What did you do today

[TimC]

We had a little electrical problem after last night's thunder boomers so I am trying to find a ground fault in the garage circuit. I opened up a switch box to an outside light pole and look what I found a few inches away. Looks like someone needed a little help shedding their skin so she crawled inside a hole in the garage wall. The coolest part was when I pulled the shed out of the hole it was a complete shed including the head with the mouth appearing as though it is screaming. Just a little guy maybe less than 24". We don't have a lot of snake varieties up here. Mostly Garter and Pine.





So what I finally found after isolating every switch, light, receptacle but one in the garage... after fifty years a simple ceramic light fixture, one with a grounded outlet and a pull chain, had the neutral and hot conductors inside the receptacle very close together inside. I don't know how it decided to fail after a three inch rain and thunder/lightening but it did. Lots of switches, light fixtures and receptacles to sort through in stifling heat and humidity but it's fixed. OK all you southwesterners... yes it was stifling for this northerner who whines when it gets above 80F.

[Tom&Shelly]

Well Tim, at least I can help with the snake problem. Turns out, shrews eat snakes. What's your address....

Tom

[MickinOz]

We don't have a lot of snake varieties up here. Mostly Garter and Pine.

You lucky bugger.
If you google "most venomous snakes in the world" three of our local snakes occupy positions 1,2, &3 on any list that comes up, with the tiger snake also coming in at position 10.
Of course, define "most venomous". Its usually purely based on LD50 - how much venom per kg body weight to kill 50% of the animals it is given to.
So it doesn't really indicate how dangerous a snake is.
Second on most lists is the eastern brown snake, and its probably the most common snake in my area. We don't get too upset though, because their first reaction when they see you is to depart for a quieter neighbourhood. You have to work at it to get a bite, they usually only stand and fight when cornered.
Still, snakes make me shudder.
Dunno, if I could even pick up the shed skin like you did.

[TimC]

...
Dunno, if I could even pick up the shed skin like you did.

Ha, I just offered to save it for my daughter-in-law to show her 2nd grade students next school year. I think it will thrill the boys and freak out the girls!

[Tom&Shelly]

We weren't exactly snake handlers in my family, but we did have garter snakes living in the cracks in our garage. We'd sometimes move one for its own good to get it away from the mower, and such.

My brother got one and kept it as a pet in a terrarium in our living room. One night, I was walking across a dark room in bare feet to change channels. (For you younger folks, we didn't have channel changers in those days, we had to walk all the way to the set, and it was up hill both ways!) I stepped down and then felt the snake slither across my heel. I grabbed in the blind, and managed to catch the sucker and put him back in the terrarium. I probably shouldn't have worried, he likely had been doing that trick every night, and would have found his own way back.

Anyway, garters aren't too scary.

Tom

[KCStudly]

I made an apple pie from scratch using apples from the tree in my backyard and a deep cast iron skillet. Baked it in the gas grill using indirect heat. Came out yummy.

[noseoil]

We've recently picked up a rental property (the price was right) here in Raton. The good news; it's a very nice tiny home (936') on an acre. The bad news; there are a lot of tweakers in the neighborhood. I'm "hardening up" the house with 6 cameras & a 2TB CCTV recording deck which I can access from a phone or remote location. The wiring is pulled & I'm waiting for the monitor to arrive next week to power the system & get things going. Next on the list will be a 6' chain link fence, to make things more interesting for the locals to climb & deal with. Here are a couple of shelves I installed to hold the monitor & deck in the small "office" area. It's just a quick & dirty setup, but it will be a permanent installation once everything is in place.



Here's one of the "part time" residents in the 'hood. These guys are all over the area in town & aren't too afraid of us. I think they enjoy the water the roof drops into the watering station the former owner set up from a down-spout.

[twisted lines]

Hosed it down, Oil up a few spots, Charged the battery; Yesterday !
When I built this one, I Tacked the Galvanised Tubing, Should have Splurged for the square cover for the box though.

Galvanized tubing.jpg (47.37 KiB) Viewed 950 times

Need Cover.jpg (56.82 KiB) Viewed 950 times

[Indiana Rambler]

Camped a few days in Turtle Beach Florida for the wife’s birthday. Heading back to Indiana this afternoon.


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[twisted lines]

At least I can dream of walking in the sand
One Custom Queen, with the good side on the Shop floor where shtuff has leaked
Sure Think I cleaned it

[Indiana Rambler]

Sand everywhere I’m sure once we get cleaning! We stopped off in Macon Georgia for an overnight. Took these pics right before a torrential storm. Had to leave the spot because the evergreen tree was bending close to 90 degrees over the camper during the wind.



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[MickinOz]

Damn, the scenery in the US is bloody beautiful.
And so accessible, or so it seems to me here on the underside of the globe.

[twisted lines]

Today i wasn't working on the shower
Cleaned All day

[MickinOz]

Today, as I crawled into bed with a long horizontal row of stitches across my belly and what feels like at least 0.5 square feet of mesh under the incision, I apologised sincerely and at length to my wife for the 3 caesarean sections she endured to bring our children into the world,

[noseoil]

Working on the rental still. Have to fence out the "livestock" for safety...