The Old Folks Home

[vehve]

Oh yeah, I presented my worry of the waterer freezing here earlier, here's what I decided to solve it with. Haven't installed it yet.

It's a self regulating heat cable meant to keep water pipes and gutters from freezing. Built in thermostat, just need to plug it in, and it should keep the water right above freezing temperature.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

A lot of the suburbs here are overrun with deer. Especially the wealthy ones with huge lots. There's one called Town and Country with the highest median income of any city in Missouri and one of the highest in the country. They've been fighting their deer problem for decades with overgrazing destruction of expensive shrubbery, not to mention the car wrecks. There has been a many years long battle between the entities that want the herd culled by hunting and those that want bambi's mom to get hormone injections so she wouldn't fawn the following year. They started trapping the deer in the late '90s and relocating them to rural areas till the department of conservation stopped the program because most of the deer were dying from stress induced "capture myopathy". Several years later they adopted a plan to combine sterilization and sharpshooting. The population continued to grow till they adopted a sharpshooting only program 3 years ago.
Another small town adjacent to them had 54 deer taken by bowhunters last year.
When I was growing up, there were virtually no deer in St. Louis county. Now you can get a permit for an antlered deer $17, an antlerless deer $7 during the firearms season. Hunters 15 and under are lower cost. Resident landowners can get an additional two with a no cost permit for persons over the age of 6.
There are additional seasons for muzzleloaders, pistols, air powered 40 cal. and larger, crossbow, longbow and atlatl.
During archery season, you can take two antlered deer and two turkey plus an additional antlerless deer.
I was about 12 when turkey hunting was first allowed in MO. It was a 3 day season from dawn to noon. Now turkey are everywhere.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Count me in on that trip!! Most if my hunting now is done through my kitchen window. It's not sporting but I always have deer in the freezer.

All my deer hunting is picking up road kill that wanders into my yard after getting hit in front of my house. Well, I've gotten 3 that way at least.
After the first one I started looking at road kill everywhere.

Oh yeah, I presented my worry of the waterer freezing here earlier, here's what I decided to solve it with. Haven't installed it yet.

It's a self regulating heat cable meant to keep water pipes and gutters from freezing. Built in thermostat, just need to plug it in, and it should keep the water right above freezing temperature.

I've used that. It works pretty well.

 

[Cynthia12]

CC, I just got some baby chicks today. They are in a nursery, hope that critter isn't smart enough to open a latch, one of those lift up ones.

I may leave my Golden R. out in that part of the yard for the next few nights until I hear more.

 

[Cynthia12]

Oh great! Just heard a hawk, going to put my chickens in the run.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

mink and weasels aren't very smart. A raccoon can figure that latch out but the former search for tiny openings rather than open doors.

 

[ronott1]

mink and weasels aren't very smart. A raccoon can figure that latch out but the former search for tiny openings rather than open doors.

I read an article that said raccoons are getting smarter too. They learn from each other and pass on knowledge. They are a bit evil?...

 

[vehve]

@ChickenCanoe What kind of wattage have you used? I'm afraid I bought a too short cable, this one only gives 20W. But they got a lot more expensive pretty quickly with the longer lengths that give more power.

 

[Cynthia12]

Whew, done! There were a few that did not want to go in, that hawk was making noise as we were out there getting them in. Saw it the other day in the neighbors tree, looks like a cooper. They are pretty brazen little things. Had my Golden R. out there before I put them in..must have helped.

 

[Alaskan]

 
http://themetapicture.com/ladies-interactive-mirror/

It's not nice to make a cop cry before her shift in the morning, Cyn...........

Good clip.

 
CC, zone 5 for me then.

I was thinking I would drive in bolts in the frame, leaving them about a quarter inch out, drill large holes in the plastic, and then secure the sheets with some sort of clip. But I'll have to go study the fastener department in the store and see what speaks to my sense of engineering.

DUDE!!!! You are warmer than I am!

As to the plastic.....I use the thin strips of ripple wood to support that ripple plastic. It becomes brittle over the years, and I have WIND, so it needs to be nice and secure so the wind doesn't rip it off and away. The ripple wood strips hold it tightly and perfectly snug, giving it more strength and makes it less likely that it rips right off the screws. Zip ties wouldn't even last the first winter. They would rip right through the sheet. I have never done a temporary installation though.

I was inspired to doodle the frame idea, it would be a great solution for me too, and better in the wind than hooks and grommets

Please excuse any spelling errors the paper has no spell check...

I like the sketches. In those it looks like you are using the plastic sheets I have drooled over....the double walled ones. They cost more than the ripple sheets. The double walled ones might be stiff enough to work in your design.

mink and weasels aren't very smart. A raccoon can figure that latch out but the former search for tiny openings rather than open doors.

the mink/weasels/stoats squish themselves so super tiny AND climb well. Those two traits together, and they can probably find an opening. I just saw one racing across the road on my drive home yesterday.