Category Archives: Space

Chicken tractor

A work in progress for the meat birds. They do not range or scratch and peck well as they get older and heavier, and they are generally not fast enough to take cover when a predator appears. So, they get to hang out in their own private space. But they’ll be on fresh grass, have clean air and water, and will be mighty tasty when the time comes to process them.

The bottom of the build, looking from what will be the front to the back. This was a dry fit.

Then, a look at the back toward the front. There’s one more cross pipe that will go through the center of it.

Once everything was double checked and arranged, I moved on to the cement phase of the build. The left side and the front and back are glued in this view from the front.

And a look from the back – the right side and front and back are glued.

I also managed to drop the can of cement thanks to the issues with my left hand (fuck you, cancer!). Half of it is on the driveway now. At least I have plenty left to get the rest of the build done.

A work in progress  that needs to get done quickly, because the meat birds are getting huge. All of them were a little skittish about the watermelon rinds I put in.

I know chickens are bird brains and not terribly smart, but they peck pretty much anything – just not tonight, i guess. All they did was walk on those rinds, pooping on them.

Tomorrow: onward with more mowing (did the beeyard today) and more assembly of the chicken tractor. If we get it done in the next couple of days, I’m going to kick the meat birds out of the brooder and into their nice, spacious, outdoors condo.

Don’t forget, space nerds: the Pleiads are peaking on the 12th, so look to the skies.

Until next time, peeps: be well.

Look to the skies

Space nuts, unite! The Perseid meteor shower will peak on August 12. Get out and do some sky watching. If it’s mosquito season, as it is here, and you have lots of standing water from constant rains, as we do here, put on something to repel them. I was out taking some pictures of Mars this evening, and they were horrific.

Speaking of Mars….

Taken with the Canon.

Taken with the Nikon. Mars is just below and left of center. Hit the image to see the fuller version. This was taken with an extended shutter time, because of course it’s dark as hell out here at the ranch, and I wanted to capture more as we have a rare clear evening here in the summer tonight. It’s gorgeous and rather humbling to gaze up at the night sky.

Back here on the mothership, though, we still have things to do, people and animals to take care of, and on and on. I spent several hours at the NOC today, redoing a server for someone who wants a testing server in addition to their production server, and crawling around, tracing lines. It’s time for our location audit, and at least one part is done: the physical locations of every piece of gear. Tracing power cables and ethernet cables, though, is tedious, dirty, sweaty work (because you’re on the heat side of the row, with all those servers blowing hot air on you) and takes more than one trip (unless it’s a completely epic trip where you get to ignore everything else in your life for eight hours).

I had stepped outside last night to look off to the east where a storm was passing, to see it was viable to set up a camera to try to capture some lightning. It was not, but I did find this fat bumpy guy hanging out on the porch.

He didn’t budge, even when Einstein was sniffing him.

And because I have 21 chicks hanging out in my garage, here’s a pic of a bunch of them piled up in the corner after I had changed out the pads in the brooder. You’ll notice there’s already poop on the new pads. Apparently they cannot go more than two seconds without pooping. But, they are all still alive, happily peeping away when they’re not sleeping.

After the NOC work, I popped by Tractor Supply to get some pine shavings for their bedding. They’ve had enough time to understand what their food is and where, so they should not be trying to eat giant volumes of the bedding.  At first, they didn’t want to walk on it.  But as I spread it out all around them and then into the corner they all ran to, they got themselves together and went back to their pooping, cheeping ways.

The Cornish X bird – the yellow ones – are growing much more quickly than the layers. You can tell already. They are going to be good eating when their brief, but happy, lives comes to an end.

Until next time, peeps: be well.

 

 

Off my feed

Ever wonder where that phrase came from?

Anyone raised on, near, or around a farm would know immediately.

I was up until after 5:30 this morning transferring mail from one server to another. While one rather large batch was transferring, I took the opportunity to grab a quick nap. I got back up, set off another item, went back to bed for about 40 minutes, then got back up again, unpacked something, updated a ticket, and hauled myself out for some physical therapy related to laryngospasms, which are unpleasant and make you feel like you’re going to die because you can’t breathe. I then waited at the rehab place for 45 minutes before actually getting into it. If I had not been short on both sleep and food, I probably would have been more charitable in my mind about waiting – again – for some medical-related bullshit. To make things even more exciting, I have an appointment with an ortho tomorrow, then on the 3rd, 7th, and 9th, with different doctors, with a followup at the rehab place on the 14th. Thrilling. Also, fuck cancer. If you’re offended by the f word….this probably is not the place for you.

The chicks have shipped, according to an email from the hatchery. I’m hoping they arrive tomorrow, but they can survive up to three days in transit – shorter times are better, of course, but such is the wonder of being able to order just about anything through the mail.

I had planned on mowing late this afternoon, but it has been so humid here today that nothing dried out. Such if the wonder of Florida.

The even weirder than normal sleep thing and food thing have me off my feed in the “I feel odd” way. I’m hoping that will pass if this little tech world of mine cools it a bit. I’m hoping that getting this done and getting some writing done will help, too. Killing off someone – literarily speaking, of course – does wonders for one’s mood.

I was looking to the skies the other night – the moon and Mars are very close to one another in the early evening sky, and got this shot of the moon.

Until next time, peeps: be well.

 

 

Moonshot

No, I am not building rockets in my back yard to take me into space for a quick trip to the moon (although I would, in a heartbeat, climb aboard a capsule on top of a rocket to get to the ISS).

I finally got a new camera to replace my old Fuji, my “pocket” camera. Its age is showing. I picked up a Canon PowerShot SX730 and it is fantastic.

Here’s a longer shot. Jupiter is to the right and up from the moon.

I’m quite pleased with it: the zoom is excellent, as is the micro function, and those are the two things I use most often aside from standard mode when I am doing some photography.

Just a quick one tonight. I’ve been working out in the sun all day, getting  some rows ready for the rest of the transplants from the barn. My goal this week: get them all out into their homes for the season. I’m hoping to be able to get that done in just a couple of days. Naturally, I will be back to tell you all about it.

Until then, peeps: look to the skies. Be well.

 

A new Earthrise

It is easy to be awe-inspired by the natural wonders right here, but sometimes it takes something like this to understand just how fortunate we are to be alive here on what Sagan called our Pale Blue Dot, a mere speck in what could seem, to some people, to be a universe of emptiness, but that is not unless we never look to the skies.

Earthrise October 2015

There will be a full moon for christmas this year (christmas eve into the new day). Step outside, look to the moon, and wave hello to the LRO as it passes through one of the dozen earthrises it has each day while it makes it way across the lunar surface.

Working it out, Dec 13, 2015

Got up this morning at 6 AM only to realize I had a horrible migraine and my guts were rolling, so the pups and I went back to bed after they’d done their business. After a bit more sleep, we got ourselves up and moving, but every step was like someone driving a nail into my head, so I opted for advil and caffeine. No treadmill session this morning. I did, however, get in some time late this afternoon, as the migraine had receded – and I wanted to keep the routine going, so it will just be another (better) habit. Soon, it will be time to add some weight workouts to the mix. For now, though, the med change/supplements/walking plus the assorted minimum outside stuff is what it is.

Took a stroll to the beeyard, and they were out on another gorgeous day. Alas, the day turned cloudy and it began raining this evening, so no Geminids meteor shower show for us at the ranch. As our only connection to the vast intarwebz is via satellite, that also means no live cam monitoring at Slooh. Bummer.

Geminids 2015

Attention, fellow space nerds: tonight and into tomorrow morning is peak time for the annual Geminids meteor shower. It is supposed to be the most active of the year, but as always, your mileage may vary as much as that of the asteroid/comet debris itself. Because this shower is composed of debris from what has been deemed a rock comet, some of the streaks of material burning up in the atmosphere may be blue, green, or red instead of the more usual white or yellow from icy cometary debris. Since the debris is also just rock (instead of mostly ice), the Geminids can display some stunningly long tails because the bits take longer to burn.

The Geminids are so named because they will appear to originate from the constellation Gemini. It should be a great show for the northern hemisphere, as Gemini is one of the northernmost zodiacals, but the folks in the souther hemisphere will probably be able to see them as well. It’s supposed to be very cold in some places – not here, of course, we’re still basking in our strange fall – so make some hot chocolate, bundle up (especially the kidlets), hope for clear or clear-ish skies, and head out this evening to enjoy the show. Gemini will be in the sky slightly to the left of Orion, so find Orion, look a little to the left to see the twins of Gemini, and then look a bit above them. If you have the chance to just lay flat on the ground or on a car hood against the windshield or in the bed of a pickup to watch, you should: you’ll get a great view of the sky for what will hopefully be the strongest and most active shower of the year.

If you’re socked in by nasty weather, Slooh will have live cams up beginning at 8 PM Eastern US time. Their link: Slooh live cam for Geminids 2015