Author Topic: Life in America - I made the move. (Read 1176105 times)

Fudmucker · « **Reply #7220 on:** May 09, 2019, 04:38:55 pm »

So squirrels... well ONE particular squirrel... is now dictating how much food and where they want it?
In exchange for... just to make an appearance...?

I wonder sometimes if it is humans who domesticate animals, or if it is animals that domesticate humans.
If animals pretend to be dependent on humans well enough, then humans will make themselves subservient to the animals.

Mrs. Zog · « **Reply #7221 on:** May 09, 2019, 05:13:11 pm »

Quote

So squirrels... well ONE particular squirrel... is now dictating how much food and where they want it?
In exchange for... just to make an appearance...?

Well, yes. They have Mr. Zog well trained. In exchange for entertainment, I guess, and keeping Maggie well occupied all day long. At first she chased them like mad. She used to run to the tree full speed, so much so that at one point she sprained her foot and was limping. She's figured out now that she can't catch them. She got close a few times, but she's mostly happy to watch them from the armchair on the porch. We joke that it's "doggie TV", the Outdoor Channel. Sometimes she lies flat among the ferns as "camouflage" and watches from there, or behind the other tree. She's far from stupid, she definitely understands the concept of cover.

This morning I let her out for her morning wee, and she was in the middle of the lawn, halfway to the tree, nosing around, looking for the perfect pee spot, and all the wildlife was at the tree feeders, about 5 meters away, keeping an eye on her but not too concerned. Maggie looked at them carefully but peed and left them alone, coming back inside instead of chasing them. Dogs and squirrels are learning to co-exist. Which is nice.

We are feeding the entire neighborhood, it seems. Usually in the morning, just after sunrise, before Mr. Zog goes to work, we sit on the porch with coffee and watch the show. We have a cast of "regulars" that we are starting to recognize. Fatso is one, he/she's the boss. Usually between 6-8 squirrels show up for breakfast. There is a woodpecker, two cardinals (Mr. and Mrs.), and a bluejay. Then whatever else decides to drop by, some doves, some robins. This continues with variations through the day. At night, we have the tiny flying squirrels that come. They are a lot like sugar gliders I guess.

The past few days we have had a red-shouldered hawk sitting on the powerline behind the yard, watching closely. I'm sure he thinks that small rodents would make excellent breakfast.

But in answer to your question, yes, Fatso makes the rules I guess. I think the problem (if it even is a problem) is that we love animals. A lot. That's why we arranged the furniture on the porch to please the dogs (long story).

Mr Zog · « **Reply #7222 on:** May 11, 2019, 03:55:21 am »

So I got home yesterday afternoon.

I had been away for 3 days, 3 days of very physical and sweaty hard work. I'll probably have to return to Bartow some time next week as some of the pipe we needed to do the job had not yet been delivered to the site. But I'm guessing I can get it done in a single day, so hopefully not another nite-stop.

When I got home there was a package waiting for me

Unfortunately the box looked like it had been jumped on by a Mack Truck

The contents of the box were extremely fragile, glass bottles to be precise. My heart sank when I saw the state of the box... $:-\$

Several weeks ago I had received a PM from a fellow dog, DarkMan. He said that he wanted my address because he was sending me something to enjoy with a braai. Then a couple of weeks ago I got a call from a guy up in North Dakota who was DarkMan's brother, Pieter. Pieter told me that DarkMan had given him two bottles to bring to the US from SA, to mail to me.

Well, Pieter mailed the package as promised, and he did wrap the bottles really well with bubblewrap and lots of wrapping to keep them safe. Unfortunately the severe damage that had occurred had broken one of the bottles

But the second bottle was fine

Thank you SO SO much Flip!!! I will keep the brannas for special occasions and when I braai

And when I do drink some I will make a toast to you, and to the incredible generosity of the Wild Dog family

Mr Zog · « **Reply #7223 on:** May 11, 2019, 04:03:03 am »

This weekend I am on call again. I will be on call every second weekend for the foreseeable future.

I asked the boss to schedule it like that, so that I can get the opportunity to work more overtime. But only every second weekend, as I also have so much to do here at the house. Hurricane season starts in 3 weeks, and I still need to rebuild the east side fence before then. This afternoon on the way home I stopped off at Home Depot and bought 4 fence posts and 4 bags of concrete. I want to try and plant them tomorrow morning, and hopefully get some fencing done by Sunday.

I also did the weed eating and mowed the grass before it got dark, and put seed in the squirrel feeder

Hopefully I do get some extra overtime, but spaced out so that I can get the jobs at home done too

TeeJay · « **Reply #7224 on:** May 11, 2019, 11:06:46 am »

Aaaah nice to have you back Mr Zog. Sorry to hear about the broken bottle - at least the other one survived.

All the best!

Fudmucker · « **Reply #7225 on:** May 11, 2019, 11:59:48 am »

I know someone who has an electric lawnmower.
He rigged it with an LED light so he can mow the lawn in the cool of a Summer's evening.

The broken glass is a tragedy...!
Do you have any recourse against the courier?

Mr Zog · « **Reply #7226 on:** May 12, 2019, 04:23:57 am »

Quote from: Fudmucker on May 11, 2019, 11:59:48 am

I know someone who has an electric lawnmower.
He rigged it with an LED light so he can mow the lawn in the cool of a Summer's evening.

The broken glass is a tragedy...!
Do you have any recourse against the courier?

The courier was the US postal service. Every package mailed automatically has $50.00 insurance included, but the sender has to claim that. Because only one of the two bottles was broken, Pieter can possibly claim back $25.00. I did send him several pics of the package and the damage etc, he will see what he can do. If successful, he will at least get almost all of his mailing cost back

Mr Zog · « **Reply #7227 on:** May 12, 2019, 04:54:26 am »

Be careful what you wish for...

This morning I was up bright and early, and got to measuring and digging. Planted the first of four fence posts and set it in concrete.

Then the phone rang, call out.

I got cleaned up, put on a work shirt, and headed out. Fixed the problem.

Back home I got busy again, planted the other three fence posts, secured in concrete.

Then the phone rang again, call out

I wiped off the sweat (did I mention it was fucking hot and humid?) sprayed on some "stink me pretty" (deodorant

), put on a clean work shirt and headed out. This one was an interesting problem; the home is a rental and the landlord sent out his handyman to replace the pump that had packed up. The handyman replaced the 1 HP pump with a half-horse pump (it is much cheaper) but could not get the pump to get up to pressure. So he relented and went and swapped it out for a 1 horse power pump. But still he could not get it to build up any pressure... That is when the tenant got pissed off, called us, and when I told her that I was certain that I could fix the issue she called the landlord and insisted that I come out and fix their water.

Well it was actually quite a simple fix... In the US we can have either 115 Volt power, or 230 Volt power in our homes. The 230 Volt power is usually used for big stuff like water heaters, AC units, stoves, tumble dryers, etc. And most pumps that are on a dedicated circuit will also run on 230 Volts. Other "lesser" things like lights and wall plugs etc are all wired for 115 Volts. Now when you run a big pump like a 1HP you should use 230 Volts, as the pump draws quite a lot of current, and 230 Volts can carry this load more effectively. A 115 Volt line can also run a 1 HP pump, but because of the high current draw on lower voltage, you should use a thicker gauge wire.

All pumps come factory pre-set for 230 Volts, and inside the back cover you can change a terminal, or turn a selector for it to run on 115 Volts. They are preset for 230 Volts because putting 115 V into it will not cause short term damage, but putting 230 Volts into a 115 Volt pump will burn it out very quickly.

The pump the handyman installed was preset for 230 Volts. The breaker in the main panel for the pump was a 230 Volt breaker. But the power at the end of the cable to the pump was only giving 115 volts. So I opened up the junction box on the wall above the pump, and found that one of the two "legs" (wires) was disconnected... I fixed that, and then the pump ran perfectly

What made the call out "interesting" though was the customer / tenant. An older lady, around 60-ish. A hippy-type lady, and very friendly. Her daughter who was living with her was, I guess, mid-20's, and had two small kids. But there were no men living there... While I was sorting out the invoice on my I-Pad with the elder lady, the daughter was in the pool behind me in a "eitsa-klein" bikini... and she was pretty good-looking too

I was sweating from the heat, perspiration running down my forehead. The older lady asked if I wanted some water, I told her thanks, but I was ok. Then the daughter asked me if I wanted to have a swim in the pool to cool off. I replied that I would love to, but that I didn't have my swimming cozzie with me. Well, if she didn't reply "you don't need to wear swimming trunks..."

I guess my accent did it again

I politely declined, sorted out the invoice, and left.

Without having a swim.

Back home I told Mrs Zog about it and she had a good giggle too

I cooled off for a few minutes, then headed off to Home Depot to get more wood for the fence. Just as I was paying for the wood the phone rang again. Call out

For this call out I needed to go up to the shop to get a submersible pump (21 Miles north) then take it to the address where I would need to install it (another 40 miles south). Eish... So I dropped the wood off at home, sprayed on some more deodorant, and hit the road. Picked up the submersible pump at the shop in Melbourne, and then headed down to Fellsmere in the County to the south of our County. I arrived just as it was getting dark, and got to work. Tested the old submersible pump, it was dead, and installed the new pump. Got it all sorted out, and came home. I got home just after 9:30pm...

Had a quick shower (I think I smelled pretty bad by then

), and heated up my supper in the microwave. Now I'm writing this all up for all-y'all, and then I will go to bed. I'm FUBAR....

Tomorrow I'll try do some more work on the fence... then when it gets too hot I have a project for indoors... maybe I'll even get some pics for y'all...

Thanks for reading

Oubones · « **Reply #7228 on:** May 12, 2019, 06:15:03 am »

Hehe, " Stink me pretty" You got it wrong, you can spray as much as you want but it will not make you pretty!

I call it dry cleaning!

Good on you for rather having a laugh than a skinny dip!

tok-tokkie · « **Reply #7229 on:** May 12, 2019, 08:24:08 am »

That was a busy day.

KiLRoy · « **Reply #7230 on:** May 12, 2019, 10:55:58 am »

One for you Gary..

Mikie · « **Reply #7231 on:** May 13, 2019, 08:03:09 am »

Gary, you cant tell us about the pretty daughter in her barely there bikini and not take photos, thats just called teasing

Sorry Mrs Zog

roxenz · « **Reply #7232 on:** May 13, 2019, 12:31:45 pm »

Quote from: Mrs. Zog on May 09, 2019, 05:13:11 pm

. Maggie looked at them carefully but peed and left them alone, coming back inside instead of chasing them. Dogs and squirrels are learning to co-exist. Which is nice.

I suspect Maggie is training them...

Mr Zog · « **Reply #7233 on:** May 14, 2019, 02:15:51 am »

Quote from: Mikie on May 13, 2019, 08:03:09 am

Gary, you cant tell us about the pretty daughter in her barely there bikini and not take photos, thats just called teasing

Sorry Mrs Zog

Eish boet, I would have loved to have gotten a pic for y'all, but I have a feeling that if I tried to get a pic I would have been bliksemed by both the cougar and the hottie

Mr Zog · « **Reply #7234 on:** May 14, 2019, 02:17:27 am »

Quote from: KiLRoy on May 12, 2019, 10:55:58 am

One for you Gary..

Mr Zog · « **Reply #7235 on:** May 14, 2019, 02:23:21 am »

Quote from: roxenz on May 13, 2019, 12:31:45 pm

Quote from: Mrs. Zog on May 09, 2019, 05:13:11 pm
. Maggie looked at them carefully but peed and left them alone, coming back inside instead of chasing them. Dogs and squirrels are learning to co-exist. Which is nice.

I suspect Maggie is training them...

Co-exist my arse...

Today Mrs Zog calls me to tell me that the dogs caught a squirrel

Fortunately for the squirrel it managed to get away, but I'm guessing it may have been hurt in the scuffle.

Maggie was all gung-ho afterwards, but Sammy gave a squeal, and ran indoors. Climbed up onto Mrs Zog's lap (remember he weighs 80 pounds

) and needed consoling. He was extremely traumatised by the event, and even says he hurt his foot / leg / shoulder / ankle or something because he was limping.

When I finally got home he was bouncing around for his cookie, and I gave him a good examination but could find nothing wrong. I'm guessing he may have sprained something, but probably just wanted attention and so malingered.

He is a gentle soul, but chases squirrels because Maggie tells him to

Mr Zog · « **Reply #7236 on:** May 14, 2019, 02:33:57 am »

So back to Sunday.

I did a whole lot more work on the fence. Salvaged the planks for re-use, and fitted new 2x4's for the cross beams. I didn't remove the corner post, it was still strong, but I did add an additional post next to it, but I could not get the new post perfectly straight as the old post had a concrete base that I didn't want to chip away. So the bottom is apart from the old post by about 6 inches, but the top is right against it. I used a couple of bits of off-cut 2x4 to hold them together really tight. Super strong.

I used the old planks to make the new fence, which is good, as those planks are $1.69 each! Saved a whole lot of money.

I completed 2 full 8-foot panels before it was just too hot to keep on. I was completely bathed in sweat, and the sweat was even dripping off the brim of my hat

A swim (with the pool hottie from Saturday

) would have been really nice... but luckily soon after it started to rain and that cooled me down a whole lot

Some pics below of the fencing job so far... You can see the base of one of the fence posts is completely cracked through. Oh, I also used the 2x4's that I took off the fence to prop it up straight again from the outside.