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

[DAND214]

I've only had 6 dogs since I've been married. So 6 in 44 years, Not as many you've had.
I always said no more dogs. But there comes another one.
It just feels right to have a DOG. I get upset at her at times but can't do without her.

Dan

 

[bigmoose]

Amber, it looks like the two of them get along well together. Like lifelong buddies already.

 

[amberwolf]

More or less....not like Yogi and Tiny, but they're working on it.

Kirin is still eating lots of Special K, Krazyflakes edition, though, whenever we're not looking.


I don't know if she's going to catch it, but apparently a wild mouse has found it's way into the house, and presently hiding somewhere in the bedroom. I've heard it a couple of times, but Kirin can hear it pretty well, and I frequently wake up to her "radaring" around the room looking for it, following it. She hasn't broken anything trying to get to it yet, but she's collided with the dresser and walls a few times dashing for it as it (presumably) runs past her as she scrabbles after it.


She is so awkward and gangly it's really hard to believe she is four years old, and not still a puppy. :lol:

 

[amberwolf]

Kirin is still crazy, and thinks she's starving all the time from about an hour or so after dinner and breakfast. I mean, she's hungry, as expected for her condition and what she's been thru, but she's gotten hungrier quicker each day, though she is eating about 7 cups a day at this point. A couple of times she's actually started to try to take my dinner while we're laying here on the bed.

Her output is still soft-serve, but not runny, pretty much like Yogi's usually is...except there's a lot more of it. :lol:

Yogi is still having a lot of fun with her; they play every day, at least once in the morning before I go to work and once when I come home, and probalby more when i'm not here.

Kirin, however, has gotten into barking too much, whenever I am not here she's kinda anxious, so I moved Yogi's pheremone collar over to her, and he's doing fine that way still. It seems to be helping her a little, but not completely.

So I dug out the citronella-spray anti-bark collar, which Yogi quickly learned to ignore, in hopes that it would work on Kirin, but when I filled it up it immediately began spraying out, even without the battery yet installed, meanign the solenoid valve is stuck in the open position.

I disassembled the colar and tried to find a way to open or adjust or clean the valve, but eventually just broke one of the terminals off of it, breaking the fine wire to the coil, and never did get it to unjam. I probalby can fix the wire, if I use a camera and monitor to enlarge what I'm looking at enough to see it, as it's about the same as a human hair. :/

But that's pointless unless I can free it.

I was lucky enough that this thing survived the fire a few years ago, but I guess it coudlnt' work forever. :/ Hopefully I can fix it because I can't replace it ATM (I just spent the only spare money I had on stuff for the SB Cruiser trike repairs and upgrades).



On the downside of all this...one of the things I always loved to watch, and found so endearing about most dogs, is their puppydreams. But not anymore. Everytime Kirin is sleeping in the bed (across my legs usually), and she puppy-dreams, it brings back those days of Teddy going thru her seizures, and I often can't sleep for a long while after waking up to that.

It happens with Yogi, too, but not as often as he typically sleeps across the room against the wall, or out in the kitchen in front of hte sink on the cooler tile, until the weather gets a lot cooler, when he's more likely to sleep up here on the bed, or at least next to it.

All I have to see is twitching paws, much less the whimper/barking or sleeprunning, and I'll be triggered into flashbacks of Teddy's seizures, and then everything else that happened.

 

[amberwolf]

While Yogi and Kirin were playing this morning, Yogi got distracted by two teenagers walking along our side of the street and ran over to see, and was surprised by a dog as big as he is--another St Bernard, with more of the classic look than he has.

He actually stopped, didn't bark, for a second or so, just as the two kids backed off from being surprised by him, but as soon as they started talking again he started barking and then Kirin ran over to join in. I don't think I heard their dog bark back, but coudlnt' tell for sure.

They did have trouble trying to keep it from chasing the cats as they went around the corner past the feral-cat-house-yard across the street from us.


I knew there was a family with a couple SB's moving into the area, back during the week I lost Tiny, because I was out walking Yogi and the dad drove past and stopped to chat for a moment, but I haven't seen him since or seen any sign of the dogs, until now. (probably cuz it's been too hot).

 

[amberwolf]

Some dogs are pretty smart:

Yogi and Kirin seem to have an understanding about long sticks now...since she doesn't like to approach them when they are moving around (I think she's afraid of being hit with them ), Yogi sort of does what he did with Tiny (except Tiny wasn't afraid of it and would dash right in to grab it and try to take it from Yogi):

He runs around with the stick, then stops and stands there chewing on one end waiting for her to come over and grab it. If she doesn't, he'll walk over to her dragging the stick rather than waving it around, and then either stand there or lay down, chewing on one end and waiting for her.

Sometimes she'll grab one end and chew on it, sometimes she'll try to take it from Yogi and drag him around, sometimes she jumps in to grab it and dashes away because it wiggled or moved a teensy bit, sometimes she'll wait till he's laying down then stand there chewing on the other end, not really trying to take it. Sometiems she ignores him and finds her own chewstick, and then Yogi pouts. :/


Sometimes he gives up on the stick and just starts butting her shoulder, and then they start their roughhousing, where they each try to grab the other's forelegs, or pounce on top of each other, and chase each other around the yard near the house. That usually lasts about 5 minutes or less, until Yogi is out of breath, though Kirin keeps trying for a while afterward, and sometimes Yogi will resume, sometimes he just lays down and pants happily and ignores her.



Update: Kirin's nose injury that was still pink with newly-regrown skin when she came here is now almost all black again, except for a little half-pinky-nail-sized bit in the middle, and she's not sensitive to touches on her nose anymore.



Still crazy, though.

 

[amberwolf]

I've been trying to get more video of them playing in other ways than the roughhousing; so far I haven't managed to get the camera before they stop--most often one or both of them follows me in when I go to get it).

Kirin's up to about 90lbs now (from about 80 when she got here almost 3 weeks ago), and her fur is softer and filling out more, though she's still skinny as a rail, and she still thinks all food in the whole universe belongs in her tummy *right now*.

She gets about 6-6.5 cups a day right now, in two meals. Yogi gets about 3 (would usually be 4 but he's still on a diet). Then half a pickle jar of water in each one, plus a bit of wet food to make gravy.

It takes them about the same amount of time to eat, even so, cuz Kirin is determined to inhale the whole meal at once...and she splatters stuff all over, then cleans it up. She's actually a messier eater than Tiny (who was a very exuberant eater!). Then Yogi comes along and scrubs it all clean after she's done.

Kirin's super interested in every little noise everywhere; there are a couple of mice that found their way into the house, so everything that makes any kind of tiny noise holds her total interest as she scrabbles around after it. Even if I just pick up my trackball or keyboard, and the cord touches something, she immediately scrabbles after the sound source. Unfortunately the same is true when she hears Mouse (our cat, in her own room), doing anything at all, pretty much...Kirin wants so bad to go "play" with her. :/ Mouse, however, wants nothing to do with Kirin, though she isn't quite as terrified of her as she started out to be (probably mostly due to the Feliway plug-in I got to help Mouse with the whole thing...the doggie version works so well I figured the cat one should too).

Claw trimming is quite the ordeal--it's even worse than with Yogi. I get one done at a time for the clipper, and have been unable so far to do more than touch a grinder to one before she's out of there (she's so squirmy I can't even do what I do with Yogi and sit on her). She's getting better, slowly, as I've been trying it every day, to try to reduce the scrabbling noises and slipping when she chases noises (so it will not scare Mouse the cat quite as much).

Yogi's pretty much fully adapted to her being here, though he is a little low on energy, most likely cuz he's still on a diet to reduce his extra padding he accumulated (mostly since Tiny became unable to play with him earlier this year). He had been pretty sulky about Kirin being here and getting attention, but he's gotten past that, and is back to his usual self (where he just gets sulky whenever there are things he wants that he can't have, whatever they might be).

Yogi's swollen lymph node is a lot smaller than when I first noticed it, but it's still enlarged, maybe the size of a pinto bean or even a lima bean. Not sure if it means anything.

 

[amberwolf]

Some random Yogi and Kirin pics over here from a little bit back:
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12500&start=1100#p1242080


More random pics attached below the following.

Pardon the greenishness of the pics; the Sony camera has failed; the button no longer activates taking a picture, and it does other wierd things like changing modes on it's own, and always tells me it cannot change the flash mode at all, no matter what mode it's set to (so I can't use the flash at all; it's stuck on off, even if I could take a pic with it). So I've gone back to the Canon, which other than the occasional static lines in the pic and the greenish tone at least works .



At goodwill today, I got another bike very much like my Nishiki, probably same year or very close, is built similarly and has most of the same equipment on it (even has Araya rims and the Shimano BioPace crankset). Not in anywhere near as good a condition, with some rust and the seat is totally disintegrated, but as it was only $7.50 I wont' complain too loudly.

It's a little lower toptube so slightly easier to swing a leg over, but mroe importantly the seattube/stays are nore normal and so will actually work with the Kepler eBoost friction drive I have somewhere here that I was waiting to build an adapter for the Nishiki for. So I can move over the stuff ont he Nishiki that is better condition than on this Specialized "rockhopper" and use this frame instead, and have a "normal" bike that still has some assist, for the few things I could use such a bike for.





View attachment 21





View attachment 15





Since I have a thing for old test equipment, especially analog-display stuff, when I saw this old Simpson 260 multimeter, I couldn't resist, though it cost enough to buy several days' worth of groceries ($17). This particular one appears to be the Series 2, which was made between 1940 and 1950, so it's between about 65-75 years old.
http://www.simpson260.com/260-2/simpson_260-2.htm
http://www.simpson260.com/downloads/simpson_260-2_user_manual-1956.pdf

It's made of bakelite, and since it's this old, it could be a bit fragile, so the leather case is a good thing.



It has a leather case someone made for it sometime during it's life, and it is in very good condition...except for the corroded batteries in it that expired in 1994. :lol:





Thankfully it uses just AA and D cells, because a lot of old meters used cells that arent' even made anymore. I expected that to be the case with this one, too, but since it was so large I knew there would be room inside the case to work around that if I had to, unlike some of the ones I've worked on.




After I got the old cells out and cleaned the corrosion off, I had to make a new spring between the two top center AA cells for the series connection, because the old one didn't exist anymore. Once this was done, it works now, though I havent' tested it's accuracy beyond seeing if it would read the 2.5-ish volts my Fluke77-III puts out when on Diode test mode.


It uses the old Pin Probe standard, rather than the newer Banana plug type, but this also means that the probes themselves on newer meters can be used to plug into the meter itself, and leave the banana plugs exposed, and still used to test. So I can eitehr make some pin-to-banana adapters for the meter end, or just make some pin plugs to replace the banana ends, or something like that.





One thing analog meters are useful for that digitals aren't is watching the discharge of caps (or charge) or other circuits, or watching for pulsations on a line (like hall pulses testing a motor, or low-frequency AC riding on a DC signal), where the digital one has such a lag in response that it might not even catch the pulses or not show them fully, at least for the ones I've used. The needle wiggle on the analog meter will show stuff the digital display can't...even if it cant' always be read as precisely, it shows stuff "more realtime".



I've started feeding Kirin in the bathtub, because her JarJarBinks tongue slings stuff everywhere when she eats, and this is at least easier to clean up, instead of mopping the walls and cabinets and floors....







Doggie pics in between working on the other stuff as we took playtime breaks (with some first I'd forgotten to post before, mostly fo them napping).

 

[DAND214]

That's great AW. Love the dogs. It looks like Kirin eats/cost more to feed than you do.

How do you find those deals at those places. A bike for$7.50 would be $75.00 here. Not to mention, there aren't any around. Lots of kids bikes or small girls bikes but next nothing in what you find.
Great find on the meter too. like I said, not here!

Dan

 

[amberwolf]

That's great AW. Love the dogs. It looks like Kirin eats/cost more to feed than you do.

If I didnt' get the dog food really cheap thru clearance sales at work, I couldnt' actually afford to feed them. :lol: I'd need a second job just to do that.

She eats about 7 cups a day ATM, and is still regaining weight. I think she's about 95lbs now, haven't weighed her this week yet.

Yogi is still on a diet so he's only eating a little less than 3 cups a day, and thinks he's gonna waste away to nothing. :lol:

My own food I try to get the best sales (and clearance stuff) too, but there is a lot less people food for cheap like that these days; all the places I used to go to for it specifically aren't around anymore, or have become inaccessible. There's lots of junky food (carb-filled, not much protein) that's cheap, but I'm overweight enough as it is, and the only thing that helps me prevent that being worse is higher protein stuff and veggies, and trying to leave all the high-carb stuff alone. (really hard)

How do you find those deals at those places. A bike for$7.50 would be $75.00 here. Not to mention, there aren't any around. Lots of kids bikes or small girls bikes but next nothing in what you find.
Great find on the meter too. like I said, not here!

Goodwill is where I get most of this kind of stuff. I don't go as frequently as I used to, but I try to go on every 1/2 price day (every other weekend). They also have $1 days for specific color-tagged items, and when I really need something (clothes, etc) I'll go on every one of those I can make it to till I find something that will do. If I counted my time into the cost of the stuff, the wasted time spent looking would make them cost many times their actual cost, but my time is worth nothing if I'm not actually at work (unless I need it to sleep to catch up with myself; it's hard to sleep much anymore so I never get enough).

Almost always the bike stuff they have is just junk, or it's little kids' bikes, but occasionally I run across something like this one, which *looks* like junk but isn't.


Sometimes I find stuff at garage sales, but they usually want more for it there than at goodwill, and it's not worth it to me. I used to find bike stuff at a couple of friendly LBS's, but they don't exist anymore; the others close enough to go to regularly don't sell anything used and won't let me have access to their trashed stuff either (liability reasons, they say). There's almost never anything usable in bulk trash piles for curb pickup anymore because there are too many scrappers that spend their entire days all the time driving around picking thru that stuff around the valley.

Most of the metal I use for my projects now comes from fixtures and signage that we toss out at work every so often, which even though it's crappy steel at least I can cut and weld it, even though I have to use more reinforcement and heavier stuff to do the same thing I would with better steel and less of it, at least it works and is free. I couldnt' afford to build things like the SB Cruiser or my trailers/etc if I had to go buy the materials for it. At least, I couldn't *re*build them whenever I figured out a better way of doing something, or just try experiments for the heck of it.

 

[amberwolf]

Kirin seriously tried to eat Mouse (the cat) this morning, so I have been spending the time today that I'd planned to rewire the trike in building an actual hinged gate for Raine's bedroom doorway, that mounts to the doorframe, rather than the loose wire-basket-frame panels we'd been using before, that just slid across the doorway behind some furniture and stuff to keep dogs and cat in separate spaces.

The sliding panels worked fine before Kirin, though with Teddy it was a little questionable at first.

But Kirin is a hunter...and sometimes she hears Mouse or sees her, and stares at her with that hunting look, and she will try to attack. As long as there is a solidly-built gate between them, I think that wont' be a safety issue (though it is still a problem to train her out of).

I still ahe to work out a good latch that is easy for Raine or I to work but that cant't be accidentally undone by Kirin or Mouse. At present it's a carabiner clip screwed down to the doorway; the clip rotates around that point to clip to the wireframe of the gate itself.

At present the gate only goes a bit more than halfway up the doorway, which is ok for now, but later I'll extend that all the way up with a second piece that is separately openable from the bottom.

It's made of conduit tubing for a frame, with the same kind of wire-basket-sides used for the other gate, but welded to this frame and hinges welded to the tubing. The hinges were not long enough, because the doorway is very deep with an "extension" to cover the insulation in the walls, so I used some plates off the retail signage I saved a few weeks ago to weld to them and extend them to fit. Without doing this, I couldn't screw them into the actual doorframeitself, only into the "extension" panel that is not structural, because if I did then they'd be so deep into the doorway that the gate would not open more than a little bit.

To be able to open it wide, it has to stick way out past the door, because of where I put the hinges (lack of planning on my part). I have to fix this later, but for now it will work.

Kirin is laying on me right now, or I'd post the pictures. So those will come later.

 

[hedsik]

Every time I open this thread, invisible ninja's spring from the ceiling and start throwing onions.

 

[DAND214]

Every time I open this thread, invisible ninja's spring from the ceiling and start throwing onions.

I like onions!

Dan

 

[The fingers]

Those bikes look small next to Yogi.

 

[amberwolf]

And they are 26" wheel bikes.

BTW, if you mean this one:

it's actually Kirin--she's like an inch or two taller than Yogi (though she doesn't weigh as much, about 95lbs vs Yogi's 140-ish; she's narrower and she's still regaining her muscles and weight after what she went thru with her original peepulz). She wanted to steal the stick being used to hold up the bikes.

If it helps, Yogi's head is almost all black with a narrow forehead stripe, while Kirin's is mostly brown with a wider forehead stripe. And generally Yogi is a lot darker in body color than Kirin. (or Teddy or Tiny)


Yogi is laying on the ground in the background chewing on his own stick:

Every time I open this thread, invisible ninja's spring from the ceiling and start throwing onions.

I totally understand.

 

[The fingers]

Sorry, got the dogs mixed up. The bikes look like 20" wheel kids bikes. :lol: Oliver is about the size of the saddle. :wink:
(the biggest one)

 

[amberwolf]

Yeah, if I keep getting bigger ones each time a new one comes here, at the present ratio of sizes from Tiny to Teddy to Kirin, the next one might be as tall as my shoulder. :lol: (well, maybe at least my chest) But I hope it's many years before I find out.

Kirin is tall enough to "dance with"; she doesnt' yet give "hugs" like Hachi did, but she will hop up on her back feet and put her front legs over my crooked arm. Can't get a pic of that, though...no hands to hold the camera with.

I havent' had a dog as small as Oliver in about 30 years. :lol: (Puff was a little Cockapoo) I think that Reckless or Fred would probably be the smallest dog since then; somewhere around 25-30lbs.

 

[amberwolf]

Sort of a summary-update on Kirin (and Yogi):

Kirin's got the doggie-window-door figured out, but she will only go thru it if I have the flap tied open; been trying for a week or more now with no luck on getting her to go thru on her own with the flap in place. Yogi does fine either way but he'd rather have the flap open (Tiny was the only one that didnt' care either way; Teddy never had the opportunity to try it, as I had not had it setup while she was around).

She's learning a number of things well, but leaving Mouse the cat alone is not one of them; Kirin is definitely not cat-friendly and would almost certainly eat her if she had the chance. So I've been building that gate for the cat-room (Raine's bedroom) that's basically like a security door on the front of a house. I've got it about half done; when it's finished then Mouse will once again be able to sit and look out at the "world" from her doorway, without risk of being eaten.

Unfortunatley even if Kirin can't reach Mouse, it doesn't stop her from "stalking" her, or lunging at her, so i ahve to figure out a solution for that that still lets Mouse look out without Kirin seeing her (or at least, keeps Kirin from reacting to her). One-way mirror (along the bottom where Mouse sits to look out) is the only thing I've thought of at the moment; not sure how practical that is.

Kirin is definitely a hunter--we have a few actual mice that have gotten into the house (the reason for going back to the doggie-window-door instead of just the blanket across the backdoor with the door itself left open), and she scrabbles around whenever she hears one or sees one; she's caught at least three I know of; though she's not interested in eating them, or anything else after they're squished and soggy she drops them and leaves them for me to find. :-/

The feral cats in the area had still been brave enough to go around the yard with Yogi around, cuz he's not fast enough to catch them , but with Kirin here, I havent' seen any of them in the yard after the first few days; she almost caught one once when Yogi and she were out there playing and I was doing yard stuff, and I expect that after a few times of that none of them have wanted to risk it anymore.


Kirin listens to me pretty well, and learns quickly, if imperfectly, but she does not listen to Raine very well yet. She does not, however, behave all that well when unsupervised, so we've got a long bit of work ahead to fix that.



Kirin still gets along with Yogi fine, though she's so bouncy and puppyish that he doesn't really know what to do with her unless they're outside playing; she's kinda overwhelming when she gets "crazy" playful. He won't go around her to get on the bed, unless I've got food to bait him with. Sometimes she gets mouthy or even snappy when she thinks she isn't the center of attention, though if I ignore her she calms down cuz she knows how to behave, and that she'll get attention if she does.

 

[amberwolf]

I got a new light for the yard; it was still complete and unused in it's box, sitting with a small pile of other stuff, mostly junk and trash, next to the trashcan in the alley. Looked like it has been sitting stored for about 20-30 years or more, from the yellowed and crumbling box and instruction sheets/warranty card. It's a mercury-vapor area light, with light-sensor so it only comes on after dark, meant ot mount up a pole or on the side of a building.

As it happens, I *have* a pole meant just for a light, picked up to use as metal tubing several years back from Freecycle (along iwth the square tubing used on Crazybike2's seat/cargo frame when I built it). I used just the top section of it (it's meant to be really tall, but I don't have a way to put up something that tall easily, and don't want to deal with any possible city code problems for heights, so...), and mounted it up against/in the orange tree. Partly that is to help stabilize the pole, strapping it to the tree trunk, and partly to use the tree itself to shade the street/other houses from the light, and light only the yard itself with it as much as possible. It's also so that I don't have yet another something to have to go around in the yard, since there are already trees everywhere.

I trimmed the orange tree back on the side the lamp is on, and left the other side intact. It lights up the gate area and the main part of the yard really well. Just running it with an extension cord when I need it; no permanent wiring. I forgot to take a pic last night of it while on, [strike]but here it is in daylight.[/strike] Ok, that' wwierd. the camera didn't apparently actually take the pictures. Have to retry later I guess (gotta get ready for work).



Kirin's settling it at around 100lbs; still skinny, but so full of energy I think she is running off most of her food. :lol: *Tiny* was about 100lbs, too, so it seems strange to me that another SB so tall as Kirin would only weigh what Tiny did, but I guess she's just all hollow inside.

She went for her first trip to work (on my day off) yesterday, in the SB Cruiser's onboard kennel, and did fine, though she didn't like the trip up there, she liked the destination, and ddint' seem to mind the trip back much. Unlike Yogi, she's very quiet on the ride--Yogi has to bark at everything moving on the roads and sidewalks. :/

Yogi's completely adapted to her, and didn't want her (or me) to leave without him, but I couldn't take both with me on this trip, as I have not yet gotten teh trailer hitch reinstalled to SB CRuiser (have to weld on new bolts for it, and some other stuff), and they won't both fit in the one kennel (though Yogi did try).


Unlike Teddy, who started out snuggly and liked to sleep up against me, but after a couple months or so decided it was safe to sleep wherever she felt like it and then didn't stay up there with me anymore, Kirin is a snuggler and prefers to stay with me wherever I am, usually eventually ending up sleeping across my legs, sprawled out like a bridge over them. Yogi still sleeps mostly in a corner on his blankets or the cool floor, depending on the weather. Sometimes toward morning I'll find him asleep between me and the wall, with Kirin across my legs.

 

[amberwolf]

Pics of the light in the yard at night; first set is at "auto iso", second is at "hi iso" cuz the first ones don't even come close to the amount of light there is. The second set still isn't bright enough, but there isn't a camera setting that actually makes it look correct. And of course, everything looks green cuz the camera is still screwed up like that.


First one I forgot to turn off the flash; it's Kirin showing off that she has a stick. A very nommy stick, apparently.


autoiso









hi iso


View attachment 2


.

 

[amberwolf]

More doggie and yard pics from yesterday; the mulberries haven't all gone fully into winter mode. Some did completely, but several only partly did so. If we get another cold snap down below 40F they probably will too, but for now some still have nice green leaves, and a few even have new buds starting for new leaves.


Yogi and Kirin both have their own sticks to prance about with:


Waiting at the gate, and then the back fence, for me to get done taking pics and come back to play



The new backyard light in daylight, and then at night with SB Cruiser and the dogs playing
View attachment 11


Front yard, then around the side for the street/fence stuff

View attachment 9
View attachment 8









.

 

[amberwolf]

I finally got to fixing the gate today; it has been sagging mroe and more, because the support posts I'd put in the ground around and welded to the main gatepost (since it's embedded in concrete I can't dig up, and broken off at the top of the concrete) and the angled brace some feet into the ground, then bent towards it and welded to it, are loosened up from the rain soaking the ground and leaving it mushy for so long.

It causes the latch end of the gate to sag, and it's down a couple of inches now. THat means I ahve to lift the gate up while holding the latch in place while trying to put the lock thru the holes. Sometimes I can't do it, and have to brace the gate with something while I try; a real PITA when I'm coiming home from work. :/

The best solution would be to replace the gatepost, but I don't have that option (dont' have anything quite big enough to use for one). I also don't think I could dig up the concrete there, nor could I replace it.

Next best would be to stick another pipe down inside it and weld thru holes in the existing post to it, but the concrete fills the post as well as holding it in there, so that won't work.

Other options include welding something across the "clamp" supports for the top of the fence, all the way to the corner and around it, and use the top fence rail to help support it, and that's what I will probably do next time I have a chance to work on it. It requires setting up supports for the gatepost/etc first to make sure it all lines up and stays that way while I weld, without taking the gate off because I need to see that the gate and latch and whatnot all line up before welding. (measurements are never sufficient; I always manage to screw that stuff up).

For now, I did something slightly simpler. Since the main problem is that the gatepost is sliding east, but the next-over fencepost a few inches away from it is still fixed in the ground, the first step was to add a brace between those pushing the gatepost west, while the gate itself was held up by a piece of wood under it's bottom rail to the right height/angle for the latch/lock to all line up.

Welded it in after shaping it with the grinder to fit just right and tight, then onto the next step. That was to pound in another support, for the support, at an angle to it, and weld it to the original angled support, to help prevent it from being pulled out along it's length (which lets the gate tilt sideways).


The hinges themselves are L-bolts that thread thru the post itself, with a nut on either side. So I loosened the nuts, lifted the gate off the hinges, then used the sledgehammer and a wrench to turn the L-bolts, top hinge pulling back a few mm, and bottom hinge out a few mm, to lift the gate's latch end and put it right where the latch holes all line up to make it easy to unlock, open, close, and lock.

It was not easy to do any of this part, but after a long while I got it done, reinstalled th gate (dropping it twice, and almost squishing Kirin cuz she always wants to be right there whatever I'm doing), and tightened the nuts, leaving the gate within a mm of where I wanted it--close enough to be no trouble with the latch and lock.


So ti's fixed again for a while, till I can do the other stuff.

 

[amberwolf]

I guess i've forgotten to post to this thread for a while now.

The gate fix above is coming undone...rather it is intact but the gate is sagging anyway. I have a couple of thoughts on a fix, but a diagonal connection from the top of the gatepost to the bottom of the corner post some 20+ feet away seems like the most durable option. However, I don't have any tubes taht long, so I'll need to work out a cable and turnbuckle instead. I have a number of such things in dog-tie-out systems I bought on clearance a long time back, knowing I'd use them eventually. One of them is in use as my clothesline, for instance.



In other news, Kirin is still crazy...wait, that's not news. She's doing fine, other than some loss of appetite the last few mornings at first, until she got into eating her breakfast, and not wanting to eat breakfast today at all (though she wanted it, and guarded it, she didn't wanna eat it). But she was fine by the time I got home early from work and ate it up like normal.

Yogi is doing ok , too, though in the rains we had up to a week or more ago his left knee was making him gimpy. Now that the weather's cleared up he's back to normal, other than not liking the heat (been around 87F+ the last couple days). That knee is arthritic from when he hurt it I think a couple years ago now. Doesnt' slow him down or stop him from anything, though, he jsut limps a bit in bad weather.


I'm not doing all that well this week; I got sick a couple weeks or more ago, and have had a cough and sore throat and not much voice since then, and was just beginning to get better when on Sunday I got *another* cold, much worse tahn the first one--spent most of the time since then in bed, not able to sleep much from the coughing and sinus stuff, even with suppressants. worked yesterday but barely made it thru teh day, could barely whisper (caused coughing fits), today i hought i was better except that I could nto speak at all, even a whisper, without a lot of pain and coughing. I used the tablet from Bill as a typewriter pad to "talk" but was so tired and worn out that I didn't last more than a couple hours before I simply couldn't handle it anymore, and had to go home. Thankfully my boss had already suggested I could do that, and he'd work out covering my shift, so I took him up on that, and have been back in bed dozing/waking since then. Mostly waking....

I hope this goes away soon, but at the rate it's going it'lll prbably be a couple weeks before I'm normal again, and at least a day or two before I'm really "functional", and could be at least a week or two before I get any voice back above a whisper. If I can use the tablet for "talking" and avoid using my voice at all, I mgiht get it back sooner.




The trees ave been getting leaves back for a couple weeks now, and the rains have helped with that. iv'e had to mow the jungle down twice in teh last month form th e rains, grows much faster thn i acn ceep up with , cuz i dont have neogh time and have been sick.

 

[The fingers]

Cold remedies in moderation:

Drink plenty of water
Gargle with hot salt water
Chicken soup
Onion soup
Hot tea with Lemon & Honey
Ginger
Licorice
Garlic
Apple cider vinegar
Slippery elm
Eucalyptus oil
Peppermint
Chamomile
Vitamin C
Blackberry
Sage

Some help, some might seem gross. Personal preference guides, hope you feel better soon!

 

[amberwolf]

i appreciate the thought...over the years i've tried pretty much every "remedy" and none of them really help shorten or lessen the cold; some smooth a bit of the symptoms for a very short time, or are just pleasant or nommy anyway, but that's about it.

really heavy doses of garlic (to the point where I feel wierd, as if my blood sugar was really messed up) do help with bacterial infections, but do nothing for my viruses/colds.

i'm always drinking plenty of water just to stay hydrated, but too much water flushes good stuff out of my system, and makes things worse.