tomjasz
1 GW
FYI phytophthora is not as persistent as you indicate. It is likely other pathogens. At least that what my experience and microscope has shown.
End of the World. Beginning of a new one. The Life of Amberwolf.
- Thread starter amberwolf
- Start date
It's presently only 4 times a year for bulk collection of "stuff". People do illegally dump a lot of stuff in the alley or street anyway, but it isn't useful stuff to me (anything scrap-wise useful gets picked up almost as soon as it's dumped by scrappers that must spend thousands of $$ a month just driving around in circles, and most everything else is just real garbage, often construction waste like broken up concrete that people don't wanna pay ot haul off so they dump it wherever they can sneak it in).dogman said:
If I could dig out just the compostable part of the garbage from the rest of it without having to worry about being blamed for putting it there in the first place, I'd do that, but it's not practical or safe.
Well, mostly my trees don't get more than two real waterings a month (filling up the space inside hte berm around them; I dunno how many gallons it is but it's a fair bit, perhaps 12-15foot wide circle at least 6-8inches tall, depending on which tree it is). The four mulberries closest to the house get 2x a month (what amounts to 4x for the biggest one, since it also gets all the greywater from the shower, and what amounts to possibly 2.5-3x a month for hte one next to the backdoor since it gets the greywater from the kitchen). All the others just get once a month, cuz I can't really afford to do more. (and I usually do them when it looks like rain, so the higher humidity will cause less evaporation loss while it soaks in).
That's probably a lot more than I used to water them, but it also seems to be causing a lot more growth than they have usually had (which they need anyway, to get back to even what they were before the fire, after all the cutbacks they got. Plus I've been pruning more of the bottom branches in an effort to get more growth up high to make bigger/taller shade; I don't normally do that cuz I want the shade from the side and also to screen the house...but I am now simply trying to grow more/bigger lantana instead, to let the trees be trees and bushes be bushes).
Possibly--could also be bugs. We have a number of "new" kinds of beetles around, including little black ones that I also see at work in dog food sometimes (haven't found any in the actual dog food I have at the house, thankfully, so far), and some larger red/black beetles (not ladybugs, though we have those too), and some gigantic hand-length beetle that seems to like the amaranth a LOT, but not lantana, mulberry, or whatever that "eucalypus"-whatever tree is.
I've been collecting seeds from a number of desert-ish plants in parking lots and bikeways and whatnot, and am beginning to plant htem in some more of those ex-mice-shipping-containers using some of the "recovered" soil from both front and backyard areas, mostly under the trees where I'm not really growing anything anyway (and where it makes the bermed-off area deeper to hold water better when i do the flood-watering). No sprouts yet, but it's only been a week since first planting, I think, and I don't even remember which seeds came from what plant (I had them labelled but mixed them up accidentally when I knocked everyting over when i tripped over my own feet).
In other news, I finally remembered that I had a micro-SD card reader for USB, so since I still cant' find the cable to directly download from the phone, I put the phone's card into the reader and hooked that to the laptop instead, to get the pics here to upload.
So here's the "music room" setup, at present. On the far left is a stack of assorted MIDI-capable keyboards, most of which are only for input (no sounds of hteir own), which either don't work right or don't have various capabilities I need for everyday use (which is part of what necessitated me buying the used ASR88 to take over from my still-unreliable original ASR88).
Just to the right of thsoe is my old kitchen cart that is now a temporary "rack" for my stuff, till i can locate my few remaining rackmount rails and stuff in the sheds to build a new real rack to mount everything in, in a more ergonomic/useful way for me. (cuz both of my actual rack cabinets were stolen). It includes the actual "DAW" (music computer) at the top, sitting on top of the stack of stuff. That computer (whose guts were mostly donated by a local friend Paul) is still in process of reinstalling everything from scratch, cuz I just can't get it to work right from the copy of what was on the original melted computer, due to driver conflicts with stuff that was installed on that motherboard (and I can't find what files/etc to remove, after much wasted time of trial and error), but it is working so far for very basic things.
To the right of that is the desk I can sit at to edit stuff, with an old big-screen LCD TV from Bill that has a VGA and a DVI input...but it distorts all computer input by stretching it a lot width-wise, regardless of what settings I use on computer or TV, so it's useless for a number of purposes (pretty much anything to do with imaging/video/etc). So there is also a little 1024x768 LCD at the right edge of the desk, which while low-res at least fits on the desk, AND has a touchscreen.
However, the touchscreen's multimonitor support doesn't work right, so the only way to use the thing as touchscreen is to disable all other monitors entirely, and ONLY use that one. That kinda makes the original intent pointless--I was going to use it as a secondary monitor to display various GUIs of programs/effects/etc that have sliders and knobs on them that are hard to use with a mouse, but easy with a touchscreen, and simply drag their GUI windows onto it when I need them. Especially stuff like mixers, effects, some synths, console view in SONAR, etc. I have two of these monitors and was actually going to install both of them on there, with a second video card in the computer to run them, so I could leave open a number of different things I use all the time like that, but that plan is shelved now.
The problem with the touchscreen is this: If you use it by itself, as the only monitor, it applies the touch-screen-area 1:1 with the display-screen-area. But as soon as you have any other monitor (even another touchscreen just like it) enabled, then it compresses the touch-screen-area proportionally by the total amount of screen space. So if you have two 1024x768 monitors, you can only use half the touchscreen area. If they're vertically stacked, that space is at the bottom or top of the stack--wherever the primary touchscreen is set to be. If horizontally, it's the left or right edge of the stack. If you have a 1280x1024 at the left, and 1024x768 at the right (like with the big TV and hte little ts LCD), then it's at the top right corner of the TS LCD, something less than 2/5 the screen area of it.
I have tried every possible tool, calibration, and manual or automatic setting there is the TS software, and none of them change the issue in the slightest.
So...I will probably have to set up a totally separate computer to use JUST the touchscreen, and use all the separate programs (stuff not integral to SONAR) I wanted to use TS with on that computer. Primarily that is just a Studioware panel to control my MIDI Mixer 7s, since it doesn't have any actual hardware controls, and is all MIDI controlled. (I will have to "build" that SW panel for my old Cakewalk program first, though, cuz I can't find any copies of the one I used to have eitehr on my remaining computer backups or on the internet. PITA, but at least it's possible).
I won't be able to use any of the SONAR-hosted synths or effects on the touchscreen, which is frustrating, but no different than the way I had to use them for the last several years (since my old 21" viewsonic CRT's with touchscreens had finally died unrepairably). So I'll live with it until I find a solution, if I ever do.
To the right of the desk is my ASR88, my primary keyboard and often sound source, whcih has it's own sequencer so I can operate it standalone and create stuff even without a computer if I need to.
Out of sight is the other music computer, sent to me by Bigmoose, that I've been using off and on since I got it--it's major drawback is that it is too slow to use most of my SONAR-hosted synths and effects in realtime, so I can really only use it to record stuff via MIDI, then record one set of audio tracks at a time from things as I edit stuff in manually. Since that's hard for me to create the way I normally do, it has forced me to relearn the ways I did stuff in past decades before all this could be done in the computer anyway (when I used to use multiple 2-track open-reel tape machines for recording, for instance). Much more time-consuming, but it stll works.
I also have a tertiary machine and a backup of that, both a bit faster than the Bigmoose machine, but not nearly as fast as the main music machine, parts of which were from my own salvaged old stuff in the sheds, and most of which were from Bill's old stuff he had laying around.
Between all the non-primary machines I should have enough computing power to run a few extra synths/effects, if I can set them all up with low-enough-latency soundcards for essentially realtime processing (10ms or so, less if possible but unlikely). That's in the future though, after I get the main one working right.
EDIT: also, here's a partial pic of the old workstation, which I would like to someday rebuild (it' sa lot more ergonomic to use, but all the bits to do it with were destroyed by the cleanup crew, except the legs of the desk it was built into).
Then I have another little project that's about 1/4 done: making a workstation for electronics/etc repair, so that I can actually SEE what I am doing with all this stuff that's too small for me to see properly now, cuz my eyes are just getting old. The details are in a new thread cuz it might be useful to others, over here:
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=61874
but some pics are attached here too:
View attachment 3
Have twice started to get the tubing and connectors setup and T'd between the storage/electric water heater and the solar one, and gotten interrupted by life--last time was by the really big storm we had a few days ago. (Friday or Saturday night? I cant' remember for sure now). Anyway, it came up around the middle of the night; I could see the super-intense lightning to the east, as far as I could see north or south--far enough away that I couldn't hear any thunder, but Tiny wasn't taking any chances, and wouldn't even come outside with the gusty winds.
I had to take her out on leash and harness so she could go potty, and even that was quite an ordeal, taking several trips around the yard and back into the house for her to hide in the bedroom till she wasn't panicking anymore, then back out again. Poor Tinydog.
Got worse for her not long after when the storm actually arrived, cuz the thunder was loud enough to feel, and rain was loud enough to hear on the windows/roof, even over the box fan and the hassock-hepa fan (minus filter to make it louder), and she basically just cowered in the corner of the bed up against the wall-corner, on top of the pillows/blankets there, panting and wide-eyed the whole time, for the hour or so the storm took to calm down to just drizzly rain and lighter winds. She didn't really want to be held, most of that time (sometimes she does and sometimes not, when she's like this), so there wasn't much I could do for her but be there.
By the time the storm was down to just drizzling it was pretty wet out there, and I was way too tired to continue working on anything, but not able to sleep much. Tiny slept like a rock, though, and actually slept past her breakfast time till almost 10am, which she's never done that I recall in hte year she's been with me.
I forget what it was that pulled me away from the project the time before that.
Today I might get it done. But one thing I forgot that I still need to do is fix the pinhole leak(s) in the bottom end of the tank. The one in the welds that I did seems to have sealed itself (probably only temporarily), but a new one opened up along the lengthwise weld-seam almost 180 degrees aorund the tank from it.
Once I get it welded and the tubing hooked up for the thermosyphon effect and storage of the heated water in the in-house insulated tank, then I have to build the box to put the solar tank in, so that it will gather heat but not be cooled off by wind/rain/etc. (the water in the tank had been still almost hot just before the storm, but I went to wash Tiny's wee-wee off her butt after the storm had calmed down before she went to sleep and it was acutally cold, probably 70F or less; it was around 73F air temp out there after the storm (and >50% humidity!); I imagine the falling water was a lot colder than that, plus the runoff from the roof edge onto the tank (not a lot, but some), would have cooled the tank quickly).
Have spent a few dozen hours now on the "music" computer, reinstalling drivers and software and trying with zero success to fix a wierd problem with it detecting a "PCI device" but unable to find any driver for it (I have drivers for EVERYTHING in and on the computer in one folder for it, and they all worked originally), and then redetecting it in an infinite loop unless I just "cancel" the dialog for the driver search. I'm still only about 1/3 of the way thru installing software, maybe even less.
I wish I could've just used the copy of the original computer's drive, with windows reinstalled over it, but no matter what I did to it it would just BSOD, even in safemode, and after a lot of other troubleshooting/etc. I ended up just installing WinXP from scratch onto a separate drive, and then reinstalling everything from scratch (for hte stuff I still have---some of it I haven't found the install media for so it's probalby lost in the fire).
Another issue is that it's a 300gb harddisk, with around 40gb free now. Since originally all this stuff fit on a 250gb drive with plenty of room to spare, there must be many dozen gb of temporary files or something somewhere on the drive, but I haven't found them yet.
I have a few hundred synths, effects, and other things to install and configure to get it back to the way it used to be. Even then, it's still going to come up with errors when I open old projects that I will have to fix things on, cuz I don't remember how it was all set up orignally for every setting. I already tried exporting settings for things from the registry, and/or copying INI files over, from the original drive, but in many cases had to undo those because th enew install doesn't accept those settings and either pukes or just resets them.
This is why change is often bad.
I had to take her out on leash and harness so she could go potty, and even that was quite an ordeal, taking several trips around the yard and back into the house for her to hide in the bedroom till she wasn't panicking anymore, then back out again.
Poor Tinydog.Got worse for her not long after when the storm actually arrived, cuz the thunder was loud enough to feel, and rain was loud enough to hear on the windows/roof, even over the box fan and the hassock-hepa fan (minus filter to make it louder), and she basically just cowered in the corner of the bed up against the wall-corner, on top of the pillows/blankets there, panting and wide-eyed the whole time, for the hour or so the storm took to calm down to just drizzly rain and lighter winds. She didn't really want to be held, most of that time (sometimes she does and sometimes not, when she's like this), so there wasn't much I could do for her but be there.
By the time the storm was down to just drizzling it was pretty wet out there, and I was way too tired to continue working on anything, but not able to sleep much. Tiny slept like a rock, though, and actually slept past her breakfast time till almost 10am, which she's never done that I recall in hte year she's been with me.
I forget what it was that pulled me away from the project the time before that.
Today I might get it done. But one thing I forgot that I still need to do is fix the pinhole leak(s) in the bottom end of the tank. The one in the welds that I did seems to have sealed itself (probably only temporarily), but a new one opened up along the lengthwise weld-seam almost 180 degrees aorund the tank from it.
Once I get it welded and the tubing hooked up for the thermosyphon effect and storage of the heated water in the in-house insulated tank, then I have to build the box to put the solar tank in, so that it will gather heat but not be cooled off by wind/rain/etc. (the water in the tank had been still almost hot just before the storm, but I went to wash Tiny's wee-wee off her butt after the storm had calmed down before she went to sleep and it was acutally cold, probably 70F or less; it was around 73F air temp out there after the storm (and >50% humidity!); I imagine the falling water was a lot colder than that, plus the runoff from the roof edge onto the tank (not a lot, but some), would have cooled the tank quickly).
Have spent a few dozen hours now on the "music" computer, reinstalling drivers and software and trying with zero success to fix a wierd problem with it detecting a "PCI device" but unable to find any driver for it (I have drivers for EVERYTHING in and on the computer in one folder for it, and they all worked originally), and then redetecting it in an infinite loop unless I just "cancel" the dialog for the driver search.
I'm still only about 1/3 of the way thru installing software, maybe even less. I wish I could've just used the copy of the original computer's drive, with windows reinstalled over it, but no matter what I did to it it would just BSOD, even in safemode, and after a lot of other troubleshooting/etc. I ended up just installing WinXP from scratch onto a separate drive, and then reinstalling everything from scratch (for hte stuff I still have---some of it I haven't found the install media for so it's probalby lost in the fire).
Another issue is that it's a 300gb harddisk, with around 40gb free now. Since originally all this stuff fit on a 250gb drive with plenty of room to spare, there must be many dozen gb of temporary files or something somewhere on the drive, but I haven't found them yet.
I have a few hundred synths, effects, and other things to install and configure to get it back to the way it used to be. Even then, it's still going to come up with errors when I open old projects that I will have to fix things on, cuz I don't remember how it was all set up orignally for every setting. I already tried exporting settings for things from the registry, and/or copying INI files over, from the original drive, but in many cases had to undo those because th enew install doesn't accept those settings and either pukes or just resets them.
This is why change is often bad.
More heavy rain (for an hour on Friday night and about half hour Sat evening) and drizzling the rest of those two nights. Thunder and lightning scaring Tiny a lot more. Rain was good for the yard and plants, though.
Unfortunatley it's also made what seems like tens of thousands of thorn-plants sprout up and explode all over the yard, both front and back. I haven't been able to keep up with that at all so some of them are already making more seeds, and are nearly a foot across after only 2-3 days.
Was going to take care of all that stuff this morning, but it's still pretty wet out there and apparently there were openings in the insulation on both of my functioning weedeaters and all of my extension cords...so I kept getting serious shocks randomly.
I stopped to fix that since nothign i had could b eused without that, and bruised up my hands enough in the process of trying to undo screws, trim and tape/seal things, etc., that I was pretty frustrated after all that. By the time I got that done (~730am-ish) then I finally got back outside, it was so hot and humid I couldn't continue; felt woozy. (officially it was supposed to be only about 80F or less out there, but at my house it was already 91F, and ~55% humidity, out in the yard, felt like over 100F at least. Presently, officially it still says it's less than 90F but the thermo on the bike handlebars (in the shade) says it's 94F already; don't have a humidity sensor on it).
So I got Tiny her breakfast, went out around the front and backyard with her for a short walkies (she's still too spooked to go outside on her own long enough to poopy), and now here I am at McD's cooling off and borrowing wifi to talk about al lthe things I ought to be at home actually DOING instead, on my only day off this week. :lol:
Anyway...I don't think I'm gonna accomplish very much this week. I did fix some stuff on the bike that needed it, but there's new stuff (from the rain) that I need to fix that might happen since it's indoor stuff I can do. Lots of outdoor stuff that might not happen for a little bit, though. :/
I think these days I get too easily discouraged.
Rain was good for the yard and plants, though.Unfortunatley it's also made what seems like tens of thousands of thorn-plants sprout up and explode all over the yard, both front and back. I haven't been able to keep up with that at all so some of them are already making more seeds, and are nearly a foot across after only 2-3 days.
Was going to take care of all that stuff this morning, but it's still pretty wet out there and apparently there were openings in the insulation on both of my functioning weedeaters and all of my extension cords...so I kept getting serious shocks randomly.
I stopped to fix that since nothign i had could b eused without that, and bruised up my hands enough in the process of trying to undo screws, trim and tape/seal things, etc., that I was pretty frustrated after all that. By the time I got that done (~730am-ish) then I finally got back outside, it was so hot and humid I couldn't continue; felt woozy. (officially it was supposed to be only about 80F or less out there, but at my house it was already 91F, and ~55% humidity, out in the yard, felt like over 100F at least. Presently, officially it still says it's less than 90F but the thermo on the bike handlebars (in the shade) says it's 94F already; don't have a humidity sensor on it).
So I got Tiny her breakfast, went out around the front and backyard with her for a short walkies (she's still too spooked to go outside on her own long enough to poopy), and now here I am at McD's cooling off and borrowing wifi to talk about al lthe things I ought to be at home actually DOING instead, on my only day off this week. :lol:
Anyway...I don't think I'm gonna accomplish very much this week. I did fix some stuff on the bike that needed it, but there's new stuff (from the rain) that I need to fix that might happen since it's indoor stuff I can do. Lots of outdoor stuff that might not happen for a little bit, though. :/
I think these days I get too easily discouraged.
I forgot to post that Sunday night it got just clear enough to use the telescope, and I saw the Pleiades, which I've wanted to take a look at with the Meade reflector and the 2x barlowe lens, so since I finally have both together at the same time and place (been trying to get any lens-containing things all in the same corner of hte back room with the telescopes, so I can test them out for usability as additional lenses/etc), I took the scope out there and peeked around.
Stars were stars, and I didnt' see anything with the 2x that I didn't without it, and it was of course dimmer, and harder for me to see with the skyglow, but I took the 2x off and found a couple patches of dense stars between Cassiopeia and Pleiades that I can't see at all without the scope, in the city at least.
However, the highlight of the half-hour or so I spent peeking around was when I looked at the half-moon thru the 2x, which since it's already very bright actualy made it easier to look at by dimming it (spreading hte light out, actually, during magnification). The detail...is amazing. It just moves too fast across the view to stare much. :lol: Someday i'd like to fix the motor mount/etc and find the hand control and computer interface for it (which I hope made it to the sheds).
But the highlight of the highlight was when a plane flew right across the face of the moon while I was looking, and surprised me so much I fell backwards on my butt! :lol:
That's not something that I imagine could happen very often, and while I've watched planes with the scope before on purpose, I've never had one cross the view by accident before. This one basically filled the view, not quite centered, with half the left wing out of view and most of the right in it, and I don't remember enough details since I only saw it for maybe a quarter second as I fell backwards, and it wouldn't have been in view for much more than that anyway at the speed it was going with the 2x on there.
But it was quite an unusual surprise, and I'm not likley to forget seeing it for a while.
Tiny was out there at the time and came over to see what my gravity check was all about, and then she ran around the yard in circles for a minute as soon as I touched her (she does that sometimes, just too excited to contain herself).
Nothing much new on anything else, but wanted to put the plane adventure up.
Stars were stars, and I didnt' see anything with the 2x that I didn't without it, and it was of course dimmer, and harder for me to see with the skyglow, but I took the 2x off and found a couple patches of dense stars between Cassiopeia and Pleiades that I can't see at all without the scope, in the city at least.
However, the highlight of the half-hour or so I spent peeking around was when I looked at the half-moon thru the 2x, which since it's already very bright actualy made it easier to look at by dimming it (spreading hte light out, actually, during magnification). The detail...is amazing. It just moves too fast across the view to stare much. :lol: Someday i'd like to fix the motor mount/etc and find the hand control and computer interface for it (which I hope made it to the sheds).
But the highlight of the highlight was when a plane flew right across the face of the moon while I was looking, and surprised me so much I fell backwards on my butt!
:lol: That's not something that I imagine could happen very often, and while I've watched planes with the scope before on purpose, I've never had one cross the view by accident before. This one basically filled the view, not quite centered, with half the left wing out of view and most of the right in it, and I don't remember enough details since I only saw it for maybe a quarter second as I fell backwards, and it wouldn't have been in view for much more than that anyway at the speed it was going with the 2x on there.
But it was quite an unusual surprise, and I'm not likley to forget seeing it for a while.
Tiny was out there at the time and came over to see what my gravity check was all about, and then she ran around the yard in circles for a minute as soon as I touched her (she does that sometimes, just too excited to contain herself).
Nothing much new on anything else, but wanted to put the plane adventure up.
oatnet
1 MW
:lol:
e-beach
10 MW
amberwolf said:....But the highlight of the highlight was when a plane flew right across the face of the moon while I was looking, and surprised me so much I fell backwards on my butt!
Had the same thing happen to me the first time I worked the sideline for a college basketball game with a still camera. I had a telephoto lens on and when a player jumped up to slam dunk the whole thing was so close and quick I toppled over backwards on my keister only to realize that I was 20 feet from the play. Yep..it was a
:lol: moment.
Tiny had another siezure early this morning.
It was cool enough (low 80s F) so she started running around, and was all super-excited, doing loops around various trees, running into the house and sliding across the floor then skittering around and running back outside, around more trees, etc., and then as she rounded the tree closest to the back door (presumably to go back inside again) she slowed dramatically, and arched her neck back and then fell over, all stretched out like the first time, last year.
I got over to her pretty quick, but not in time to catch her before she hit the ground on her side. It was nowhere near as bad as her first one, more like the second one (whcih she had last year while laying in front of me on the bed). It (like the previous one last October) didn't even last 10 seconds before she started to respond to me again, and though she was still disoriented she started to get up and wanted to walk inside, so I helped her up and we went to lay down in the bedroom for a while. She just wanted to lay there with her tummy on the cool floor, so I just stayed beside her petting her and we chilled out for a while.
After maybe 15 minutes she got up to go get ice cubes (I try to keep some small ones in a bowl in the bedroom since they're her favorite treat short of meat-smelling doggie stuff. they get "soft" like hard slushies by the time she goes to eat them), and she munched on those for a little bit, then she wanted out again, and she started acting normal just like earlier, though I kept distracting her when she wanted to run around in case that's what set her off (I only have three examples to work from, but two of three times I've witnessed a siezure it's been when she was running around).
By the time I left around 845am, she was still fine and normal, though I still can't help worrying, I know there's not much chance she'll have another one while I'm not there anytime soon. This one happened about a couple of hours or more before she had her morning meds with breakfast, whihc is usually 8-830am these days.
We'll see how she is when I get home from work tonight, I guess.
It was cool enough (low 80s F) so she started running around, and was all super-excited, doing loops around various trees, running into the house and sliding across the floor then skittering around and running back outside, around more trees, etc., and then as she rounded the tree closest to the back door (presumably to go back inside again) she slowed dramatically, and arched her neck back and then fell over, all stretched out like the first time, last year.
I got over to her pretty quick, but not in time to catch her before she hit the ground on her side. It was nowhere near as bad as her first one, more like the second one (whcih she had last year while laying in front of me on the bed). It (like the previous one last October) didn't even last 10 seconds before she started to respond to me again, and though she was still disoriented she started to get up and wanted to walk inside, so I helped her up and we went to lay down in the bedroom for a while. She just wanted to lay there with her tummy on the cool floor, so I just stayed beside her petting her and we chilled out for a while.
After maybe 15 minutes she got up to go get ice cubes (I try to keep some small ones in a bowl in the bedroom since they're her favorite treat short of meat-smelling doggie stuff. they get "soft" like hard slushies by the time she goes to eat them), and she munched on those for a little bit, then she wanted out again, and she started acting normal just like earlier, though I kept distracting her when she wanted to run around in case that's what set her off (I only have three examples to work from, but two of three times I've witnessed a siezure it's been when she was running around).
By the time I left around 845am, she was still fine and normal, though I still can't help worrying, I know there's not much chance she'll have another one while I'm not there anytime soon. This one happened about a couple of hours or more before she had her morning meds with breakfast, whihc is usually 8-830am these days.
We'll see how she is when I get home from work tonight, I guess.
Tiny was as normal as could be when I got home. Today was bathtime (she sometimes needs one by the end of a week if she is "leaky", but she acutally hasn't done much of the leaking lately now that she's confident enough to go out the doggie door whenever she feels like she needs to...but with last week's storms and whatnot, she's not wanted to go out without me up till early this week, so she needed one this week).
She doesn't enjoy the actual bath very much, I think, but she certainly loves running around all wet afterward, and plopping down on blankets and wiggling arrund to dry off. :lol: (see previously posted YT vid last July or August for examples).
After she settled down and I cleaned up the aftermath, including all the shavings from trimming her belly/chest/neck/butt again, and toenails, she was tuckered out enough to have a nap, at which point it was time for me to leave, so it worked out ok.
Tomorrow will be a big day, too: Tiny will (probably) get a friend: Yogi.
He's another house-protective SB (like Tiny) whose adoption didn't work out cuz the new pet parents didn't like having to stick him in a room everytime people came over, cuz of his barking at newcomers.
I think this is him (I haven't seen him yet), pics from the AZ SB rescue page for adoptions:
So he looks a little bigger than Tiny, but not as huge as some get. If it's the same Yogi, then he should like other dogs, so as long as Tiny likes him, it ought to be ok. Tiny doesn't usually care one way or another unless a dog picks at her, or acts afraid of her. I think if she's around another dog long enough she'll probably even get used to them being there and play with them, though I don't know how long that will take.
I'll find out tomorrow morning when they bring him by to meet each other.
Oh, and randomly, while I was looking to see if there were pics of Yogi on the rescue site, so I'd have some idea what I was getting into :lol:, I found a dog that looks remarkably like Hachi:
View attachment 2
Apparently that is a Leonberger / St. Bernard mix
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonberger
which is a breed I have heard the name of, but when I've seen pics they didn't look anything like Hachi--apparently there is something about mixing these two breeds though that tends to make them look like her, though: when I image searched on the combination, there are a number of them that come up like her. Interesting. I wonder if she was that breed, rather than German Shepherd (which is what I assumed based on my limited breed knowledge, and what the two grayer-shaded brothers of hers looked like).
As an example, here's Shadow, who looks so much like Hachi as a puppy that I can feel tears welling up:
http://www.dailypuppy.com/puppies/shadow-the-mixed-breed_2010-12-31
Well, I'll never really know for sure, most likely, unless I can find out thru the friend of a friend of a friend what breeds were there in the first place Nana was rehomed to (where she probably got pregnant) before she came to me.
.
She doesn't enjoy the actual bath very much, I think, but she certainly loves running around all wet afterward, and plopping down on blankets and wiggling arrund to dry off. :lol: (see previously posted YT vid last July or August for examples).
After she settled down and I cleaned up the aftermath, including all the shavings from trimming her belly/chest/neck/butt again, and toenails, she was tuckered out enough to have a nap, at which point it was time for me to leave, so it worked out ok.
Tomorrow will be a big day, too: Tiny will (probably) get a friend: Yogi.
He's another house-protective SB (like Tiny) whose adoption didn't work out cuz the new pet parents didn't like having to stick him in a room everytime people came over, cuz of his barking at newcomers.
I think this is him (I haven't seen him yet), pics from the AZ SB rescue page for adoptions:
So he looks a little bigger than Tiny, but not as huge as some get.
If it's the same Yogi, then he should like other dogs, so as long as Tiny likes him, it ought to be ok. Tiny doesn't usually care one way or another unless a dog picks at her, or acts afraid of her. I think if she's around another dog long enough she'll probably even get used to them being there and play with them, though I don't know how long that will take. I'll find out tomorrow morning when they bring him by to meet each other.
Oh, and randomly, while I was looking to see if there were pics of Yogi on the rescue site, so I'd have some idea what I was getting into :lol:, I found a dog that looks remarkably like Hachi:
View attachment 2
Apparently that is a Leonberger / St. Bernard mix
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonberger
which is a breed I have heard the name of, but when I've seen pics they didn't look anything like Hachi--apparently there is something about mixing these two breeds though that tends to make them look like her, though: when I image searched on the combination, there are a number of them that come up like her. Interesting. I wonder if she was that breed, rather than German Shepherd (which is what I assumed based on my limited breed knowledge, and what the two grayer-shaded brothers of hers looked like).
As an example, here's Shadow, who looks so much like Hachi as a puppy that I can feel tears welling up:
http://www.dailypuppy.com/puppies/shadow-the-mixed-breed_2010-12-31
Well, I'll never really know for sure, most likely, unless I can find out thru the friend of a friend of a friend what breeds were there in the first place Nana was rehomed to (where she probably got pregnant) before she came to me.
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The fingers
10 TW
II can't imagine what the dog food bill would be for two very large dogs. Hope you get a discount! Oliver's Kahoots that he likes come in sandwich-sized bags and last for months. His favorite treat is duck jerky.
Tiny's favorite treat is FOOD of any kind. :lol: If I hand it to her and it's even remotely edible it's all good as far as she's concerned.
As for food...well, some of it probably isnt' any good anymore, but I had a year's worth of food (for the four I had before the fire, at 12 cups a day) that survived the fire and made it out to a shed. I've given a couple bags of that to dogs in need, but most of it is still here, and I haven't found any that's expired or gone bad or gotten infested, except for one bag that I'd already moved into bags inside a styrofoam box, before the fire (it had been mostly eaten by bugs that could well have been in it before I even got it).
Since Tiny eats only 4 cups a day, depending on the kind of food, then that would be almost 3 years worth, if it would actually last that long (much of it would go bad before then).
Then I have another year's worth that I bought early this year (march? April?) on super deep clearance (same way I got the food before), which is in the kitchen on the tops of the cabinets (pretty sure even a big SB can't easily get into it up there! :lol: thankfull Tiny doesn't even try to get into stuff I leave on the table...but if it's on the floor it's mostly fair game). I've been feeding the older stuff mixed with some newer, to use the oldest first before it goes bad, and some of the newer that is closer to it's expiration than some of the older.
I'm guessing that Yogi will eat about 5 cups a day, if he's the size he looks in those pics (asusming they are of him). So that will cut in half the time that food will last...so I only have a couple years' worth of food instead.
And it's pretty likely that each year (just like every past one so far) we'll have some discontinued foods that go for like a tenth of their normal price, and if I buy all of it I can when htat happens, I can uusally get half a year's food at a time (or more). Then I also get my employee discount which does help, though sometimes I can find food cheaper elsewhere even with that. :/
As for food...well, some of it probably isnt' any good anymore, but I had a year's worth of food (for the four I had before the fire, at 12 cups a day) that survived the fire and made it out to a shed. I've given a couple bags of that to dogs in need, but most of it is still here, and I haven't found any that's expired or gone bad or gotten infested, except for one bag that I'd already moved into bags inside a styrofoam box, before the fire (it had been mostly eaten by bugs that could well have been in it before I even got it).
Since Tiny eats only 4 cups a day, depending on the kind of food, then that would be almost 3 years worth, if it would actually last that long (much of it would go bad before then).
Then I have another year's worth that I bought early this year (march? April?) on super deep clearance (same way I got the food before), which is in the kitchen on the tops of the cabinets (pretty sure even a big SB can't easily get into it up there! :lol: thankfull Tiny doesn't even try to get into stuff I leave on the table...but if it's on the floor it's mostly fair game). I've been feeding the older stuff mixed with some newer, to use the oldest first before it goes bad, and some of the newer that is closer to it's expiration than some of the older.
I'm guessing that Yogi will eat about 5 cups a day, if he's the size he looks in those pics (asusming they are of him). So that will cut in half the time that food will last...so I only have a couple years' worth of food instead.
And it's pretty likely that each year (just like every past one so far) we'll have some discontinued foods that go for like a tenth of their normal price, and if I buy all of it I can when htat happens, I can uusally get half a year's food at a time (or more). Then I also get my employee discount which does help, though sometimes I can find food cheaper elsewhere even with that. :/
Looks like the pics of Yogi I found were indeed of the same dog. They brought him by, and he and Tiny acquainted themselves for a little bit while we chatted and watched for signs of problems, which thankfully didn't happen. So now Yogi is here with us, probably to stay, I'd guess.
Oh, and apparently the little puppy black lab mix across the street is ALSO named Yogi...this should be interesting. :lol:
He's about 125-130lbs, and taller than Tiny, with the big nose like Nana had, and even shaggier fur than Tiny has. He's a little on the shy side, at the moment, and he doesn't like it if you reach for the top of his head, but under the chin is fine. He's got a lot of "itchy spots" like Nana did, where you can just touch him and he'll start thumping those back legs. He doesn't try to scratch with both at the same time like Nana did, though.
He seems to prefer being out in the yard wandering around to being in the house, but it's too hot out there to just leave him out, and he doesn't seem to yet have sense to come back in or go in the shade when he gets hot. He also usually likes to stand by the driveway gate--he hasn't ever gone thru it or seen it open but he obviously knows what it is for.
He hasn't figured out the doggie-window-door yet either, even though Tiny's gone thru it a couple times right in front of him. He will get on the couch he'd need to climb up if he did go out, but only if I lead him up there, not on his own, yet.
I gave him a bath and brushed him out (which as expected generated enough fur to make a border collie), and shaved his neck/chest/belly (which was enough more fur to make at least a really big chihuahua or two) like I did Tiny so he can cool off easier when he lays on the floor (he lays down back legs to the side and front legs spread, head between them, like she does, rather than sprawling out on side or back like Hachi did, for example).
He also hasn't realy figured out the "curtains" between some rooms yet (used to keep cooler air where I want it), and only goes thru them when I open them for him and urge him thru. Otherwise to him they are just as solid a barrier as a door or wall. Tiny figured them out on her own, pretty much, as have all my other dogs previously, almost immediately. Hopefully it's just because he's more concerned with wanting to "go home" still, wondering where everybody else went, and just isn't really "thinking" about figuring anyting else out yet. Otherwise this could take a while to teach.
He doesn't really know what to do with ice cubes; he knows they are water but doesn't lick them, and just drops them if I hand him one. I left him some in a bowl (Tiny has some in the bedroom too) and maybe he'll figure them out before they melt. :lol: If not, he'll just drink them up later, cuz he is even more thirsty a dog than Tiny is! (though he isn't on any meds, and AFAIK has never had seizures)
So here's a pic of him sprawled on the couch after I led him up there and then got him to finally lay down (which lasted just long enough to get the pic), some pics of them exploring around the yard (well, him exploring and her peeing everywhere he stopped, once he moved on), and a pic of each one doing "shake" (he doens't know the command yet, and Tiny only does sometimes so far), and one of Yogi investigating CrazyBike2.
View attachment 2
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Oh, and apparently the little puppy black lab mix across the street is ALSO named Yogi...this should be interesting. :lol:
He's about 125-130lbs, and taller than Tiny, with the big nose like Nana had, and even shaggier fur than Tiny has. He's a little on the shy side, at the moment, and he doesn't like it if you reach for the top of his head, but under the chin is fine. He's got a lot of "itchy spots" like Nana did, where you can just touch him and he'll start thumping those back legs.
He doesn't try to scratch with both at the same time like Nana did, though. He seems to prefer being out in the yard wandering around to being in the house, but it's too hot out there to just leave him out, and he doesn't seem to yet have sense to come back in or go in the shade when he gets hot. He also usually likes to stand by the driveway gate--he hasn't ever gone thru it or seen it open but he obviously knows what it is for.
He hasn't figured out the doggie-window-door yet either, even though Tiny's gone thru it a couple times right in front of him. He will get on the couch he'd need to climb up if he did go out, but only if I lead him up there, not on his own, yet.
I gave him a bath and brushed him out (which as expected generated enough fur to make a border collie), and shaved his neck/chest/belly (which was enough more fur to make at least a really big chihuahua or two) like I did Tiny so he can cool off easier when he lays on the floor (he lays down back legs to the side and front legs spread, head between them, like she does, rather than sprawling out on side or back like Hachi did, for example).
He also hasn't realy figured out the "curtains" between some rooms yet (used to keep cooler air where I want it), and only goes thru them when I open them for him and urge him thru. Otherwise to him they are just as solid a barrier as a door or wall. Tiny figured them out on her own, pretty much, as have all my other dogs previously, almost immediately. Hopefully it's just because he's more concerned with wanting to "go home" still, wondering where everybody else went, and just isn't really "thinking" about figuring anyting else out yet. Otherwise this could take a while to teach.
He doesn't really know what to do with ice cubes; he knows they are water but doesn't lick them, and just drops them if I hand him one. I left him some in a bowl (Tiny has some in the bedroom too) and maybe he'll figure them out before they melt. :lol: If not, he'll just drink them up later, cuz he is even more thirsty a dog than Tiny is! (though he isn't on any meds, and AFAIK has never had seizures)
So here's a pic of him sprawled on the couch after I led him up there and then got him to finally lay down (which lasted just long enough to get the pic), some pics of them exploring around the yard (well, him exploring and her peeing everywhere he stopped, once he moved on), and a pic of each one doing "shake" (he doens't know the command yet, and Tiny only does sometimes so far), and one of Yogi investigating CrazyBike2.
View attachment 2
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oatnet
1 MW
Yogi looks great, congrats on your growing family amber!
-JD
-JD
Thanks
He's finally figured out the doorway curtains, though the doggie door completely eludes him, even if I latch it open and am on the other side with food. :/ Someitmes he also sitll just stands at the doorway curtains waiting, until Tiny goes thru.
He's nowhere near as motivated by food as Tiny is, at least not yet (might be just stress from changeover of places). He *is* very interested in ice cubes, though he was surprised by the first one I handed him and he didn't know what to do with it; just dropped it and followed it around the floor licking it. :lol: Another of the myriad of htings over the years that I didn't think to video until too late, cuz he doesn't do it now--he eats htem like Tiny does.
He did finally decide to get up on the bed and snuggle up yesterday, though like Tiny he gets too warm and gets up to go sprawl on the floor. He's also not a roll-over-on-the-back dog (which Hachi was) though he'll do it for tummy rubs he doesn't do it on his own or stay after you stop.
So far Tiny still thinks she has to shepherd him around most of the time, but now that hes' finally figured out the curtain to the bedroom and that it's way cooler in there (and has a bowl of ice cubes) he's much happier staying in there with her most of the time instead of wandering the yard looking for "his people" to "go home" with.
He does still try to get out the front door so I have to get him to go out back or temporarily put him in a closed room to get the bike in and out. I'm sure I can cure that eventually, but right now the only command he knows at all is "sit", though he's working on "down" (lay down) and "wait", and "come here", among others. Unlike Tiny I don't think he has had much previous training, or at least he doesn't remember it.
Oh, I forgot to say before that he came with some little friends attached, and some Frontline to help get rid of them on him, and prevent them on Tiny--it's one reason I gave him a bath in the first few hours, so I could groom him and pull off all of them I could locate. I have found some ticks that escaped that initial grooming, but most of them seem to be dying (not yet dead but hardly moving at all when pulled off).
He still has a LOT of itchy spots and little scabs from them and from chewing on his itches, and I am keeping an eye on them all to make sure none get infected or anythign, and that there's no recurrence of the ticks. Also keeping the other eye on Tiny to be sure she doesn't pick any up, since I don't have them in my yard this year and she hasn't had any little friends of any kind at all yet, at the house or at Bill's before that.
He's finally figured out the doorway curtains, though the doggie door completely eludes him, even if I latch it open and am on the other side with food. :/ Someitmes he also sitll just stands at the doorway curtains waiting, until Tiny goes thru.
He's nowhere near as motivated by food as Tiny is, at least not yet (might be just stress from changeover of places). He *is* very interested in ice cubes, though he was surprised by the first one I handed him and he didn't know what to do with it; just dropped it and followed it around the floor licking it. :lol: Another of the myriad of htings over the years that I didn't think to video until too late, cuz he doesn't do it now--he eats htem like Tiny does.
He did finally decide to get up on the bed and snuggle up yesterday, though like Tiny he gets too warm and gets up to go sprawl on the floor. He's also not a roll-over-on-the-back dog (which Hachi was) though he'll do it for tummy rubs he doesn't do it on his own or stay after you stop.
So far Tiny still thinks she has to shepherd him around most of the time, but now that hes' finally figured out the curtain to the bedroom and that it's way cooler in there (and has a bowl of ice cubes) he's much happier staying in there with her most of the time instead of wandering the yard looking for "his people" to "go home" with.
He does still try to get out the front door so I have to get him to go out back or temporarily put him in a closed room to get the bike in and out. I'm sure I can cure that eventually, but right now the only command he knows at all is "sit", though he's working on "down" (lay down) and "wait", and "come here", among others. Unlike Tiny I don't think he has had much previous training, or at least he doesn't remember it.
Oh, I forgot to say before that he came with some little friends attached, and some Frontline to help get rid of them on him, and prevent them on Tiny--it's one reason I gave him a bath in the first few hours, so I could groom him and pull off all of them I could locate. I have found some ticks that escaped that initial grooming, but most of them seem to be dying (not yet dead but hardly moving at all when pulled off).
He still has a LOT of itchy spots and little scabs from them and from chewing on his itches, and I am keeping an eye on them all to make sure none get infected or anythign, and that there's no recurrence of the ticks. Also keeping the other eye on Tiny to be sure she doesn't pick any up, since I don't have them in my yard this year and she hasn't had any little friends of any kind at all yet, at the house or at Bill's before that.
Yogi-bear had his first test of visiting people since coming to my place: Friend came over to take me (and the bike) to his place to troubleshoot his computer, and met Yogi out front (since he's house-protective this is the easiest way to introduce him to people). But he was too scattered-attention to focus on us, trying to figure out what all the smells and sounds out there were, (dogs barking donw the street a lot at something, was the worst distraction. So back in he went after trying a couple minutes.
Then we tried Tiny, and she remembered him (she'd met him while at the temporary apartment), but she was also too distracted by stuff to pay attention.
We didn't have enough time before having to leave for his place to let the dogs get all their distractions figured out and start being "normal", so they missed out on the attention.
Went up to his place, troubleshot for a while and essentially eliminated everything but the CPU, RAM, and MLB of his computer as the cause of no-POST (it's PSU and video card work in his old computer, and neither of the old ones changes the newer one's behavior). So, since we have nothing else we can swap to test, and no further advanced test equipment/etc to check things out with, he'll have to go buy one of the three to replace and test the problem. There's no obviously bad caps on anything; all of them are the SMT-electrolytic type that are less prone to the venting problem (usually), so wihtout taking them off the board one at a time I cna't test them, even if I had a meter to test them with. (I don't think mine goes up high enough in capacitance for most of them)
On the solar water heater project, a couple nights ago, I got the (I hope) last leak on it welded up, but had exactly the same problem with it as with the last one: Regardless of draining and heating/drying the tank before welding, and being as careful as possible not to create any burn-throughs, I still apparently can't weld right, cuz I had to keep welding layer over layer to fix what seemed like "porous metal" on the weld itself.
Everytime I welded on it, regardless of feed rate and current settings, I'd end up with a new (or old) leak. I'd have to weld over the top of previous welds, and if I set it to the highest setting and hte lowest feed rate, to cause it to puddle up and melt large sections of the previous welds, to remelt them and force leaks to seal (I hoped), it still didn't work cuz after it had cooled and I refilled the tank, each time there was still seepage out of some new or old spot on the weld area.
The original leak (this time) was about 1/4" of the vertical seam of the tank, where there is a dent in the side of the tank near the bottom. Welding over that simply "moved" the leak to anothe redge of the new weld.
I even groudn off the welds down to see if there were fissures/etc in them, and foudn some, where it looked like the flux depositied in veins inside the metal sometimes, and water came thru those areas when I refilled the tank. Grinding those down to bare metal and rewelding would fix them, but then new ones would happen elsewhere (presumably as smaller leaks that didnt' have enough pressure to push water thru now did). it was always only seepage, never spurts, but I still can't live wiht even seepage from the tank or it doesn't do what I need it to, and water will just fill up the reflector box and then run down the roof, eventually, once I get that far.
So, as it got dark and I had to stop for lack of visibility and being completely exhausted after hours of trying, I put it all awya but left the tank pressurized with the water still on cuz I forgot.
When I went back out the next day to look at it (mostly in frustration, with no new ideas), I found that the weld had covered over with white stuff, probably minerals and/or flux residue, etc., but there was no more seepage.... Then I remembered about the other weld area and it was the same, though it was rust-covered from the water out of *this* leak running over it....
So, now, I think it is not leaking at all, anywhere. I need to go over it with a wire brush on the grinder and remove all the rust and flaking paint, then see if it gets rusty anywhere (which should tell me where any new leaks are). Once I get it to absolutely-no-leaks stage, then I can set up the tubing and Ts to the other heater in the house, and make sure it works as thermosyphon, before I go build that box and put it all up on the roof.
Closer....
As I sit here looking out the window, looks like a big storm coming in from the northeast, with smalelr stuff all along the valley east of me. Dunno if it will actually rain here or at the house, but I could use the "free water" I can get, out there in the yard.
Oh, and I don't remember if I mentioned it, but I have been having trouble just about since moving back in actually getting the city to send me the water bill on time, when they even send it at all. It's wierd, cuz I don't really remember this problem before. I have to keep calling htem or contacting them thru their website to ge thtem to generate a bill. Once they did send one...but very late, and at the same time as the bill with the late fee and shut-off notification, whcih is stupid. Something is very wrong with their computer billing system, and they don't seem to care about fixing it. I don't know how many people are having this problem, or if it is just me, but as of the last 2-3 weeks I can't even get any response from them at all, and no bill yet, either. I keep waiting for someone to just drive up and shut off my water for non-payment of a bill I haven't yet received.
They do have an online bill-pay system that is *supposed* to show your current amount due, once that is generated by their system, so you can pay online wiht a credit/debit card. If no bill is yet due it just shows $0. But nowadays, it shows me only $26.83 whenever a bill would normally be due, no matter what the actual bill is (and it doesnt' give any detials about anything, jsut the amount). So I've paid that this month, jsut like all the previous ones, but previously I would then pay the remainder once they bothered to actually generate a bill and send it to me. I cna't do that now because they aren't doing that.
I would like to think that means my water and city services are now free, or at least much cheaper, but I know that can't be the case, and I worry about what they will do to *me* because of *their* problem that I can't get them to even acknowledge or answer me about much less resolve.
Then we tried Tiny, and she remembered him (she'd met him while at the temporary apartment), but she was also too distracted by stuff to pay attention.
We didn't have enough time before having to leave for his place to let the dogs get all their distractions figured out and start being "normal", so they missed out on the attention.
Went up to his place, troubleshot for a while and essentially eliminated everything but the CPU, RAM, and MLB of his computer as the cause of no-POST (it's PSU and video card work in his old computer, and neither of the old ones changes the newer one's behavior). So, since we have nothing else we can swap to test, and no further advanced test equipment/etc to check things out with, he'll have to go buy one of the three to replace and test the problem. There's no obviously bad caps on anything; all of them are the SMT-electrolytic type that are less prone to the venting problem (usually), so wihtout taking them off the board one at a time I cna't test them, even if I had a meter to test them with. (I don't think mine goes up high enough in capacitance for most of them)
On the solar water heater project, a couple nights ago, I got the (I hope) last leak on it welded up, but had exactly the same problem with it as with the last one: Regardless of draining and heating/drying the tank before welding, and being as careful as possible not to create any burn-throughs, I still apparently can't weld right, cuz I had to keep welding layer over layer to fix what seemed like "porous metal" on the weld itself.
Everytime I welded on it, regardless of feed rate and current settings, I'd end up with a new (or old) leak. I'd have to weld over the top of previous welds, and if I set it to the highest setting and hte lowest feed rate, to cause it to puddle up and melt large sections of the previous welds, to remelt them and force leaks to seal (I hoped), it still didn't work cuz after it had cooled and I refilled the tank, each time there was still seepage out of some new or old spot on the weld area.
The original leak (this time) was about 1/4" of the vertical seam of the tank, where there is a dent in the side of the tank near the bottom. Welding over that simply "moved" the leak to anothe redge of the new weld.
I even groudn off the welds down to see if there were fissures/etc in them, and foudn some, where it looked like the flux depositied in veins inside the metal sometimes, and water came thru those areas when I refilled the tank. Grinding those down to bare metal and rewelding would fix them, but then new ones would happen elsewhere (presumably as smaller leaks that didnt' have enough pressure to push water thru now did). it was always only seepage, never spurts, but I still can't live wiht even seepage from the tank or it doesn't do what I need it to, and water will just fill up the reflector box and then run down the roof, eventually, once I get that far.
So, as it got dark and I had to stop for lack of visibility and being completely exhausted after hours of trying, I put it all awya but left the tank pressurized with the water still on cuz I forgot.
When I went back out the next day to look at it (mostly in frustration, with no new ideas), I found that the weld had covered over with white stuff, probably minerals and/or flux residue, etc., but there was no more seepage.... Then I remembered about the other weld area and it was the same, though it was rust-covered from the water out of *this* leak running over it....
So, now, I think it is not leaking at all, anywhere. I need to go over it with a wire brush on the grinder and remove all the rust and flaking paint, then see if it gets rusty anywhere (which should tell me where any new leaks are). Once I get it to absolutely-no-leaks stage, then I can set up the tubing and Ts to the other heater in the house, and make sure it works as thermosyphon, before I go build that box and put it all up on the roof.
Closer....
As I sit here looking out the window, looks like a big storm coming in from the northeast, with smalelr stuff all along the valley east of me. Dunno if it will actually rain here or at the house, but I could use the "free water" I can get, out there in the yard.
Oh, and I don't remember if I mentioned it, but I have been having trouble just about since moving back in actually getting the city to send me the water bill on time, when they even send it at all. It's wierd, cuz I don't really remember this problem before. I have to keep calling htem or contacting them thru their website to ge thtem to generate a bill. Once they did send one...but very late, and at the same time as the bill with the late fee and shut-off notification, whcih is stupid. Something is very wrong with their computer billing system, and they don't seem to care about fixing it. I don't know how many people are having this problem, or if it is just me, but as of the last 2-3 weeks I can't even get any response from them at all, and no bill yet, either. I keep waiting for someone to just drive up and shut off my water for non-payment of a bill I haven't yet received.
They do have an online bill-pay system that is *supposed* to show your current amount due, once that is generated by their system, so you can pay online wiht a credit/debit card. If no bill is yet due it just shows $0. But nowadays, it shows me only $26.83 whenever a bill would normally be due, no matter what the actual bill is (and it doesnt' give any detials about anything, jsut the amount). So I've paid that this month, jsut like all the previous ones, but previously I would then pay the remainder once they bothered to actually generate a bill and send it to me. I cna't do that now because they aren't doing that.
I would like to think that means my water and city services are now free, or at least much cheaper, but I know that can't be the case, and I worry about what they will do to *me* because of *their* problem that I can't get them to even acknowledge or answer me about much less resolve.
City water services called me back this morning, but they didn't know why they were calling me, I guess. I eventually spoke wiht someone about the (lack of) billing problem and he said he'd pass the info on, but I doubt anything will change this time. He also said they'd get a bill generated (and that it isn't a problem with getting a "read" on the meter--they already had a valid read in the system). So anyway, we'll see what happens, eventually.
At least I won't need to water the yard for a few days, maybe more; It's been raining since late afternoon yesterday, pretty much nonstop pretty solidly until about 3 hours ago, when it went to drizzles and sprinkles, until an hour or so ago, when it went from a sprinkle down to partly-sunny and no rain.
Some pics from right after the initial rain yesterday, before it got too dark for hte phone's camera. Yes, the water is almost up on the sidewalk (it did actually end up *just* over it for a short time when the rain got heavier and the wind died down but it was too dark to get pics of it).
View attachment 4
There's no drainage at that intersection, so cars driving thru the giant lake-puddles splashing the water around are the only thing besides evaporation that really shrinks them. There is *some* drainage via the pavement cracks and hte asphalt/concrete junctions down into the dirt under the road and sidewalks, but not much, cuz these puddles usually last for days if ti's even a little cloudy.
Related, first test of this today:
I ran across a "parka" sort of thing called "Aquasheen" in some of the stuff in the sheds, presumably something my mom had packed away in a bag or box that I hadn't investigated before the fire. It's a little impractical for my riding position on the bike, but it makes a decent bike cover when parked, using hte drawstring on the hood's neck to secure it over the left mirror, and just draped over the bike without snapping it shut along it's side edges as it would be if I were wearing it.
It wouldnt' stay in place if it was evne a little windy, but it's usually just drizzling rain when we get it, once past the initial hour or two of most storms (last night's was an exception in that the wind lasted for 6-8 hours, at least, though gentler after the first couple was still pretty strong and gusty).
I figure I could use the HF tarp-reinforcement-ring kit to install some loop ring holes in it's corners, and then tie that to the frame for breezy rain days to hold it down, but it wouldn't handle real winds, I think (probably tear apart). It also wouldn't keep any of the rain off the bike from the side/front/back, either, only works basically for straight down drizzling. It does work for that, though.
But it is better than nothing to at least keep my seat drier than otherwise, and keep drizzle off the controls/etc while it's parked. And it folds up pretty small and thin, so goes in a cargo pod easy enough for days like this week's that are probably gonna have at least some rain.
Yogi and TIny are getting used to each other pretty quick now. I havent' found them snuggled up to each other yet, but it's as close as I'd ever expect:
and one from last night but I couldn't get up to turn on the room light so it's dark and blurry (no flash on this phone cam):
.
At least I won't need to water the yard for a few days, maybe more; It's been raining since late afternoon yesterday, pretty much nonstop pretty solidly until about 3 hours ago, when it went to drizzles and sprinkles, until an hour or so ago, when it went from a sprinkle down to partly-sunny and no rain.
Some pics from right after the initial rain yesterday, before it got too dark for hte phone's camera. Yes, the water is almost up on the sidewalk (it did actually end up *just* over it for a short time when the rain got heavier and the wind died down but it was too dark to get pics of it).
View attachment 4
There's no drainage at that intersection, so cars driving thru the giant lake-puddles splashing the water around are the only thing besides evaporation that really shrinks them. There is *some* drainage via the pavement cracks and hte asphalt/concrete junctions down into the dirt under the road and sidewalks, but not much, cuz these puddles usually last for days if ti's even a little cloudy.
Related, first test of this today:
I ran across a "parka" sort of thing called "Aquasheen" in some of the stuff in the sheds, presumably something my mom had packed away in a bag or box that I hadn't investigated before the fire. It's a little impractical for my riding position on the bike, but it makes a decent bike cover when parked, using hte drawstring on the hood's neck to secure it over the left mirror, and just draped over the bike without snapping it shut along it's side edges as it would be if I were wearing it.
It wouldnt' stay in place if it was evne a little windy, but it's usually just drizzling rain when we get it, once past the initial hour or two of most storms (last night's was an exception in that the wind lasted for 6-8 hours, at least, though gentler after the first couple was still pretty strong and gusty).
I figure I could use the HF tarp-reinforcement-ring kit to install some loop ring holes in it's corners, and then tie that to the frame for breezy rain days to hold it down, but it wouldn't handle real winds, I think (probably tear apart). It also wouldn't keep any of the rain off the bike from the side/front/back, either, only works basically for straight down drizzling. It does work for that, though.
But it is better than nothing to at least keep my seat drier than otherwise, and keep drizzle off the controls/etc while it's parked. And it folds up pretty small and thin, so goes in a cargo pod easy enough for days like this week's that are probably gonna have at least some rain.
Yogi and TIny are getting used to each other pretty quick now. I havent' found them snuggled up to each other yet, but it's as close as I'd ever expect:
and one from last night but I couldn't get up to turn on the room light so it's dark and blurry (no flash on this phone cam):
.
Tiny and Yogi are getting more used to each other: she actually initiated playtime with him yesterday--I thought she was going to go up and nip in the direction of his face but she went up and rubbed her chin on him like she does on my hands, and he ducked and she ducked and then they both ran off and chased each other around, bouncing around the yard off and on for a few minutes before he was distracted by a cat running away from it's hiding place.
He's also started just plopping down on me on the bed and rolling over for tummy rubs at random times (sometimes when I';m asleep) so I think he's beginning to get the hang of being around here.
Last night he finally figured out the doggie door, with help from Tiny, and though he still requires some encouragement to use it, instead of just standing at the back door, he will figure that out too.
He's also started just plopping down on me on the bed and rolling over for tummy rubs at random times (sometimes when I';m asleep) so I think he's beginning to get the hang of being around here.
Last night he finally figured out the doggie door, with help from Tiny, and though he still requires some encouragement to use it, instead of just standing at the back door, he will figure that out too.
Been a rainy few days. Stormy and blustery night before last, with a little sprinkling throughout the night, and now heavy rain very early this morning, with really high winds. I'd had the window and door of the front room open (along with all the windows and door fo teh backroom, and the bathroom window) to let the very slight 80F breeze last night after midnight cool the house off, and was awoken by a very wet Tiny and Yogi climbing on top of me to hide from the thunder and wind sounds.
Went to go see what they were afraid of and found quite a bit of water splashed around the front room near the door and window, though the wind had already died down beyond the point it could do that anymore. Toweled that up, and found it had also come in the back door, so I guess the wind must've been back and forth between north and south....but not east or west cuz it hadn't come in the windows in the backroom.
There are several dogfood containers I'd left outside to dry out after washing them that are now filled with at least an inch and a half of water, so it certainly rained a lot in a very short time. The aquariums have at least that much water in them now (were dry before), too. The street outside the house had drained enough to see the crown by the time I left, but at the time I got up and it was still raining, it was up over the sidewalks again at that T- that has no drainage. My backyard was more water than visible land, which is great for the plants. Front yard had a big puddle in front of the remaining pine tree, but that quickly drained into the soil and it's just mud now, cuz the front is so dry except the strip along the front porch and wall, and area with the trees/lantana where the othe rpine tree used to be, that I keep watered. (can't afford to water all of it in the summer).
Neither Tiny nor Yogi were interested in going outside until I actually left the house, then they both went out back thru the doggiewindowdoor to "follow" me along the fence as I left. I expect they both went right back in after that cuz of noises and things, but I don't know. (one thing that makes me still want to set up internet at the house somehow is to use the IP cameras to watch them and see what trouble happen swhen I'm not there. :lol
At the moment, a bit before 11am, I can hear people's celphones around me going off with another weather alert, and there's still a lot of dark clouds around, with only a bit of sun occasinally poking momentarily thru the thinner stuff here and there. Kinda breezy but not really windy; is now from the east (was from the north when I left and had been from the south not long before that; I don' thtink it can make up it's mind today).
Dunno if it will stay cloudy or if it'll burn off with the hot sun, but I'd guess ther'es still a fair chance of more storms tonight. I'd say it's probable I will get to test the "bike raincoat" setup today.
Went to go see what they were afraid of and found quite a bit of water splashed around the front room near the door and window, though the wind had already died down beyond the point it could do that anymore. Toweled that up, and found it had also come in the back door, so I guess the wind must've been back and forth between north and south....but not east or west cuz it hadn't come in the windows in the backroom.
There are several dogfood containers I'd left outside to dry out after washing them that are now filled with at least an inch and a half of water, so it certainly rained a lot in a very short time. The aquariums have at least that much water in them now (were dry before), too. The street outside the house had drained enough to see the crown by the time I left, but at the time I got up and it was still raining, it was up over the sidewalks again at that T- that has no drainage. My backyard was more water than visible land, which is great for the plants. Front yard had a big puddle in front of the remaining pine tree, but that quickly drained into the soil and it's just mud now, cuz the front is so dry except the strip along the front porch and wall, and area with the trees/lantana where the othe rpine tree used to be, that I keep watered. (can't afford to water all of it in the summer).
Neither Tiny nor Yogi were interested in going outside until I actually left the house, then they both went out back thru the doggiewindowdoor to "follow" me along the fence as I left. I expect they both went right back in after that cuz of noises and things, but I don't know. (one thing that makes me still want to set up internet at the house somehow is to use the IP cameras to watch them and see what trouble happen swhen I'm not there. :lol
At the moment, a bit before 11am, I can hear people's celphones around me going off with another weather alert, and there's still a lot of dark clouds around, with only a bit of sun occasinally poking momentarily thru the thinner stuff here and there. Kinda breezy but not really windy; is now from the east (was from the north when I left and had been from the south not long before that; I don' thtink it can make up it's mind today).
Dunno if it will stay cloudy or if it'll burn off with the hot sun, but I'd guess ther'es still a fair chance of more storms tonight. I'd say it's probable I will get to test the "bike raincoat" setup today.
dogman dan
1 PW
Wow, incredible video on the news from Phoenix. Looks like you got a years rain in one day. Hope you didn't flood.
I hadn't looked in here lately, YAY, you have a perfect pair now.
We finally lost our last bloodhound to old age and cancer a few weeks ago. She'd been a real bitch all her life, a rescue we couldn't ever find a forever home for. Anyway, the last year she's been bitchy and snappy, in some pain even with rimadyl. The last 3 months or so, she lost it mentally, and just picked fights constantly. No matter if another dog was in the house or not. The two bernards got sick of it, and were constantly on alert for the next fight. We were breaking up 6 or more spats a day. What a pain in the ass that was.
Bertha the bitch is gone now, and WOW, instant heaven here now. Two perfect St Bernards, a boy and a girl. Just like you have now. It's a great way to live, and I'm so glad you have the same thing.
He looks pretty furry, you might consider shaving him down. My dogs sure like it in summer. Grown out to about 3/4 by now, but I keep the bellies nearly naked so they can belly down on cool concrete, or belly up in the AC breeze.
I hadn't looked in here lately, YAY, you have a perfect pair now.
We finally lost our last bloodhound to old age and cancer a few weeks ago. She'd been a real bitch all her life, a rescue we couldn't ever find a forever home for. Anyway, the last year she's been bitchy and snappy, in some pain even with rimadyl. The last 3 months or so, she lost it mentally, and just picked fights constantly. No matter if another dog was in the house or not. The two bernards got sick of it, and were constantly on alert for the next fight. We were breaking up 6 or more spats a day. What a pain in the ass that was.
Bertha the bitch is gone now, and WOW, instant heaven here now. Two perfect St Bernards, a boy and a girl. Just like you have now. It's a great way to live, and I'm so glad you have the same thing.
He looks pretty furry, you might consider shaving him down. My dogs sure like it in summer. Grown out to about 3/4 by now, but I keep the bellies nearly naked so they can belly down on cool concrete, or belly up in the AC breeze.
No, but there are still puddles in the backyard from yesterday's rain, evne when I left the house today. Front is just really damp/sort of muddy. Not even enough for my bike to sink into the mud or throw chunks when I turn around in the dirt part of the yard to get on the street. It'd probably sink like a rock in the backyard, in the areas with no grass. :lol:dogman said:
It's been pretty off and on wet last few days, though. I've heard from others about flooding in some areas of the valley.
Today is all sunny, no sign of clouds in any direction. Probably get cloudy later, though, cuz it's expected to rain tomorrow (my day off).
Day before yesterday at work, I forgot to mention, we had two really strong but very short momentary brownouts, which were accompanied by the sound of a HUGE short circuit or overload. Sounded like a gigantic vandegraff generator, as all the lights dimmed severely and some went out, and all the electronic stuff in teh tsore either turned off or rebooted. A couple of things were damaged and wouldn't turn on, so we're waiting on replacements to get shipped in. It was sunny outside at the time, but with dark clouds ringing the valley, so I wonder if it was a huge lightning strike direclty on a major substation or something, coming right from PaloVerde or wherever. I coudln't find anything on the internet about it, and it didn't make the news according to anyone else yesterday at work.
But it coud've been entirely local, in-building, just the shopping center, cuz nothing happened at my house (I am certain a brownout like that would've turned off the AC unit and the marsh-noise-clock in the front room; it's happened before, but this time they were still on when I got home a few hours later).
About as close as one could ever expect, that's for sure. Kinda like Hachi and Nana (but being daughter and mother I didn't expect much different). I could've dealt with a Nana/Bonnie situation, but it wouldn't ahve been a lot of fun all the time, and certainly not as stress-relieving as this pair is.
I woudl guess she was in a lot of pain (even if she didn't show it--many dogs I've had never show any sign of the pain I know they must feel from injuries or whatnot; Nana hurt herself all the time on things and was just the big dumb happy dog anyway, even when leaking blood from a cut paw or whatever. Yogi is like taht too--he whacks his head on stuff all the time and just blinks and goes on. :lol: ). Or the cancer was in her brain and messing her up, too. I'd probably get that way myself under those conditions.
In that sort of situation, I'd be physically separating the dogs and shuffling them around (liek I did with Bonnie and Nana, and later Fred), cuz that's easier than dealing with the fighting, and a lot less worrying/stressful. But I don't know how possible it would be in your situation. At least you don't have to worry about it anymore.
It's actually helping having more than one. I guess I got so used to having a bunch that the back of my mind kept wondering where the others were all teh time, cuz now I am sleeping better, despite being awakened by Yogi falling/rolling over on me for tummy rubs at all hours. :lol: I still have nightmares just liek before..but it is easier to get to sleep, and easier to get back to sleep after waking, etc.
So far there have only been a handful of times that Tiny has either raised a lip at him or actually snapped or snarled in his direction, and that's pretty much only been when he comes over and steps on her or gets right over her when she's laying there next to me, or if she finishes dinner first and starts to head over to him to take his food (cuz he'll just walk away and let her, if I don't stand there and watch them). But those are pretty normal things for almost any dogs that didn't grow up together, in my experience, and don't usually change much, except sometimes they go away entirely eventually.
I just shave the belly/chest/neck, and leave the rest. I'm a little afraid he'll get skin damage / sunburn (like Nana did cuz of her short hair) when he wanders around or lays in the sun otherwise. Plus I think his fur is padding him when he bonks into things, and keeps him from getting cuts all over when he runs thru tree branches and whatnot chasing cats or shadows. :lol:
Tiny is actually just as furry as he is...and hasn't had a problem so far. They both seem to know when to come in when they get hot, for the most part. (Tiny doesn't even go out there when it's hot, on her own--though she does follow him out if he goes, just like she'll follow me out, though she'll go back in as soon as she gets pant-y).
dogman dan
1 PW
Yeah, you can't shave them bald on the back, or they will sunburn. I always use the comb on the back to leave a bit more there. Then not let them out all day the first week or so. Many belly shavings over the summer. Since I actually run my dogs, they really appreciate the shorter hair once it's hitting 80F at dawn. It doesn't bother them much around the house, but they can't run with all the fur in mid summer.
Most of the 6 spats a day were happening as we were juggling dogs from one room to the other, or they'd try to fight through a closed door. Part of the problem being all of them want to be in the room I'm in, and none want to be with Sue. So how do you let Bertha out to pee, with a long hallway stuffed with st bernards? Lots of complicated procedures required 20 times a day.
We did have a dog kennel section in the house, dividing kitchen from living room, and put bertha in there a lot. Bertha was on rymadil the entire last year, and stronger ones at the end. She had huge tumors all over, but only in the last month or so did they really bother her. She just got so old she was semi senile for years, and completely gone the last six months. We've seen this before, the dog just does it's dog stuff automatic. For Bertha though, it was auto fight rather than something else. Sad but amusing in a way, watching her pick a fight when the other dogs were outside.
My house still gypped by the rain. All summer storms just miss my place. Flooding in town the other day, and not a drop at my house. But even so, it's been one of the coolest Late July and August I can remember. One benefit though, the 80 acre tumbleweed field near my house has barely sprouted, so breathing is unusually good this year. A mile down the road, the tumbleweeds are 3 feet tall. Those tumbleweeds kick in my allergies like nothing else can.
Most of the 6 spats a day were happening as we were juggling dogs from one room to the other, or they'd try to fight through a closed door. Part of the problem being all of them want to be in the room I'm in, and none want to be with Sue. So how do you let Bertha out to pee, with a long hallway stuffed with st bernards? Lots of complicated procedures required 20 times a day.
We did have a dog kennel section in the house, dividing kitchen from living room, and put bertha in there a lot. Bertha was on rymadil the entire last year, and stronger ones at the end. She had huge tumors all over, but only in the last month or so did they really bother her. She just got so old she was semi senile for years, and completely gone the last six months. We've seen this before, the dog just does it's dog stuff automatic. For Bertha though, it was auto fight rather than something else. Sad but amusing in a way, watching her pick a fight when the other dogs were outside.
My house still gypped by the rain. All summer storms just miss my place. Flooding in town the other day, and not a drop at my house. But even so, it's been one of the coolest Late July and August I can remember. One benefit though, the 80 acre tumbleweed field near my house has barely sprouted, so breathing is unusually good this year. A mile down the road, the tumbleweeds are 3 feet tall. Those tumbleweeds kick in my allergies like nothing else can.
Yeah, the shuffle game can be hard. I'd usually have to put Bonnie in one room, and let Nana / etc outside, then close the backdoor and let Bonnie out. Then put Bonnie back in the room, let Nana in and put her in another room, then let Bonnie out back, clsoe the backdoor, and let Nana out.
I also had them all trained so that any barrier was as good as a closed door, at least momentarily. So I could put a card table on it's side, two legs out, across the small gap between that long desk/drawer thing (credenza?) and the wall, dividing the back room into a dining room and a "family room", and put whichever dog I need outside in there, while letting the other(s) run inside from outside and then while they were still looking around in the front of the house I could let the other one(s) out from behind the barrier to outside, and then close the backdoor.
I had a few ways to do the shuffle....
Now, it usually worked mostly ok if everyone was with me, cuz Bonnie and Fred would uuslaly be up at the head of the bed, and Nana at an edge or the foot of it, or on the floor, and they'd all be happy enough, 99% of the time. I had a couple of incidents even liek that but not much of one and not often. Usually just a snapping at each other before I'd yell out "WHAT WAS THAT!?" and theyd' both be looking like "OMG HE YELLED AT US WHAT DO WE DO NOW?" and they'd just lay there staring at me goggle-eyed. :lol:
Thankfully, I'm not having any such issues with Yogi and Tiny, though it has only been just over a week and a half, so it' always possible he could change as he gets used to being around here.
So far no jealousy things, though Tiny *has* had a few fits of "i'm gonna play the lonely dog" and goes to lay in the corner of hte room, becuaes I'm paying attention to both fo them at the same time, or saying hi to Yogi when he walks up and I'm already paying attention to Tiny. Yogi doesn't seem to care much when she walks up and he loses a hand off of him, so there' snot two working the fur anymore. Tiny does, sometimes.
Mostly, they're getting closer on their own, though. I've been trying to just leave them alone as much as I cna so they have to partner with each other for company (this often works to bond dogs together, as long as they get along in the first place).
They take turns at the slobber-refill bowl, though sometimes Tiny looks disgusted when she daintily tries to lap around his slobber gobs he leaves floating in it.
they also take turns at the IsenKyuub (ice cube) bowl I try to keep filled in the bedroom, either slurping up teh cold meltwater, or crunching up the sometimes-slushy ice itself. Tiny's only real problem with Yogi about that is that sometimes he stands there gnawing the top of the ice cubes instead of picking one up and taking it elsewhere, when she wants to get one, and I've been teaching her not to go up to him and "steal" whatever he has, so she often just stands and waits impatiently for him to move so she can get her own.
Sometimes she also gets selfish and grabs as many ice cubes as she can fit in her mouth, carries them to her spot, then goes back for more unti lshe has a melting pile and the bowl is empty. :lol: Yogi just stands there staring at her like "WTF?" and Tiny lays down on her pile and chomps away, looking up with this "YEAH WHAT ABOUT IT?" grin.
I also had them all trained so that any barrier was as good as a closed door, at least momentarily. So I could put a card table on it's side, two legs out, across the small gap between that long desk/drawer thing (credenza?) and the wall, dividing the back room into a dining room and a "family room", and put whichever dog I need outside in there, while letting the other(s) run inside from outside and then while they were still looking around in the front of the house I could let the other one(s) out from behind the barrier to outside, and then close the backdoor.
I had a few ways to do the shuffle....
Now, it usually worked mostly ok if everyone was with me, cuz Bonnie and Fred would uuslaly be up at the head of the bed, and Nana at an edge or the foot of it, or on the floor, and they'd all be happy enough, 99% of the time. I had a couple of incidents even liek that but not much of one and not often. Usually just a snapping at each other before I'd yell out "WHAT WAS THAT!?" and theyd' both be looking like "OMG HE YELLED AT US WHAT DO WE DO NOW?" and they'd just lay there staring at me goggle-eyed. :lol:
Thankfully, I'm not having any such issues with Yogi and Tiny, though it has only been just over a week and a half, so it' always possible he could change as he gets used to being around here.
So far no jealousy things, though Tiny *has* had a few fits of "i'm gonna play the lonely dog" and goes to lay in the corner of hte room, becuaes I'm paying attention to both fo them at the same time, or saying hi to Yogi when he walks up and I'm already paying attention to Tiny.
Yogi doesn't seem to care much when she walks up and he loses a hand off of him, so there' snot two working the fur anymore. Tiny does, sometimes.Mostly, they're getting closer on their own, though. I've been trying to just leave them alone as much as I cna so they have to partner with each other for company (this often works to bond dogs together, as long as they get along in the first place).
They take turns at the slobber-refill bowl, though sometimes Tiny looks disgusted when she daintily tries to lap around his slobber gobs he leaves floating in it.
they also take turns at the IsenKyuub (ice cube) bowl I try to keep filled in the bedroom, either slurping up teh cold meltwater, or crunching up the sometimes-slushy ice itself. Tiny's only real problem with Yogi about that is that sometimes he stands there gnawing the top of the ice cubes instead of picking one up and taking it elsewhere, when she wants to get one, and I've been teaching her not to go up to him and "steal" whatever he has, so she often just stands and waits impatiently for him to move so she can get her own.
Sometimes she also gets selfish and grabs as many ice cubes as she can fit in her mouth, carries them to her spot, then goes back for more unti lshe has a melting pile and the bowl is empty.
:lol: Yogi just stands there staring at her like "WTF?" and Tiny lays down on her pile and chomps away, looking up with this "YEAH WHAT ABOUT IT?" grin.
dogman dan
1 PW
It's so like my house now it's spooky. Daisy rules, even though she's not a very dominant dog really. Barry just stands around looking doofy, "whatever you say dear".
Our two are truly in dog love with each other. Dogs always pack up some, or a lot, but dog love is actually a bit rare. But Daisy is just adorable. Sue loves her, but Barry and I are just ga ga over Daisy.
I feel like I'm just smothered in sugary syrup these days, so different from the jalepeno salsa Bertha was pouring out just last month. It wasn't till Bertha was gone that we realized just how tense Barry had gotten. With her gone, his eyes got all big and round, his whole face changed.
We took Bertha in for the shot as soon as we thought it was really time, but till that day, she wasn't quite ready. We had been ready to do it for months ourselves. Even the rescue dogs that really suck deserve as long a life as they can have.
Our two are truly in dog love with each other. Dogs always pack up some, or a lot, but dog love is actually a bit rare. But Daisy is just adorable. Sue loves her, but Barry and I are just ga ga over Daisy.
I feel like I'm just smothered in sugary syrup these days, so different from the jalepeno salsa Bertha was pouring out just last month. It wasn't till Bertha was gone that we realized just how tense Barry had gotten. With her gone, his eyes got all big and round, his whole face changed.
We took Bertha in for the shot as soon as we thought it was really time, but till that day, she wasn't quite ready. We had been ready to do it for months ourselves. Even the rescue dogs that really suck deserve as long a life as they can have.
Yeah, I'm lucky in that I've never had one that bad. Worst so far has been the Nana/Bonnie/Fred thing, and that was really just a dominance thing.
Today Tiny walked up to Yogi while I was paying attention to him and head-butted him a little, he just rolled his head up to the side and flopped over, and she snuffled along his chest and belly and ears until she sneezed, and stalked off until I called her back, and then I had one on each side of me for tummy rubs for a few minutes till she (like usual) got bored with it and rolled over too far for me to reach without moving. :lol:
But they do get along so far. I forgot to post this pic of them from 2-3 nights ago I think it was; not agreat pic cuz I had ot hold the phone up at an angle where I couldn't see the screen to get the pic. Tiny on the left laying on my legs, and Yogi sprawled to the right mostly offscreen with his head on her butt and paws in the air (which you can't see).
Today Tiny walked up to Yogi while I was paying attention to him and head-butted him a little, he just rolled his head up to the side and flopped over, and she snuffled along his chest and belly and ears until she sneezed, and stalked off until I called her back, and then I had one on each side of me for tummy rubs for a few minutes till she (like usual) got bored with it and rolled over too far for me to reach without moving. :lol:
But they do get along so far. I forgot to post this pic of them from 2-3 nights ago I think it was; not agreat pic cuz I had ot hold the phone up at an angle where I couldn't see the screen to get the pic. Tiny on the left laying on my legs, and Yogi sprawled to the right mostly offscreen with his head on her butt and paws in the air (which you can't see).
I finaly had to move the solar water heater tank; the sun angle has changed enough during the season (and trees and lantana have grown enough) that now it is in shade from various things for too much of the morning, and never heats up enough. By the time it begins to warm up good, it is then shaded by the house itself. :/
I chose to put it back near where I started with it, but a little farther north, so that it can continue to be heated by the sun thru the afternoon, by placing it in front of (east of) the gap between two sheds. Previously past about 1pm-ish or before, it would be shaded by the shed, now it will not be.
This is still only temporary, as I have not yet hooked it up as thermosyphon, because I am still testing it for leaks under pressure. So far no new ones have cropped up, even with banging on the bottom end of the tank where both previous leaks were found, but I'd like to know about them and fix them before I put it onto the house's water heater loop, where it will be possible for it to flood water out everywhere while I'm gone to work if a leak is or becomes large enough.
I also still have to build the box around it; now the weather is cooling enough I should be able to do that soon. I now know where just about all the materials are for doing that, too. Would like to find a glass door or panel to cover it with intead of the scratched-up plex/lexan I have, but it'll do for now.
Anyway, the system still works even as it is, just that when it rains or is windy (both of which are happening kind of a lot this season), it cools the tank off pretty quickly, so it'll be much better with teh box around it, and then even better with thermosyphon to store the heated water inside the house's insulated tank.
Tiny and Yogi are playing more often, so I tried out some tennis-ball chasing, and Yogi now will actually go after one (though he will still shy away from one thrown in his direction, he's ok if i roll it on the ground). Tiny doesn't care much for it still, but she'll go after it just cuz he is, even though she doesn't actually wanna get it. So I roll two of them so each gets a target, and nobody has to compete.
I tried out some of the in-house chewtoys and such to see how he'd do, and he prefers to pull stuffing out of the fuzzy ones vs chewing on harder ones. Unfortunately Tiny thinks she has to protect all the toys, so I can't actually let him keep any of them when I'm not there to keep her occupied. She will try to take them away from him (which he usually lets her do without contest) and then she puts them on the bed and pushes them "into" the blanket with her nose, as if she were burying them, although they are still in plain sight on the surface of the blanket. :lol:
So...we can play with toys outside, but not inside unless I'm watching them. It's an improvement.
And it is a whole lot of fun watchign them romp around the yard...I hadn't realized how much I missed watching dogs play like that.
I chose to put it back near where I started with it, but a little farther north, so that it can continue to be heated by the sun thru the afternoon, by placing it in front of (east of) the gap between two sheds. Previously past about 1pm-ish or before, it would be shaded by the shed, now it will not be.
This is still only temporary, as I have not yet hooked it up as thermosyphon, because I am still testing it for leaks under pressure. So far no new ones have cropped up, even with banging on the bottom end of the tank where both previous leaks were found, but I'd like to know about them and fix them before I put it onto the house's water heater loop, where it will be possible for it to flood water out everywhere while I'm gone to work if a leak is or becomes large enough.
I also still have to build the box around it; now the weather is cooling enough I should be able to do that soon. I now know where just about all the materials are for doing that, too. Would like to find a glass door or panel to cover it with intead of the scratched-up plex/lexan I have, but it'll do for now.
Anyway, the system still works even as it is, just that when it rains or is windy (both of which are happening kind of a lot this season), it cools the tank off pretty quickly, so it'll be much better with teh box around it, and then even better with thermosyphon to store the heated water inside the house's insulated tank.
Tiny and Yogi are playing more often, so I tried out some tennis-ball chasing, and Yogi now will actually go after one (though he will still shy away from one thrown in his direction, he's ok if i roll it on the ground). Tiny doesn't care much for it still, but she'll go after it just cuz he is, even though she doesn't actually wanna get it. So I roll two of them so each gets a target, and nobody has to compete.
I tried out some of the in-house chewtoys and such to see how he'd do, and he prefers to pull stuffing out of the fuzzy ones vs chewing on harder ones. Unfortunately Tiny thinks she has to protect all the toys, so I can't actually let him keep any of them when I'm not there to keep her occupied.
She will try to take them away from him (which he usually lets her do without contest) and then she puts them on the bed and pushes them "into" the blanket with her nose, as if she were burying them, although they are still in plain sight on the surface of the blanket. :lol: So...we can play with toys outside, but not inside unless I'm watching them. It's an improvement.
And it is a whole lot of fun watchign them romp around the yard...I hadn't realized how much I missed watching dogs play like that.
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