What did you do today

[MickinOz]

Although that guy in the video doesn't have a triangular head or rattles...

Tom

What he has, based on LD50 in mice, is the second most toxic venom in the world.
Only the inland taipan has more potent spit.
...

That's why it's always a good idea to read up on the critters who may share your camp ground. Although, when I moved here, an isolated mountain at 2000 feet above the desert, I was told the rattlers stay in the desert and don't like it in the mountains. True, except now and again I find a rattler who missed the message. Norman Maclean had the same experience about a hundred years ago, so it isn't a recent, global warming, sort of thing. Stupid rattlers!

Tom

You do have to understand your neighbours, eh? We Aussies love to say we have the biggest this, the deadliest that, etc. Biggest crocs, most toxic snakes, grumpiest water buffalo, world's biggest wild camel herd, etc.
All true, but snake reality is less extreme. A brown snake must feel threatened and cornered to strike. So in that sense, it might be one of the most venomous snakes on the planet, but its nowhere near the deadliest.
Unless threatened, they just go about their business. I remember sitting at a mate's place one afternoon, enjoying a couple of beers, and watching a brown snake cleaning out the mice in his hay shed. With a couple lumps distorting its belly it crawled of to a corner and curled up to sleep it off.
The inland taipan has by far the deadliest venom, and its specifically adapted for warm blooded mammals, e.g. us, but again it's a retiring animal that will probably never be as deadly as its venom suggests.
Coastal taipans on the other hand - big, fast, extremely aggressive when startled.

So what is the story with the buzzworms, when do they rattle? I'm assuming its only when they feel angry or threatened?

[Tom&Shelly]

So what is the story with the buzzworms, when do they rattle? I'm assuming its only when they feel angry or threatened?

I believe it's to warn someone (human or otherwise) away. I've never had one rattle at me. Shelly said it happened to one of her sons once.

For several nights in a row, I saw pieces of tall grass, through a deck, jiggle, then disappear. I suspected a mouse, and finally, I was wide enough awake at 1 am to turn on the light. I think it was a mouse, but the interesting thing was a rattler on the deck looking through the slots. The light didn't faze him, and he went down. I suppose the mouse went to his just reward. I was behind a screen, and the snake was too busy to acknowledge me.

Another time, I was cutting wood, picked up a piece, and there was a baby rattler (too young for rattles) looking at me. I've heard warnings about the babies not controlling their venom and such, so I gave him a wide berth. I was a 5 minute run from the cabin, but heard you shouldn't run with venom in the system. Then there would be the complication of helping the ambulance find the cabin in our maze of back roads. All-in-all, better to let him go about his business, and cut wood elsewhere that day.

I've seen one or two others dead on the road. I think they get on the pavement to warm up and can't move when the cars come. (I try and avoid running them over when I see them.) Down on the desert, there was one at our balloon launch site one time, who was too cold to move. Someone killed him with a rake--too may people around to take chances. That snake didn't put up any fight, or rattle, or anything.

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

Knowing I had, many years ago, made some rustic furniture for our "cabin" home (actually framed construction with milled 2 x 8 "logs"), Shelly suggested I should make us some garden furniture. However, since she has a business making and selling doll house furniture, I may have mis-understood the scale of her request...



Seriously, this was a lot of fun with a utility knife and some scraps of dried and peeled pinion I had sitting in with our scrap project wood. I like how the color variations and grain scale well. We'll see if there is any interest at her next show.

Tom

[pchast]

Love that Tom

[friz]

I put some mudflaps on the Jeep to try and preserve the finish on the camper.

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[featherliteCT1]

Those mud flaps look good!

[MickinOz]

A while back, I put down a floating floor in the kitchen. This is the hybrid stuff that is intended to look like timber, and clips together.
Best bit about it is the 25 year warranty, even for DIY installations.
Anyway, to lay it easily I took off the door leading to the back hallway.
This was quite a change, I guess we just never thought about how much space was lost to having that door swinging into the room.
So we agreed the door wasn't going back up.
However, we still need a door to control the air conditioning zoning and stuff like that.
We settled on a sliding "barn door".
We don't actually have a lot of "barns" here in Oz, we generally call 'em hay sheds, implement sheds, shearing sheds, fodder sheds, cow sheds, sheep sheds, anything but barns.
But we do have barn doors. Oversize doors for the house that are usually made of solid timber, rather than a hollow MDF door, look a bit "rustic" and are sized to cover the door opening rather than sit in it.
A standard door is around 2040mm by 820mm.
A barn door, as sold at the hardware store is around 2100mm by 1000mm. The other defining feature is that the barn door slides on exposed "rustic" hardware.
Normally a black powder coated steel track, with all black mounting hardware and a couple of rollers that look like they'd do for my garage doors.
No store in town keeps them, so off to Bunnings in Parafield we went.
The 2 metre track and roller kit wasn't too bad - $119 for everything you need to get her mounted to the wall and sliding.

Rail.JPG (29.52 KiB) Viewed 449 times

But the doors! Cheapest real timber door, not MDF, they had in stock was $600.

Which is a long winded way of saying, I just spent a couple of days making a barn door!
Just priming it now.

Door.JPG (97.24 KiB) Viewed 449 times

Shout out to Zinsser - I sometimes have a quiet chuckle to myself when someone insists something has to be American made to be considered good, as if every single one of the other 7.5 billion people in the world is incapable of quality manufacturing.
But Zinsser Cover Stain primer sealer undercoat? Nothing beats that sh**. It really is the duck's nuts.

[flboy]

I made another upgrade modification to my 2020 F-250 today.



https://youtu.be/mWaYNsqERSA

[MickinOz]

That's one helluva upgrade.

[flboy]

That's one helluva upgrade.

yes.

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[Indiana Rambler]

I put some mudflaps on the Jeep to try and preserve the finish on the camper.

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Looks good! The mud flaps are a great idea. I still need to get an overall weight on our camper in hopes we can kit up our Trail Hawk for traveling.


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[MickinOz]

Got the door done. Came up OK. favourable comments from She Who Must Be Obeyed.
Busy training the pooch to open it with his snout. He has grasped the concept, but the idea of closing it behind him seems to elude him.

Finished door.JPG (29.57 KiB) Viewed 283 times

[Tom&Shelly]

This morning I made a holder for our shop's nicely matched set of nut drivers



Hmm, now I guess I should make holders for our screw drivers and chisels, although neither is as nicely matched.

Tom

[twisted lines]

I think we both read the tracking #
& Receipt for my hot wire part's

[friz]

Got the door done. Came up OK. favourable comments from She Who Must Be Obeyed.
Busy training the pooch to open it with his snout. He has grasped the concept, but the idea of closing it behind him seems to elude him.

Finished door.JPG

Looks good. Worth the effort to build the door.

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