enough with the off-and-on rain and mostly cloudy day yesterday, and Tiny did not need constant supervision, I got the yard half-done; all the mowable areas front and back are done. Now I just need to reload teh trimmer with string and do all teh rest of it. So that takes care of a great deal of the grass she could munch on.

The rest was going to do this morning but I'm so tired I can't hold the trimmer and parts to reload it, and probably couldn't use it, so after this post it's naptime. Am only up for this cuz Tiny and Yogi needed to do their dawn pooptrol thing, and Tiny also needed water...so we did the lixit thing and then sat there afterward for about 20 minutes (in two stages cuz she *had* to go see what Yogi was doing). Now we're back settled down in the bedroom for nappies, and I'm starting to nod off, so more later.

 

[amberwolf]

Still about the same for Tiny, except she's getting her energy back now that she's eating "normally" again.

She's going after Yogi and his stick instead of waiting for him to come by her, and she's really really antsy during the wait periods during and after food and water, really hard to keep her there. She's not up to running to the fence and barking her brains out (well, guts at this point) with Yogi at cars and stuff that go past, but she'll do it if she's already there...at least until whatever she last had that didn't get past the tummy comes out. :/ That shuts her up for a little while.

She's also back to pawing me out of bed for the dawn pooptrol, and doing her prancypants for food, if not quite as energetically yet.


The cough from drool still happens, and I've mitigated it a little by trying to remove some sources, like my own food. I try to cook outside in the microwave or crockpot if I can, so the yummy smells blow away, and do it while she's napping in the bedroom with the door curtain closed. For stuff I have to cook inside, I'm doing it after it's cooler outside than inside, so I can open the doors and windows and let the smells blow away there, too. It's not as effective as doing it outside, but presently the best I can manage (since the hood on my stove doesn't exhaust to the outside, just blows back out the front of the hood after "filtering" it pretty ineffectively). There's some stuff like bacon that is just not gonna be helpable though fortunately for her I cant' afford to eat as much of it as I'd like.


I try to eat when she's eating, so she's too busy with her own to notice mine (though Yogi is usually done with his by then and he sits there staring....)


We've figured out that "couch" is a new command to make her sit up paws on the arm of the couch and butt where the cushion would go, to have a fairly comfy spot to stay for the ~40-minute feeding process. (meds first, 5 minute wait, then 1/3 of her food at a time, liquified/pureed in a blender, 5 minute wait between each, then about 20-25 minutes settling period afterward) Towel over the arm of the chair to flip over her paws to keep her a little cleaner in the process, cuz she's VERY messy with the liquid food lappng out of a bowl. (haven't found any better method she'll cooperate with yet).

We'd use "sit" but for her that means to sit and then slide down to the floor in lay down, as do all the other variations I've tried to teach her. "Couch" is new, and only used for the feeding, so she's catching on, though obstinate as usual.

No progress on bailey chair design. Mocked it up using her wheelchair with stuff clamped to it, sitting vertical instead of horizontal, and doesn't work cuz she just sags liek a 2-year old kid that doesn't wanna go. Even hodling her forelegs out and down so she can't slide totally out of the suspension doesn't help, cuz then she is struggling hard to get away.

Still need to do it cuz she's not so good at the couch thing sometmies, and is more stubborn each time about not wanting to wait afterward, so I need some way to hold her in place that she can't hurt herself, but is still comfy for her, and lets her eat and everything just in an upright position without letting her tummy be squished down which makes it harder for the food to run down to it.


The very hardest part is making her stay laying down with front up on pillows, with me, for the couple of hours or so it takes to be SURE that she can't retch breakfast/dinner (and meds) up even if she goes and does something dumb. I can let her move around, just have to keep sticking the pillows back under her...

 

[amberwolf]

Not sure how coherent all of teh below is, it's been written up over more than a day and modified as I go, cuz I kept forgetting to post what I had at teh tiem and just kept adding in between events.


Day before yesterday (tuesday) morning she was doing pretty well, but getting tireder than before around midday. Since I was scheduled to do
computer-based training in the breakroom anyway, I took her with me on
the trike in teh crate, planning to be right there with her for almost
all of my workday. But when i arrived I was told instead I'd be
stocking stuff that came in the day before and hadn't been done by
anyone, so she ended up just stuck in the crate on the trike in the
breakroom (with a fan blowing into the door in case it would get too
warm for her otherwise, with all the pillows under her to keep her
front end upwards).

I took her out for potty trips on my breaks and
lunchtime, and we did some ice cubes each time, but there wasn't the
time I had planned on to be right there with her. By the end of
the night, for the last walkies before we left, she was pretty tired,
compared to her "new normal". When we got home she was perked up
for a bit cuz of Yogi and bieng home and stuff, but that ran out.

Meds and dinner after that, teaching Yogi to get up on the couch to the rigth of where I sit to feed her, and putting his bowl there in front of him, so he's not "left out" of everyhting, and can be right there with us for as long as he cares to be (eventually he gets up to go investigate noises and stuff, comes back, leaves, etc). Tiny didn't eat as much as usual, and had some trouble keeping the last bits down.


Breakfast the next day was similar...and though she's interested in the food she jsut isn't able to eat enough of it.

I couldn't take her to work with me (or rather, there'd be no point, cuz I was expected to be stuck at register all day) so I set her up with her pillows and stuff, knowing she wouldn't stay there but hoping she'd at least start having some sense of good and bad positions (she's very slowly learning about that, but obstinate beyond normal).

I worried about her all day long, and when i finally got home, she had indeed moved, to one fo the few areas of the slicker-surfaced fake-wood-laminate floor that she has a terribly hard time getting up from now, instead of teh tile areas that have rougher surfaces she can get a grip on, or the many blankets and long rubber mats that she has no problem with. I tried to make the areas I didn't have enough stuff to cover inaccessible but she or Yogi moved the stuff out of the way to get there, of course (probalby her).

So she'd struggled to get up and been unable to, and in the process overworked ehrself and pukied (and done the re-eating/re-puking/re-eating cycle) which makes the floor that much slicker and harder to get up from.

I don't know how long she was stuck there, either, but she'd been there long enough to have given up on getting up, until I got home and she tried real hard to so she could greet me; I helped her up and she stood fine after that but was really tired (probably from all that effort while I wasn't there to help). I wish I could teach Yogi to help her, but he gets all confused and doesn't know what to do when I try to call him over to her even, then he runs off and lays down some distance away and watches, then comes back, etc., so if I can do it at all, it's going to take a really long while.

We all went out for potty time, but she was super thirsty so we stopped at the lixit first. She would sit (when asked) under it and drink up, but after only 30-45 seconds she got tired and had to lay down, looking up at it wistfully. I can't hold her up there becuse she won't let me--she turns into a loose beanbag and won't do anything or cooperate. :/

So I went to go get her wheelchair, and set her up in that in feeding position and put her under the lixit, and she drank and I had to keep pullng her away and waiting a while, then going back, so she didn't drown in it.

Then after a wait period, I set her up in walk-herself position and took the buttrest off, so she could go on her potty patrol. With teh chair she did that fine, but without it I don't think she could have--she jsut didn't have the strength.


Then it was meds and dinnertime, and she didn't do so well on that. She wanted to, but had a lot of trouble with the cough (whcih is caused by her epiglottis not working like it should, so it doesn't stopper up her trachea sufficiently when swallowing food/water). Eventually I got her to lay on her side up at the necessary angle across the cushions/etc built up to the couch arm, and that minimizes the issue (can't totally prevent it when she's eating, but does fine when she's just laying around).

Problem is, she does not normally lay on her side, but on her belly with chin on one "wrist" or out to the side, etc. So she doesn't wanna stay that way for very long unless I stay right there and keep making her go back to it. After a while even that won't work and she's determined to do whatever teh heck she wants, regarldess of what it does to her.


We got a little more dinner down that way, but not much, so she got maybe 1/4 of what she should get. The full amount of her blendered dinner is almost 3 times the volume of the dry kibble, because of the water content...under any other circumstances she'd be TOTALLY fine with that, cuz it means MORE FOOD :lol: but right now it's really tough cuz of the coughing bit, and getting it all down her. We've been managing to get up to about 1/2 to 2/3 of it down in previous days, plus pedialyte and/or broth ice cubes, and "midnight snacks" where we're awake for whatever reason anyway and we just do some more food and/or water. With steady improvement each day in the amounts.

But last night just ddn't really work out very well.

I've been using just a little bit of chicken in the blendered dog kibble to make it more appetizing, but I'm giong to have to increase that a lot to get more protein down her (I hope) in the volume she can keep down.


Overnight, she kept having coughing from drool pooling/etc. because she WON'T stay laying on her side, or stay up on the pillows, and INSISTS on laying like she always has. So i would wake just in time to see her get pukies of a little dinner each time. I'd guess that maybe half of what we did get down her actually stayed there. Maybe. Probably less. I don't know how much of her meds got absorbed either, so we'll have to do a new thing, of giving the meds a couple hours before anything else, and then do water and food in little bits thru the night again like before.

But then i'll have to leave her on her own with Yogi during the day when I work, cuz there's nothign I can do for her *at* work beside keep her penned up in the crate/kennel on the trike all day, other than a walkies (if she can handle it) at lunchtime and breaktimes (if I get them; sometimes it's too busy for breaks). It's just not possible to do the feedng/watering throughout the day as I'd hoped to be able to do with her there.



today, after teh bad night, we just did meds around 2.5 hours ago, and we've done some ice cubes and a few spoonfuls of a high-calorie nutrient liquid I forget the name of, but no breakfast as such. We're gonna try waiting till dinnertime to do food, and just do water and stuff right now in case her tummy just doesn't watn the food after the problem of the last day or so.

Still no word back from the vets on anythng else to be done about the cough/etc problem; my guess is tehre isn't anything else other than the kinds of things I'm already doing, before we get to a turkey baster or feeding tube stage.


I'm really really hoping she's just having a bad couple days and that we can readjust things and she'll get better again...she *wants* to, I jus tdon't know if it will happen.

 

[amberwolf]

So...today's status:

After a complete food fast, just water (ice cubes mostly) for the day yesterday, she successfully did dinner last night, for about half of what she would normally eat. Took about 2 hours as we went with little dollops, maybe 2tbsp at a time, every 2-3 minutes, pausing for a bit whenever she had a cough. All the while I kept trying to get her to lay on her side while also being as upright as possible (maybe 40 degrees). Eventually she has begun to connect the not-coughing pleasant eating experience with laying on her side, and leaving her head on it's side too, even while eating, as much as possible. She did it easily today for breakfast, whcih also took about 2 hours, and got about 2/3 of what she'd usually eat, so we're working up to normality.

She's still not fullo of energy and not yet ready for playtime with Yogi, but we spent the last couple hours out in the yard, walking her around in short bursts, with little rests between. While she rested, Id id more of the yard work I'd started when she was in her good phase, I guess that was a few days ago but I am not sure. Anyway, I finished trimming up all the grass around edges of things that Tiny has been finding to munch on, which tends to stick in her esophagus and cause her to retch.

I haven't tried weighing her yet, but I'm down almost 10lbs to just under 170lbs. Guess this is all good for my weight lost program. :/

She was 94 or 92 when we were at the vets last, whcih I thnk was 2 weeks ago now? I know she's lost weight, enough to make her easier to lift by the harnesses when I need to. So far I forget to weigh her wehn we're passing by it and I have the energy to do it.


Oh, also, I mvoed her spot for feeding from the long couch which Yogi likes to lay on to the short one, and moved the couch itself to where she can directly see me in the kitchen, so when I'm working on getting mroe stuff ready for next meal that she won't go hangning off the coutch with head down to watch me, and isntead will stay over the arm with her head laying where it needs to. It's got stuff stuck under the arm of the chair's big cushion, to fluff it out in a way that gets her at about a 40 degree angle (best I can so so far and get her to stay there), and tends to push her to the back of the couch instad of level or toward the froont.


So I've attached pics of some of the progression of feeding setups. Newest first, then working back to original couch version. Also a pic of her resting outside, and some other stuff, including one showing hwo much she has to eat on each meal to make her normal amount, in the plastic tub, and the bowl she eats from and how much she's presently getting for each little bit. (and no, the fork isnt' for feeding, it's for restirring the stuff as water settles up to the top)

 

[amberwolf]

Day before yesterday at work, my exhaustion must've been showing, my manager asked me about Tiny, and after some discussion, and lots of indecision on my part because I can't really afford to do this, but feel that it is the only way I can take care of Tiny until we can work into the best routine for feeding/etc., I decided to take unpaid time off for an unspecified period.

I'm working today and tomorrow, shorter shifts, and will be bringing Tiny with me (though she has to stay in teh crate on teh trike in the breakroom except for lunchtime), but the manager cleared me off of future schedules until I can be sure I can work normally, and Tiny is ok enough to do that (or has no worries anymore). However long that is.

Has to be unpaid because I have no more paid time off avaialble until September. Part of that is my own mistake, in not understanding some changes made in how and when annual stuff happens and not pursuing it, partly because the way that information had been presented (end of last year I think) was confusing. But even if I had all of the PTO that was used on the two vacations in the last two months, it would probably not be enough, at less than 3 weeks, to cover the time I'll need for this.


I'm still pondering how I'll manage to pay rent, utilities, and buy groceries. I have a teensy bit of savings left but it won't last very long. Maybe an ES "garage sale" of stuff might help, though I don't know how mcuh i've got that is actually worth anything to anyone. Definitely not to anyone local around my neighborhood.

I know there are ways to "ask for money" like GoFundMe or wahtever it's called, but I don't really feel right about that either, though I've been advised by a few people it's ok to do.

 

[amberwolf]

Today's breakfast she finallly ate almost her entire normal meal amount. She's also almost normal wiggly and prancy to let me know she's ready for breakfast. Yogi isn't sure what to do; I think that while I was sleeping they were out playing cuz he is worn out.

It's strange...for the last while, I guess maybe it is since she got really sick the first time 2-3 weeks ago, I have not had any fo the fire-related nightmares, for the first time since the fire just over 2 years ago. Usually I have at least 2 variations of them that I wake up from and can't sleep again fro a while. Now, I have different ones, about Tiny, but none of them are as horrific as the fire ones, even as bad as they are. I usually sleep thru them and just remember having them when I wake up.

So now that I am mostly able to feed and water Tiny at normal times instead of all thru the day and night, then for the first time in these two years, I am actually getting hours of consecutive sleep. I still wake up a lot, but I can go back to sleep once I see Tiny and Yogi still there. If they aren't, I have to go get up and see where they are, cuz I'm too worried tos leep, but msotly they stay here in teh bedroom for sleepy time, especially Yogi.

Today I think i got 10 hours of almost uninterrupted sleep, and I feel strange, because I don't think I've been this rested in a long long long time. Yesterday Tiny did so well I didn't have nightmares about her, and I woke this morning to her pawing me out of bed around 10am, rather than for dawn pooptrol, which she probably did herself with Yogi (though he was sleepign there next to me when she came to get me up).


I'm still very unsure about her future, though, and until I am sure and settiled into a workable routine and she hasn't had bad days in a long enough while, I am going to have to stay home with her. Even if I was at work I wouldn't be able to concentrate on it and do anything even remotely well, and I couldn't help people like I need to cuz all my emotional / etc self will be with Tiny instead of them. And I don't think I can handle anybody that isnt' nice (and there are a lot of those).


So today I will look at the options for trying to fund this extended "unpaid vacation", once I calculate and write up exactly what my monthly costs are likely to be for the next few.

I was going to do it right now, but I can't concetnrate on it, either, so while Tiny and Yogi are napping after breakfast, I will see about getting some of the put-off yardwork done.


[youtube]0xmfT46Dq_E[/youtube]

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[amberwolf]

Today Tiny was good enough to let me leave for a couple hours to get noms and stuff for us all, and test out the "new" second motor on the SB Cruiser's left rear wheel, on a practical grocery run test.

When I got home, though, I found her licking up a puddle of puke, which means from the stickiness around her and on her forelegs that she rpobably had been puking and reeating it at least a couple times. Some of it looked like breakfast, but very watery, not like digestive juices, so I'm not sure...she did have water before I left, but it had been some time (couple hours?), and should've settled by then. So most likely she got herself some snack of dirt or grass somewhere in teh yard wheil iw as gone, and irritated her esophagus and of coruse she also doesn't just stay in one place, or keep her head or front end up, so she gets in these cycles, cuz she also can't just let what she puked go to waste...she has to re-eat it. Since she does that standing up, usually, then it means her head is down, and since she can't properly swallow teh stuff it builds up in her throat and then flows right back out once enough is in there or she bends down again.

Anyway, so I greeted her and Yogi, and then got her to go Couch, where she stayed for just long enough for me to get back to the front door to get the trike started in, then came to see wha tI was doing. So I had to go back in and get her to go Couch, and clipped her in with teh leash under the leg of teh couch corner (though in this case jus tto her collar, rather than getting her all harnessed up like in the pics below), so she wasn't tempted to run off again and start the puking all over, while I got the trike in and frozen groceries put away.


Then we did soem ice cubes...whcih is another funny thing. Yogi has gotten really picky about those: he used to love any ice cube (as Tiny does), but I've been making ice cubes out of the chicken broth from when I boiled chicken for Tiny during her really bad days, and at some point I gave Yogi some too, cuz he looked so sad that Tiny was getting stuff and he wasnt....

Well, that was a mistake, cuz now he will not take any ice cubes EXCEPT broth ones.

Oh, well, actually he'll TAKE the regular ones, but then he spits them out and looks at me like "HEY, I got GYPPED!" sometiems he'll crunch it once first, and find it has no tasty center, and THEN spit out the pieces.

Even if I give him nothing else past tha tpoint he'll just wait and wait to see if the next one is a good one, and never goes back to the bits on the floor.

It's really cute...but I've created a monster! :lol:


Tiny will eat anything...cuz she's Tiny. She prefers the broth ones but doesnt' object to regular ones. (or ones with Pedialyte, which Yogi won't eat either).


Anyway, in between the ice cubes, during the couple minutes wait between bunches of them, I started the process of cooking up more chicken for her, and separate pots of chili and pork and beans for me (whenever I can I'll cook up stuff in big batches so I don't have to waste time cooking food every day, and can use that time for other things as needed).

Teh pork and beans is an experiment. I've made it twice now and it's been close to what I want each time, but not quite there yet. Pork comes from a big ham I bougth for half price a few weeks ago, and have used some for a batch of this stuff just before Tiny got sick, which fed me during the time she was really bad off cuz I didn't have much time to make my own. (well, I had the time but only in 2-3 minute intervals and it was tough to do anything in that time and get back to Tiny...).

Add a couple medium cans of tomato puree, couple cups (at least) of brown sugar, some paprika, celery seed, dill weed, garlic salt, cinnamon, black pepper, and at least a pound of pork chopped up to little bits, fat and all, and a couple pounds of navy beans (boiled up halfway to soft separately to speed things up from 2-3 days of slow cooking to just overnight in the crockpot on low). I'd started with only one poundof beans but even after a few hours had too much liquid and didn't wanna boil it off, so I added more (also pre-half-cooked) beans to soak that up and thicken everything. I'll know if i did it right by morning. (the taste will change significnatly as it cooks; right now it just tastes like sugary water with pork in it :lol


Teh chili is one of several variations I make so it doen't get boring. This one is red beans, pink beans, and pinto beans, all preboiled to half-cook them, then adding in the spices: mix of crushed dried peppers, including packets from pizza places that get abandoned at work when they order pizza (usually when I'm not there); dill weed; celery seed; "italian seasoning" that includes oregano, basil, etc.; quite a bit of paprika, black pepper, garlic salt.

While that cooks, I fry up two bags fo frozen chopped green, yellow, and red peppers plus onions with a little margarine, until the onions begin to carbonize(caramelize?) just a tad so tehy ahve more flavor, and then set aside. Then in the same pan (for the flavor) cooked about 3 pounds of ground beef (2 of 93% lean, and 1 of 75%, cuz that's what was on sale today), till it's about 3/4 cooked, then grease drained off and the meat set aside. Once the beans reached about half cooked, then all that gets added in to them. Another hour and then two cans of tomatoes, one pureed and one petite diced in juice, get added in.

After sevearl hours I went back and found too much spice cooked out, so I added more of eeach one, and it''ll continue slowly cooking on simmer in teh big pot on teh stove overnight.

To be more efficient, I have refelctors and insulators surrounding the pots, to keep teh heat in them and not in teh room around them, as much as possible without risk of fire.




Now,during all of that initial setup and cooking of bits, Tny and Yogi waited patiently for me, adn I kept going back to give more ice cubes. When we got done ith all that, then we went otu side for poopy patrol and playtime.

Then I sat down with Tiny here and Yogi behind me, and started typign this up, not getin g donwe with them till well after midnight to post cuz of the break for Tny and Yogi's dinner and tiny's meds. (started around 930pmish and lasting till a bit after midnight, including yard adventures afterward; now it's naptime for them both...but one of them for sure has some super-duper-stinkyfarts! Glad i have the fan in teh window pulling in fresh air to cool the room! (otherwise we might all suffocate :lol


Some pics attached from days past. I forget when I took them. cpule show Tiny on teh Couch for feedign time, with the leash clipped to haer harness to keep her from running off during the wait time as I did stuff in the ktichen to make more food for her for the enxt feedigns.

Another shows the pillows next to Her Obstinacy that should be under her, but she has pushed them aside so she cna put her chin on the floor instead of where the pillows ould help keep her from coughing.

 

[amberwolf]

Today was a strange day; I felt sort of out of it cuz last night I had a hard time getting to sleep, though I stayed there prety well for the short time i got to before I was wokenu p for doggie stuff a little bit after dawn. Couple hours i guess.

Dozed off a cople times between then and breakfast, while trying to mix up food/etc for the next day's meals for Tiny. Yogi got an extra breakfast cuz I forgot to put the soaking stuff away in teh fridge and he found it while I was with Tiny outside later on. :/

I have finally gotten Tiny eating her entire meal at one time for both breakfast and dinner, and i've reduced the amount by using less and less water, utnil now it's about like mortar you could trowel around. :lol: It's thick enough I can take a spoon to scoop it up and then use fingers to give her a "meatball" chunk sized piece, one after another for a handful of them, then wait a couple minutes, then several more, etc. Only takesa bout 30-45 minutes to give her entire meal including cleanup afterward, and then just her wait time after taht of about 20-30 minutes before she can go run around, with ice cubes as a treat about halfway thru that to keep her interested ins taying there.



Then it was nappy time but I neede to get stuff done, and Yogi wanted to play and Tiny to wander round the yard, so I watered the backyard while they did that, and then after they were done and laid down I started to work on teh trike to swap up the mtoro rims...but ai'd forgotten about some things aobut that that have to be done first, and i didn't feel quite able to deal with it so I went to water the frotn yard a little first.

I dozed off doing that, too, cuz it was peaceful and not too hot in teh shade. Woke up when the water hit my knees as i found myself kneeling by the largest of the re-growing trees inside it's berm.

Contineud around the yard to water eveytinhg else, and also "cut" with the water hose on high the channels between things deeper, so more water will settle in them in rains and wjhen i water, adn go deeper into the soil under them, and start growing grass and other stuff along them to support the lantana and other thigns that will get planted in them once i have sprouts to do it with. not nearly as many sprouts this year as last year, not sure why. Was really hoping for lots of them cuz i need many more to do even half of what I want.

probably gonna put most of the ones i have along the west wall of the house on the side yard to help shade that wall. Already put some there. Also teh eucalyptusy tree i moved from near the graves to the side yard may have died, or maybe just retreated to it's roots and might come back. Probably not. And the mulberry the neighbor gave me from near her back wall has also died or retreted. The tiny little sproutling mulberry I moved from on top of Fred's grave to teh soutwest corner of the side yard (within a couple dozen feet of where she actually died) started to die off, but now it's come back with new leaves. Need to put a lantana there too so they can cross-shade each other for summer.


Anyway, got the yards watered and started the process of tree watering, which takes a few days cuz i can only leave it on enough to soak the ground and not make puddls, or else Tiny and Yogi will both drink the muddy water, since they don't have water outside available except the lixit and they prefer oepn water to slurp from and splash in.


Even so tiny will lick the sticky mud so I ahve to keep her in except when i'm out with her. :/


I finally got hungry a little after midday, and decided to fix a couple of "steak and cheese" chimichangas i'd found in my deep freeze when i was putting away all the groceries yesterday (I think). I felt like crunchy so I used the deep fryer, which I preheated by sticking it out in the sun on the balck fishtank, whcih made it too hot to move by bare hand, and had to use potholders. The oil inside it was already at 130F according to the switchpoint on the thermostat going green when I turend it on and moved it back and forth after I brougth it back into the kitchen next to the sink and fridge.

Normally I'd do the frying outside to keep the heat and smell out there, but I was hot and tired adn wanted to sit down in teh cooler indoors while wating for it to finish heating, which took another 20 minutes or more (I dozed again). Then i put the chimis in and let it start frying, and then after a couiple minutes remembered i'd left my tea in the other room, and so I went after taht and heard a wierd sound i coudln't identify from the kitchen, andthinking tha tmaybe Yogi got stupidly curious and did something with the fryer, I hurried as fast as i could back to the ktichen to find Yogi still sprawled out over by the east cabinets like usual (far from the fryer) and Tiny still in teh doorway like usual whenever food is in progress.

But the fryer has overflowed somehow, and half of teh oil in it is now puddled aroudn it on the countertop and the floor in front of it. Its' no longer doing whatever it was when it made the sound, so I have no idea what caused it. but the mess waas huge. Smelled real good, though so was surpirsed that neither of them had gone to try to clean it up, nro did they come voer while i wa s figuirng out how to deal aith the mess.

I couldn't even get to the fryer to turn it off or anythign without risikign sliding in the oil. Consiered towles but if I soak them in oil I cannot wash them or reuse them, and i don't have any to spare, so i went to the sheds and pulled otu a bundh of old otherwise unusable packing foam I don't even know whhy I hadn't tossed out yet. Used that like sponges to soak up teh oil and wrign it out into a container, and after a couple minutes i had enough to get to the fryer and unplug it, and pull the food out of it, which was just about done anyway.

I thought maybe one of the chimis had come open, and the "wet" fillings caused steam bubbles that blew oil out, but both erwer intact, so i dunno what caused it.

Agter another couple hours i had the mess cleaned up, though i forgot the cabinet face, so Yogi cleaned that part up for me. :lol: Thankdfully he didn't eat the doors, just licked them clean front and back.


finally after feling liek i was starvig i got to eat, but dozed off halfway thru the first one, and woke up just before Yogi would've helped me eat them. :/

I posted something on ES here adn there but can't remmdber what right now.

Oh, and I also found a way to get yogi water that tiny can't get to, or rather, won't. Since he already knows how to get to stuff on cabinets, tables, etc., I used that to teach him to get to his bowl of water on the kitchen table corner, with a chair turned backwards so eh won't knock it over, and taught him to get UP onto the chair with front paws, and standing with rear, to lap up from his bowl as he stands there. Tiny won't climb pon chairs that way, only up onto the couches for food or to get outside when the back door si closed. so she shoudl be safe from guzzlign water but leave yogi able to get whateve rhe needs.

I don't remmber all of what went on after taht, i dozed here and there, but then itw as dinner time for doggies. During tiny's wait time I wnet ot make more food liek i'd started to that morning, but heard a noise from the blender that sounded like it needed lubrication (it runs pretty hot with as thick of a mix i'm making for her), so i opened it up to fix that, which was easy, but then when reassembled it would barely move by hand, which was wierd. Eventually after a couple of hours and many repeated assembly/diasssebmlies I fixed it, not sure how, and made her food for the next copule days.


now i'm very tired but ca't sleep, too many dozings i guess. so posting this here till i doze off i hope.

pics will get adde din later once ia m competent to hook the camera up to the computer.

 

[amberwolf]

Today was much better, and not so tired for me, though Tiny was a little worn out cuz she kept coughing much of the night, because she had kept getting up and going after water in any form, including mud, after dinner, even though we'd done ice cubes and the lixit waterer several times. It's caused by her meds, at least two of which cause extra thirst.

(this is her morning meds in the silver bowl; with the big one being hip & joint tablet both of them get (though she gets level 3 while yoig gets level 1). )





Eventually just to keep her from doing that, I had to gate off the bedroom door, which they both know means to stay on whichever side of the gate they're on. It's just an old retail "dump bin" without it's bottom mesh, so that it is folded flat and ziptied across the center so it can't unfold, then leaned across the doorway; it's only about 32" high so either one cudl easily move it fi they wanted to, but they don't.

I actually use the same type of bin, two units high so it's up to my shoulders, as a "screen door" for the front door, but that doorway is exactly the same width as the folded bins, so they wedge into it up to the sill edge tightly, and won't come out even if leaned on. If they really wanted to, the dogs could knock them out of the doorway, but they don't know the4y can, and when either has pusehd their noses or paws on them they don't give so they think it's solid and don't try to move it (even when Yogi sees cats out on the porch!).



Oh, also I taugth Yogi to get up on the chair to reacdh his water bowl on the kitchen table so he can have water wheneve rhe needs to, but Tiny can't (or rather won't) get to it, so she runs less risk of aspriating water wheil I'm not there to supervise her, but Yogi still has water avialbe.


Yogi has also found a new place to "nest'...after squeezing in behind one fo the recliner chairs he pushed it away from the wall and now it's his little nappy spot. :lol:



Today I continued teh yard work and planting and stuff started yesterday. I moved some lantana and some desert plants I forget the name of, from planters to their new homes in teh ground. I also moved a tiny mulberry to where the one I got from the neighbor is, since that one looks to be dead (but I left it in place in case it recovers).

View attachment 3



The desert plants were moved to spots along the front sidewalk, and the lantana was moved to spots along the west house wall that the two west bedrooms share, which presetnly gets full sun past about 1pm till pretty late in the day, maybe 5 or 6pm rihgt now (and even later as summer reaches us). and along the north wall that gets sun part of the late morning and midday in summer, despite teh big mulberry beuase so much of it was cut down by the fire cleanup crew. Because tiny and Yogi like ti lay on wet ground (yogi often digs down into it) I had to put something over the nroth wall stuff so they can't easily do this, or else a couple of days from now there will be no plants there anymore.


View attachment 2


Somewehre in there, the neighbor to my west (who gave me the mulberry that didn't make it) called me over and gave me some bags of potting soil and compost soil she's had sitting around a long time, which is serendipitous as I could really use it about now. We also did a little fence repair (sort of) as the fence was really wobbling back and forth in teh gusty high winds (30-35MPH gusts, easily 20MPh constant at that time). Mostly we hammered in some of the metal barbwire-type fenceposts she had laying around into the ground (with my little sledgehammer) and tied them with scrap wire she had onto the 4x4" uprghts of the fence, whcih are breaking rotting away inside the concrete in the ground.

I noticed the split in the sledge's handle before we started, but I've found that as long as you always hammer with the split on the side *away* from the impact, it's higly unliekly to cause breakage of the handle in use. So while I need to replace it or repair it, it was ok to use for this.


As we were finishing talking after we did all that, the people from the SB rescue came by with Tiny's new meds to help her cough. Of course, Yogi had to come out and see them and wanted to go on a road trip, trying to head to the car (when a friend with a truck came by last week sometime I think it was, when i brought Tiny and Yogi out to meet them he jumped right over the side of the truckbed to try to get in...but didn't quite judge it right). While I got Yogi to sit on the sidewalk, Tiny wandered out and ran right up to them all happy and wiggly, though definitely not as full of energy as she would normally do all that with.

Spent a while tlaking with them, and all of us with the dogs, who were really happy to see them and get al lthis attention. Yogi actually went in the house when I told him to, whcih was good but just slightly surprising cuz I figured he'd really wanna stay out there with Tiny and them, and he did, but he still responded with no hands on.


Agter they left, we went out back and did the yard rounds again, then they played with sticks for a few minutes and then had naps, while i continued with yard work while the weatehr was so cool (only about 83F at most, with a lot of wind so it felt like mid-70sF).

Mostly I harvested what lantana sprouts I coudl find and put them in the planters I'd emptied earlier.







Some while later somebody in the area started popping fireworks, and both of them ran inside real fast to hide in the bedroom. :/

ONce they were settled...back out to the yard. Oh, and a couple days ago I found that Bonnie's grave lantana didn't get totally destroyed months ago when Yogi dug up the main root and stem section, after having trampled off all the branches and leaves. He musit've missed some fo the big roots, which took until what looks like a few weeks ago to sprout back up. Unfortuantely i found out when I was trimmging the grass there, and having long ago assumed that lantana was gone, I dind't even look before trimming. When I saw a several inch high lantana piece go flying, though, I looked at it adn fond a tiny little stem and one tiny leaf left...so i put bricks around it to protect ti from me and yogi and tiny, and it's recovered with more leaves already. Also been watering it, sinc ei hadn't done that in months, escept when watering that tree anyway(which is about once a month)






I also decided that as slowly as the trees are growing that are paired with lantana, which is growing very fast, the lantana is going to shade the trees and cause even slower growth, so I decided I'm gonna move all of them to the fence border, in the gaps between other lantana already there (which are of similar size, mostly).










I only got one moved before I broke the shovel, though. It cracked along the point where teh blade connets to the handle, so i will need tow eld that before I can use it again, or risk it splitting off entirely. But it was too dark to start on that, and I was too tired, and it was too close to doggie dinnertime.
+



Maybe tomorrow.

 

[amberwolf]

(note: for some reason this didn't post earlier, several hours ago).

Rainy day today, have had to keep after Tiny cuz she wants to drink all the muddy puddles.

Have her half in my lap right now keeping her here while her last adventure drains down into her tummy so she doens't cough from it. She still wants to go back out there and drink the yard.

There was some thunder a while ago which stopped Yogi barking at some kids playing out in teh rain in the street, and sent him running full tilt back into the house, where he skidded out in the kitchen as he ran off the mats I have up for Tiny.


The lantana I moved last night, the bigger one, may not survive. i msut've damaged it's roots, as it is "leaking" water and not drawing it back up. I had soaked the soil around it really well at the time, but it must nto have been enough. Hopefully it's nto too late but ethhis moring I set the hose dribbling on it to keep ti really really wet, almost puddly, to help it have so much water it can hardly help but soak some up. I also shaded it with some chairs since it was still partly sunny at the time, with intermittent misty sprinkles now and then. No change n leaves since then, whch are very wilted and saggy as if it hadn't had nay water for at least a couple of weeks. I can hope the core of it makes it, but it is probably gonna lose some leaves or even branches, no matter what, if it doens't die outright.


Moved some more small lantanas I found udner the lantana by the southeast mulberry near the carport, to the planters from yesterday. Some were difficult to extract from the roots of other lantana, so I might lose those too. Also moved a bunch of various sized (up to a foot high) "eucalyptus" sprouts there, too. I will probably use them as mroe "bushes" along the front yard sidewalk area, or as shade trees along the carport edge.


I am considering how to use stuff I have already here to make a set of very large planters to put these and lantana in to put along the carport under it's roof edge facing east, so then tehy could shade the carport area which would significantly cool teh master bedroom (presently a storage area because it gets too hot in there in summer).


Tiny's stinky farts are getting pretty bad right this moment, so we are going to go on a potty run and see what comes out.

 

[amberwolf]

This is posteed about 5 hours after the above was written (and should have posted).


Rain got more and more often and dense as evening drew tosunset, and mabye 3 hours ago now it really started pouring constantly, getting heavier now and then, but never lightnetngup. Little thunder during doggie dinertime, makign it really hard to keep tiny still; Yogi aran to the bedroom and left his dinnerfor quiote a whlie when it started. Eventually he came back, as we finsihed up tiny's dinner and waittime, and she was about ready to dive into his bowl ti finish it up, if I wasnt' there to stp her.

But neither one of them watned to go out in the rain cuz of the noise and wind and thundery stuff, so we all went to bed for a while, and then when they decided they coudlnt' hold it in any longer, we put on our raincoats and tiny's booties/pawtectors (i don't have any big enough for yogi), and went out for potty patrol. Yogi didn't really wanna be out there but wouldn'b eleft out; tiny just wanted tstick with me so i walkedarond the yard till she did her thing, and yogi ran aroudn but i diunno if he ever did anythign else. :/ couldn't keep track of him.


nwo they're anpping on the bed, and i probably will be soon. Iput up the barrier on the bedroom doorway tokeep tiny in, though, so she doesn't try to drink the yard while i doze.

 

[amberwolf]

Little more rain today. Tiny seems a lot better, but it's not helping my joints/bones any.

That lantana has recovered quite a bit and might make it.

The stuff along the west wall and north wall is in a little trench where the roof's watershed falls (just like alnog the fornt of the house) so that water when it happens will help it along. But it rained so hard and these are so small tha tmost fo them were covered in mud this mornign, and had to be washed off by hand.

If Tiny keeps going well and learnign her new routine like she has been gettng and gets even better, I shoudl be able ot go back to normal work week after next. I do ahve to work one shift on Wed this coming week due to inventory. The hard part is that I don't know what she'll do when I'm not here, what she might try to get into because of thirst or whatever, and end up aspirating something...then getting into the puking/reeating cycle and being unable to get up partly due to the slickness around her from the mucous, and partly from weakness due to puking. It's not that likely to happen, but I just don't want her to have to suffer thru that cuz I'm not there to help her.


I'll just have to see how things work out over the next several days. I've been leaving her alone as much as possible once the wiat period after breakfast and dinner is over, only keeping her with me when it was raining and such when she would otherwise have tried drinking the yard/mud and gotten herself into distress. Otherwise am just keeping an eye on her.

 

[The fingers]

With all the unseasonal rain and cold, I'm surprised that Chomper even came out at all to eat. He's got two places where he holes up now. One in the shade under a group of small palms and another in a sunny spot amongst the black mexican river stones. Right now he's halfway in between under the rose bushes where Oliver will leave him alone. Glad that Tiny is on the mend and hope you also feel better.

 

[amberwolf]

Other than being tired and achey again, I'm mostly ok. Tiny's about as good as she gets. Napping next to me right now.

I forgot to post the pics of them just before and after the rainy potty expedition. So a couple pics of them in tehir raincoats before headin gout, and one of Yogi slightly bedraggled since eh wouldn't leave the hood up on his head. :lol:


View attachment 2


Also, I had to punch a bunch of little holes in the center of the awning over the porch, cuz I didn't put any central support in it to arch the thing up, and it acted as a nice water catcher.
View attachment 1


can't seem uch but this pic of the front yard from teh front door sort of shows how wet it is out there. Can't sdee it well but the water covers teh whole street except a little ridge in the center, and in places is sloshing up on the sidewalks. It lesseend a while after taht and it drained away, but I wish I had storage to pump it to to save it for watering the yard later.....



.

 

[amberwolf]

Yesterday and today have not been very good days for Tiny. She started runnign a slightly higher temperature (usually she's 100.1F), holding at 102.2F for a whole day so far. Little heavier breathing than usual too. Still wiating to hear from the vet on it.

Several hours ago, before breakfast time but after dawn pooptrol, she puked up a yellow glob with grass in it. I've had her and Yogi in the bedroom since late last night, except for observed potty trips, so the grass must be from much earlier, when I know she snuck off a few times after dinner.

The grass must've been stuck in her esophagus, though, or else it'd've gone down withdinner outof her tummy a while ago, or else she'd've puked up some dinner too. This si why I keep trying to make surethere isnt any for hrer to get, but when there's no tall stuff she will pull short stuff out ofthe ground and eat it dirt and all.

I suspect stuff liek that is why she is sick right now; she probably aspirated some of it while coughing it back out. The latest med is intended to inhibit coughing and vomiting and such, but it doesn't appear to do anything for her at all.

She didnt' want any breakfast this morning either, and I had a time getting her meds down her with a little peanut butter. So while she was in waittime for that to stay down, I boild up some chicken and got it blendered into paste (cuz paste stays down and sometimes chunky stuff sticks in her esophagus and makes her cough it up later). I also gave her "rotten" ice cubes, whcih she didn't want at first, but eventually decidde she did. Once the chichen was ready she did eat that, slowly at first, then wanting to gobble it down. Still didn't want hte actual dogfood at all, but at least she was eating something. About noon (several hours after we started trying all this) she was done with eating/etc and ready for a nap, so here we are in the bedroom with her leaning up on my knee, fan blowing on us on low.


So today is gonna be a lazy day mostly just watching over her.


(earlier this morning whe she wanted to lay outside before breakfast, I started working on the trike's new dropouts, cutting and welding on them but then she got too warm in her spot and went inside, so I stopped working on it and followed her in, and not long after we started the stuff above. If she decides to go back outside to lay down I'll be able to continue on it then).

 

[amberwolf]

After peaking at 103.4F her temperature went back down over the day yesterday, and now she's at 100.8F, close to normal for her. Breathing back down to nearly normal, she's happy, and even last night she was pretty perky...but at 2am.


She was already worn out again by morning though, and didn't do any playtime with Yogi, so I stood in for her cuzhe really wanted to.

No troulbe eating breakfast though, she was raring to go on that, and looking around for more when we were done.


Some pics from today and yesterday/etc.

 

[amberwolf]

Some videos of them. One right after their bath a few days ago, though of course I missed the really cute bits there are still some; most of it's probably boring to anyone else.

Then there's some of one of Tiny's feedings; I messd up teh consistency of the batch and it's sticky instead of mortar-like, so she gets peanut-butter-mouth here and there.

Then she cleans out the cup a little, but of course it falls and Yogi takes it, and for the first time he actually holds it with his paws insead of sticking it on his snout like a horse-feeder, and walking around licking it until he knocks it off on something.


[youtube]Ih52m_kBotY[/youtube]


[youtube]BTHsaMgjXHE[/youtube]

[youtube]KRFmuTF2R1A[/youtube]

[youtube]K7vulOoFmAc[/youtube]

[youtube]D2h2zZe6C4o[/youtube]

 

[amberwolf]

Tiny's still doing great, and Yogi with her.



Me, I'm a little less tired these days without the constant nightmares of the fire, but my body still wakes up as if it's expecting them, so I'm not getting as much sleep as I could. At least I can usually (now) go back to sleep once I wake, instead of being up for hours sometimes, trying to get the imagery out of my head.


Couple vids of them playing this morning
[youtube]EqJX4PNKdCY[/youtube]
[youtube]2CudlLeA-qs[/youtube]



It's getting hot enough now that I'm making beef stew in pots inside an aquarium on the shed roof out back. (I usually use this aquarium to put suntea containers in, to keep what few breezes we have from cooling them).
View attachment 21



View attachment 19


The crockpot is a little wider than the aquarium, though, so I cant' close the door on it's side, and used a thick piece of styrofoam to close it up with, notched for the edge of the crockpot to fit in it.





Most of teh ingredients except the potatoes were stored in the deep freeze, so I thawed them in the bedroom with the fan blowing on them, to not waste teh cold and avoid using extra unnecessary electricity. Then cut them up as they thawed and put into the pots, almost 50/50 between them (one is larger), with spices and water. The potatoes were boiled separately first, last night, along with some of the onions and peppers and spices, cuz they don't cook properly to get soft enough if I don't do that first, based on past experiments. Mixed them all up in the pots along with canned tomatoes, then moved them to the aquarium when teh sun came up over the house and trees across the street around 6am.


Within an hour ti was up to 120F inside the aquarium, in the shade of the pots. Now, at noon, it's 160F in there. It's probably hotter inside teh pots themselves, or will be in an hour or two. (don't wanna open it and let any heat out to check, didn't put a thermometer in the pots themselves).


It'll be done by dinnertime, and should feed me for the rest of this week and next.





The lantana I planted around the west end of the house / sideyard is all growing, though some are still tiny, others are nearing a foot high. The mulberry from teh neighbor has recovered and is leafing out pretty well. Won't likely make any real shade this summer, but it might make some by next.










I'm still working on the berm expansions/deepenings, around all the trees.


View attachment 15



Got a bunch of tiny lantana sprouts in the planters working up to being able to put in the ground by the fences, but right now they're so small the dogs would just stomp them to bits while runnign along the fence or finding poopy spots...or napping in the damp dirt, like Tiny does in the pic above...closeup below and the pic of the "solution", of putting a grillework rack over the top of the area there (cuz it still has lots of glass bits (from the rebuilding crew just breaking out the windows and never pickng up the bits) in the dirt I'll never be able to get out, and I don't want her to get cut digging into the damp dirt next to the house). But I can't use those near the fence for two reasons: The dogs run blindly along there in excitement and would hurt themselves; I'd rather the lantana gets broken or crushed than the dogs get hurt. And it'd be temptation for scrappers to try to enter the yard to steal the metal.



The parking spot out back is getting shadier, as the trees grow enough to braid branches together and form a continous canopy over the back porch, but teh center one is still not bushy enough to cover toward teh house.

So teh awning has to stay up, to shade while working on stuff out there, like teh trke or bike:
View attachment 11





In the mornings I can work on them in shade of groups of trees, sometimes

 

[amberwolf]

Peak temp in the aquarium around the stew was 170F, but right about then it got pretty breezy, and dropped 20F in about 2 or 3 minutes, air temp inside the aquarium. I'm sure the stew didn't drop that fast, if at all.

Stabilized around 150F for a while, then past around 2pm it dropped a few degrees an hour, and around dusk once it was all in shadow was 110f and falling quick.

at that point i decided to check the internal temp of the stew and pulled i tout for that, and got 150F on the metal pot, with 130F on the ceramic crockpot core. Same before and after stirring. Both have glass lids to let heat in and trap it, but the crockpot should be harder for heat to escape, while the aluminum pot should be easier. However, it's also easier to heat it up, and harder to heat the crockpot. :/

Taste test shows the metal pot is done while the crockpot is close but not there yet, so I put the metla pot away out of doggie reach to cool off and set the crockpot up outside in it's heater tub, insulated agianst the still-ongoing breezes for efficiency's sake, and started it heating further so it can finish cooking.



In other news, the laptop is being wierd again; whatever memory problem it has is getting worse. It started out as one bad slot, reducing me to only 512MB, which makes it super dog slow (as if it wasnt' before), taking sometimes minutes just to switch between browser tabs. (other times i'ts instant, just depends on what the thing decides to have swapped out of ram to disk).

Now it's started getting the same random BSODs it did before taking the ram out of the bad slot. It's not a heating problem; already eliminated that in several ways. Have to test the harddisk once I have a chance, but it takes days and I won't have any internet access during that time, as it is teh ONLY computer that will correctly load the ASUS wifi USB drivers, for completely unknown reasons. (all the rest wll install it, then see it, even sometimes start to connect to a wifi, then suddenly automatically disable the adapter and take it out of the list entirely!)

Still zero luck with any of the routers as a wifi adapter, despite following very explcit directions found for a copule of them on how to do that.

The old desktop Grin sent to try to help is beginning to show signs of the bad capacitors in it getting worse. Almost everytime it is powered on, it sticks at POST and I have to power cycle itvia front panle power button, wihtout unplugging it from the wall (which will ALWAYS cause the stick). That usually works the first time, but some have required more than once. Sometimes it won't see any USB devices after powering on and getting into WinXP (doesnt' respond to keyboard during POST either, for those times).


Other wierd stuff with both of them, probably caused by those main two problems, but causing me headaches just trying to read/post/moderate ES, much less anything else.

 

[amberwolf]

Tiny wasnt' feeling quite so well yesterday, or this morning, but her temperature is about the same at 100.4F (she seems to hover around 100-101F most of the time). She's better today, hopefully stays that way. If so, then Wed, my next day off, I'll be going to pick up a "bike barn" from Freecycle.

I'ts just a frame, cover having sunrotted, but I can make a new cover out of a roll of cloth I have here. I'll probably use ti mostly to park teh trike under, but it can be used for any of the bikes. I might even be able to make it trailer-mountable as a covered carrier for stuff, if I needed to, but I expect it's probably a little heavy for that. I'll be using CrazyBike2 to pull the trailer (no kennel on it, just frame) to haul it home, since I don't yet have a trailer hitch on the trike. If I get to build the hitch onto the trike before then, I'll use teh trike to move it instead, but probably won't be able to.


Used the trike for non-transportation purposes yesterday:
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=67833&p=1057466#p1057466

and a few days back got these pics of a strange ice cube phenomenon. I have seen this twice before, and in none of those cases was there any way for antyhing to drip onto the tray to build up this spike of ice; it had to have grown *upward* out of the ice cube itself during freezing. I jus thave no idea how that could happen. :?

 

[amberwolf]

Tiny's better; temperature back to 100.0F.


Reply below to dequinox from another thread to keep the OT out of it:

Nice build Amber! I'm glad you are still actively constructing new bikes (trikes...as it were). Where are you getting your battery cells these days, still tearing laptop batteries apart?

Nah, all that stuff was stolen after the fire a couple years ago along with some of my RC LiPo packs to be repaired, and the Vpower pack, and most of my SLA.

Right now my main two packs are a used A123 EM3EV pack (whcih i think has about 60% of it's capacity left), bought with some of the donations from ES after the fire to replace the stolen stuff, and an EIG NMC pack built from used cells donated long before the fire and used on CrazyBIke2 and Delta Tripper (which it was on at the time).

I also have some RC LiPo packs, but most of them are aged, and some have bad cells, all the ones in the ammocan pack are swollen, saggy, and of uknown capacity/usefulness at this point. A few are basically new/unused, but aren't presently built into a pack, as I think there's only about 5Ah of enough to build a "48V" (60V) pack (just about enough for my work commute for a day and maybe a third more? some question at the moment exactly how much that commute actually takes).

I also still have 10 60Ah Thundersag cells, oriignally bought a few years back to run the brushed powerchair motors for CrazyBike2, but there's not enough of them to run it's present motor system or that of the trike. ATM it's sitting unused, but once I dig out my UPS power backup (if it still works, and if it's actually still there in the shed) then I may use them in series/parallel as a power source for it. However, power failures here are VERY rare even in the worst thunderstorms.... I have three small 1-square-foot solar cells (a few decades old, I think) that could be used to recharge those cells, and then I could use that UPS to create 115VAC to run some things for a while off-grid, to reduce electricity costs, but really there's so little wh there and would take so very long to recharge that I'm not sure it's useful. :/


If I still had the 18650s I might build a pack from them, but I never foudn the time to do ti before, so I suspect I'd end up with the same problem nowadays.

 

[dequinox]

Wow I have been off the 'sphere for a while... I didn't even know there was a fire at your place... I'm sorry to hear that #1 and #2 I'm sorry I didn't hear until now! Also, I remember CB2, that was a heck of a vehicle! You have a knack for putting together things that ought not be put together... at least in a lot of (un-creative) folk's minds.

I had sort of envisioned trying my hand at doing what doctorbass does with the A123 cells, but with the 18650's. I am not sure I could do it at a rate of speed to make it worth testing all those cells though, and I'm not certain where in my area to find a source of laptop batteries on the cheap. Even if I could I'd probably have to test the cells one at a time, and it looks like docbass can test like 10 or so at once with a PC controlled setup.
I still have a box of C-sized NiCads I need to test and turn into useful packs, so I'm not really in a hurry to acquire more cells just yet. I'd like to go lithium soon, but if I do it will probably be hobbyking stuff with cell monitors... something about dropping $600-800 on a plug-and-play pack doesn't sit well with me.

Let me know if you dig out those thundersag cells, I've not heard of them, and 60 Ah sounds like a large reservoir. Best of luck with the second trike build!

 

[amberwolf]

Wow I have been off the 'sphere for a while... I didn't even know there was a fire at your place... I'm sorry to hear that #1 and #2 I'm sorry I didn't hear until now!

It was a very hard time (sometimes it still is, but not nearly as bad as it was). At least it wasn't ebike battery/etc related, though the actual cause was never found (was told that officials suspected it to be spontaneous combustion of asbestos mastic that was used to glue tile down back in the 1950s, becuase it had happened to others).

Also, I remember CB2, that was a heck of a vehicle!

It still is, and actually is even better than when you probably last saw it; it's still my main transportation. Now it doesn't destroy chains and sprockets and wheels with torque, but it gets to 20MPH in about 4 seconds. Here's both the SB Cruiser and CB2 together (along with the new dogs Yogi and Tiny):

and a few of just the bike as it is right now:
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12500&p=1057462#p1055466

You have a knack for putting together things that ought not be put together... at least in a lot of (un-creative) folk's minds.

:lol: Yeah, I think that's my superpower.

I had sort of envisioned trying my hand at doing what doctorbass does with the A123 cells, but with the 18650's. I am not sure I could do it at a rate of speed to make it worth testing all those cells though, and I'm not certain where in my area to find a source of laptop batteries on the cheap. Even if I could I'd probably have to test the cells one at a time, and it looks like docbass can test like 10 or so at once with a PC controlled setup.

That's what basically kept me from getting around to making my 18650 pack, cuz I had about 300 cells to sort and hook up, and none of them had any tabs or stuff on them so it was even harder to connect them.

If you do ever go that route, make sure you keep teh tabs on them all, so you can connect them up a lot easier to test equpiment and each other.

I still have a box of C-sized NiCads I need to test and turn into useful packs, so I'm not really in a hurry to acquire more cells just yet.

I'd had some from really old dewalt packs, but i dont' know for sure what happened to those after the fire--probably stolen along with the other batteries. I'm pretty sure I don't have them anymore.

John in CR has some posts about reviving those, and Harold in CR might too.

I'd like to go lithium soon, but if I do it will probably be hobbyking stuff with cell monitors... something about dropping $600-800 on a plug-and-play pack doesn't sit well with me.

Yeah, me either, but I spent that for the used A123 pack because it was a good deal at the time plus I needed a spare pack for more backup range at the time, as I didn't have the others anymore. Now I'm glad I have it cuz I don't have to swap packs between CB2 and SBC.

Even as cheap as RC LiPo is, I don't think I would actually ever really want to go with it, beyond the stuff I already have or any future donations of it. There's just too much risk involved with it, because quality is so variable even within a brand and type that you can't ever even know if what you have is a failure waiting to happen in the first few cycles, or good stuff thta will last for years.

I'd rather find used laptop or power tool cells and test them and build packs out of those, as there is a lot less risk (even though lifespan of them is also not guaranteed, of course).

But really, I'd rather have large-format cells like the EIG's I have now. If I could afford it I'd buy those up when people post them up here on ES, because they've proven really durable so far on CrazyBike2/etc.

Let me know if you dig out those thundersag cells, I've not heard of them, and 60 Ah sounds like a large reservoir. Best of luck with the second trike build!

Thundersag is actually Thundersky, but they are known for sagging a lot under loads approaching what they are supposedly rated for. I'm sure you've seen the yellow box cells with ridges on them; that's them. Search my posts for "thundersky" and there are pictures of them, some in the last year or so when I got back to the house after the rebuild/repairs were done. I think I had a thread for it but can't find it now.

60Ah would be great, but presently that would be at 32V nominal, 36V hot off teh charger. The only stuff I have that will properly run on that voltage is my old brushed powerchair motors and Curtis golfcart controller, and I think one 36V 12FET controller that will run another brushless powerchair motor. I'm pretty sure all my regular ebike controllers have LVCs in them that are higher than the usable voltage range of the pack.

So I need another 6 cells of the same type/capacity to use them as a "48v" pack, but unless someone donates them, at this point I don't have the money to buy them. (these cost me about $400 that I saved and scrimped for a few years ago, slightly used from someone's abandoned motorcycle project, when I ddin't know as much about stuff as I do now, but at the time all I had was SLA and old NiMH packs, so it was still a step up).

 

[dequinox]

I was wondering about that....lol. I did some research into those a few years ago, and determined that they were just too darn big for any bike I'd be building unless I was building a full on cargo bike.

Thundersag is actually Thundersky, but they are known for sagging a lot under loads approaching what they are supposedly rated for.