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I'm making progress. Much less rat activity tonight. Most of them don't seem to be wanting to come under the wire. There were 3 that managed to get under it. I may have a small family of them living in the coop. They seem to be coming out, wanting to leave, but don't want to cross the wire, so they're returning into the coop. I need to ferret out any tunnels, flood them with water, fill them with dirt, or whatever, and get them out of there. No raccoons, and no opossums, got through, which is primarily what I was trying to stop. YAY! 1 wild bunny did get a shock. Not my intended target, but if it's anything like all the other animals, it's unharmed, and learned not to go back into that area.

I took a tape measure, and measured from the ground to the bottom resistor, where the bottom wire is strung. It's pretty even, and at a consistent height. I set them at about 3.5 inches up from the ground. I measured from the bottom resistor to the top, and set the bottom wire 5.5 inches from the bottom resistor. Those heights seem to be very effective.

It's nearly impossible to go much lower than 3.5 inches on the bottom wire. While my ground is not very uneven, there are small areas that dip a little, and other areas that are slightly elevated, or sloped. Believe it or not, when it comes to rats, 3/4 of an inch can make all the difference in the world.

From observation, and replaying the video, they run in a straight line, lightening fast, flattening themselves slightly, as they cross under the wire. Their speed, and their fur keep them from getting the full effect. The 3 that got past the wire tonight, seemed to target the small area that there was a small dip in the ground. Again, they run at full speed, and slightly flatten down when they cross under the wire. Tomorrow, after I make sure to get rid of any rats inside the coop, I am going to put a few 2x4's just inside the bottom wire, as close as I can, without touching the wire, which would ground it. Doing that, would force them to slow down when they get to the wire, so they would get more of a jolt.
 
Good morning, Folks!

Went up to Santa Fe for the weekend. The altitude up there is 7500, but we have acclimated and so don't really notice a difference....Except when it comes to cooking. My pet peeve is it's nearly impossible to keep a cup of coffee hot beyond the first sip. Cooking temps are skewed as well (pasta takes forever to cook as boiling water isn't really boiling temps.) Well, discovered another cooking anomaly. Brought up a can of biscuits I had purchased down here and, if peeling back the wrapper and instituting the "pop" at the seam isn't nerve-wracking enough, the darn thing exploded and shot biscuits across the kitchen. It certainly livened up breakfast prep!

Our romantic getaway weekend reverie was cut short by our baseboard heater boiler malfunctioning, heating continuously but expelling the water out of the overflow spout to the tune of a gallon every two minutes or so. No idea how long that had been happening, but really not wanting to pay for filling a pool when there wasn't none nor the massive amount of gas the boiler was using to continuously heat water. The baseboard heaters were functioning, but instead of the usual creaks and groans from the warming pipes it sounded as if water was trickling through them or the audible sound of water movement. Called several plumbers/boiler technicians. They advertise 24-hour emergency service -- ha! -- which means they answer the phone, but since it's a holiday weekend they really don't want to come out until Tuesday. (Even willing to pay the emergency fee, their on-calls were not answering... Valentine's Day night on a holiday weekend.) So we shut down the mechanicals and drained the water out of the house lines. Needless to say, without heat or running water, no point in remaining there as camping really isn't my thing. Looks like a new boiler is in our future as cost to repair the ancient beast in the back shed will probably be as much as installing a new one. (I wish it were as easy as putting in a new pump, but at 40+ y.o. that might just be like a band-aid for life support.) Looks like it also was kind of the last straw and we'll be selling the Santa Fe place once we get the boiler and water heater issues resolved. Sigh...

Which brings me to the next item: DH is starting to grumble about New Mexico and is hinting that maybe we should move to Texas. We're getting older and our yard really is kind of cumbersome and time-consuming and more likely to get more so as we get older. I could go for a smaller less-labor-intensive landscape (might have to sacrifice having chickens), but want a house same or similar size as here. Anybody here from there that can provide insight as to what it's like living in Texas? (Weather, humidity, anything, etc.)

Thanks in advance!
 
Peep_Show said:
Good morning, Folks!

Went up to Santa Fe for the weekend. The altitude up there is 7500, but we have acclimated and so don't really notice a difference....Except when it comes to cooking. My pet peeve is it's nearly impossible to keep a cup of coffee hot beyond the first sip. Cooking temps are skewed as well (pasta takes forever to cook as boiling water isn't really boiling temps.) Well, discovered another cooking anomaly. Brought up a can of biscuits I had purchased down here and, if peeling back the wrapper and instituting the "pop" at the seam isn't nerve-wracking enough, the darn thing exploded and shot biscuits across the kitchen. It certainly livened up breakfast prep!

Our romantic getaway weekend reverie was cut short by our baseboard heater boiler malfunctioning, heating continuously but expelling the water out of the overflow spout to the tune of a gallon every two minutes or so. No idea how long that had been happening, but really not wanting to pay for filling a pool when there wasn't none nor the massive amount of gas the boiler was using to continuously heat water. The baseboard heaters were functioning, but instead of the usual creaks and groans from the warming pipes it sounded as if water was trickling through them or the audible sound of water movement. Called several plumbers/boiler technicians. They advertise 24-hour emergency service -- ha! -- which means they answer the phone, but since it's a holiday weekend they really don't want to come out until Tuesday. (Even willing to pay the emergency fee, their on-calls were not answering... Valentine's Day night on a holiday weekend.) So we shut down the mechanicals and drained the water out of the house lines. Needless to say, without heat or running water, no point in remaining there as camping really isn't my thing. Looks like a new boiler is in our future as cost to repair the ancient beast in the back shed will probably be as much as installing a new one. (I wish it were as easy as putting in a new pump, but at 40+ y.o. that might just be like a band-aid for life support.) Looks like it also was kind of the last straw and we'll be selling the Santa Fe place once we get the boiler and water heater issues resolved. Sigh...

Which brings me to the next item: DH is starting to grumble about New Mexico and is hinting that maybe we should move to Texas. We're getting older and our yard really is kind of cumbersome and time-consuming and more likely to get more so as we get older. I could go for a smaller less-labor-intensive landscape (might have to sacrifice having chickens), but want a house same or similar size as here. Anybody here from there that can provide insight as to what it's like living in Texas? (Weather, humidity, anything, etc.)

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
007Sean lives there and so does PertNear.
 

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