I originally debated whether to post this publicly at all. I wish I had more progress to report in this post, but we’ve been otherwise occupied with all sorts of “distractions” we’ll call them. We work all week, so that leaves us just the weekends to get things done. Let’s just say we haven’t had a weekend to ourselves for at least a month now.

Every single weekend there’s been something else that needed done, and not here on the Barkyard. Not even here at home. It’s not all bad news, but not much progress has been made, even though we’ve had many unrelated accomplishments. I will warn you death is involved, so turn back now if you’re squeamish and not so inclined to hear about it.

When the doctor gave mom six months to live, six years ago, we pretty much knew he was only looking to enrich himself, convincing her she needed a bunch of expensive procedures to extend her life to avoid his “death sentence”. Mom became a nurse in the “doctors are Gods” era, never questioning him, even though we tried to convince her otherwise.

In My Time Of Dying

If you’re familiar with healthcare decision making, the question of quality vs. quantity of life is a prime concern. Mom went into Hospice care rather than undergoing surgeries she likely wouldn’t have survived. That damn doctor even tried to convince her to have a procedure that he and we already knew would shutdown her kidneys! Again!

Not only was the doctor wrong, but so far from right that mom proved his prognosis complete bullshit by outliving his prediction of months to live by many years. Regardless, by the end of May mom’s time was up. She was able to pass away peacefully, at home, in her own bed, not tied to a bunch of machines in some sterile hospital environment, all alone.

I got the call early Saturday afternoon that mom had passed. Sunday we were on our way to my parent’s home in Palm Bay. Both my brothers were already there, taking the red eye flight, arriving there about the same time Nick and I left home that morning. Hospice had already taken mom yesterday. There’s no reason to hurry, but at least we’re there for dad.

Arrangements Were NOT Impeccable

Nick and I spent all of our bereavement leave travelling back and forth to mom and dad’s and the funeral home. That first day was entirely wasted! Only dad needed to be there to sign paperwork. “Little Miss Vague” didn’t think the details important. Another day for mom’s final viewing, driving through the worst storm we’ve ever been through! What a day.

Driving four hours just to spend ten minutes at the funeral home wasn’t fun. Having to do it AGAIN because of some stupid girl’s vagueness was ridiculous. I say girl because she doesn’t possess the maturity to be called a woman. The funeral home certainly demonstrated they couldn’t care less about us, giving a clueless little bitch a role she isn’t qualified for.

“Little Miss Vague” certainly demonstrated she really couldn’t care less about us either by laughing and joking with the receptionist at the front desk while we paid our last respects to mom in the next room. Like I said, she isn’t mature enough for the role she’s been asked to fill, let alone qualified. Just a stupid, clueless little bitch.

For The Living

At least the four hour drive to mom and dad’s and back wasn’t a waste. Chris and Matt were there, pretty much what’s left of our immediate family. Ann had to stay behind to take care of the dogs, both ours and Nick’s. Courtney had the option, and was originally going to come with us for mom’s viewing, but had second thoughts and decided not to.

When Nick and I arrived at my parent’s house, Vitas (mom’s hospice provider) was already there to remove their equipment, like the oxygen generator and mom’s hospital bed. When they were finished, the task of arranging for the living began. Dad was heartbroken, his partner of more than 64 years now gone forever. Time to get things squared away for the living.

We’ve always joked that my brother Matt is the “White Tornado” because of his energy and dedication to making sure things are clean and organized. He moved furniture, swept, then mopped floors, making sure dad had a clear path without tripping hazards or obstructions that could cause a fall.

For now dad’s still making it happen and still able to get around with his walker, but he’s also now one life changing event away from needing constant care. We picked up mom’s ashes last weekend (as of this writing) and took our last road trip with her to bring her home. Dad seems to be doing better now. Time will tell. It’s yet another waiting game.

New Life

Not so much about starting a new life as starting a new chapter in life. We’ve also been busy helping the kids, Courtney and our son-in-law Esnel, move out of what used to be our home of twenty years, and into their “new to them” house. It’s Esnel’s mother’s house, and it will now become theirs, as she passed away not even a year ago.

There’s a whole ‘nother story there that we won’t go into. Let’s just say that making their new house into their home is going to take some work. Another weekend devoted to helping the kids donate all Ana’s belonging to the Christian Sharing Center to those less fortunate. Now the real work begins…

Cleaning. Painting. Wiring. New ceiling fans. New laundry equipment. You name it, everything necessary to move in and make it their home. But that’s yet another weekend dedicated to other than the Barkyard. Not complaining, just sayin’.

Another weekend to go pick up used laundry equipment 45 minutes away, then transporting it all the way to their new house, at least another 45 minutes from there. Then the half an hour drive back home. They needed something better than the miniature, all-in-one stacked unit that may be good enough for several towels, but not much more.

The motivating factor behind all this is the sooner they’re moved out of the other house, the sooner we can list it on the market, and add the proceeds of the sale to our retirement fund. I still have the remnants of my long lost HO scale empire that spanned two rooms looking for a new place to live. And three motorcycles in the garage that need a new home.

Rats!

That’s right. I said rats. At least a dozen of them having a party in our Barkyard! I’m sitting here one night in data central working on the casting mold design for the switches and look up at the surveillance system monitor to see not one, not two, but nearly a dozen rats running around the Barkyard!

Up and down the massive oak tree trunk. Out from under the house to the corner of the deck. Then beneath it. Then out from under the other side of it, and back again. It’s freaking me out! I haven’t seen any rats for such a long time that it doesn’t make sense that we now have so many all at once. Not sure what happened, but I’m not pleased at all.

The only thing I can think of is they recently cut down most of the trees across the street all around the high school, dislocating countless squirrels, and most likely these rats too. All I know is it’s time to order more rat traps. And poison. Well, not exactly poison, but the stuff that swells up inside them until they literally explode from the inside out.

So far I’ve sent six of them to their graves, four of them in traps, two of them bloated and barely able to move until they passed. Folded one in half, and feet away from where the trap was set. Like I said earlier. Death is involved. Haven’t seen any of the remaining “dirty dozen” in over a week, but that doesn’t mean they’re all gone. Yet.

A Break In The Action

Today is the first day of the first weekend I haven’t something else that needed done for somebody else! Finally I’m able to do something for the Barkyard! Today is the first day of my nine day staycation! The entire week of the Fourth of July, bookended by both weekends. And I’ve done a number of things that needed done for quite a while now.

Like updating this post for one. Cleaned up all the rat droppings on the garage floor and arranged things so there aren’t a tripping hazards everywhere I need to step. I wanted to do that last weekend but had to take my last road trip with mom to deliver her ashes to dad’s. Then had to help move the kids “new to them” washer and dryer to their new place.

So I actually didn’t feel guilty spending time to sync the computers as well as update to the drive synchronization web page I created to help me keep track of everything. Imagine having four different computers, all with their own version of things I’ve worked on over the past few decades.

Some are broken into pieces and spread over different drives because one drive large enough for all of it didn’t exist at the time. I lost a considerable amount of that history from 2012 to 2014, with no backups. Mainly family photos and renovations at the other house. I have a total of six photos from 2014. Sad.

Obviously needed a better backup plan. Along those lines, that web page tracks three of those computers. I may even add the fourth. Eventually. As I ran the comparisons of areas that change frequently, I added the common ones I usually keep in sync across all three computers. Essentially a redundant backup. Next step is identify single point failures.

Broken Into Pieces

Speaking of broken into pieces, I about sliced my finger off, breaking a couple blades off the new computer fan I just installed in the old computer in the process! Ouch! Those puppies are SHARP! Well now I have a deep slice in my fingertip, bleeding everywhere, and a new fan that needs replaced. Again.

Things went from a periodic bearing growl from the old fan to increased volume from the increased airflow of the new fan to shake, rattle, and roll from the imbalance of missing blades! I was in the process of looking for the model number of the power supply fan and reached in the open case to lift it without thinking these things were dangerous.

I don’t know how many times in the past I’ve stopped a cooling fan with just my fingers without a thought of getting injured. These things aren’t generally that powerful and it doesn’t take much to stall the motor. Not these new ones! They run faster, with more torque, and knife edged blades. Talk about a recipe for disaster! Lesson learned.

Rats! Again!

I hadn’t seen any rats for weeks after the initial culling, but tonight they’re back for a reprise, what looks like the remaining half dozen I failed to kill the first time around. But this time I’m seeing smaller ones too, like the size of mice. Even worse, I’m seeing mating action to make even more of the little bastards!

I still have a number of traps strategically placed under the corners of the deck where the rats like to scurry up into the slots in the concrete post bases on either side. But even though they’ve been tripped and reset time and time again, still nothing in them! I thought maybe we’d scared them off. Nope. Need a better mouse trap…

Nick had sent me a Facebook link to some contraption on a Facebook group as a starting point, but of course you have sign up for the group and a wait for a moderator to add you. I don’t mind that as much as jumping through their hoops and answering their 20 questions only to be ignored. Fuck them. Didn’t really want to join their fucking group anyway.

The gist of it is an ammo container from Horrible Freight, modified with two holes cut in either end. The idea is to place yummy food just the other side of a larger opening with a hardware cloth mesh blocking access to the enticing bait just the other side of it, forcing them to the other end which leads to the trigger of a trap just inside it.

Death Trap

My first thought is for all the time and effort to make the modifications to a bunch of these ammo boxes, the time is better spent designing a 3D printed solution that’s ready to use hot off the build plate. Time to switch gears from the switch casting design and focus on a new, more deadly approach. We’ll call it “Death Trap”.

I have the proof of concept prototype printed within a day. The second generation versions are geared toward chamfered edges and glue in mesh pieces. Printing the mesh in place added hours to the print time, so the second gen uses a separate mesh that takes maybe 20 minutes to print and glue in place.

I even added an embossed “Death Trap” moniker to the cover. But even with the gen 2 mods, the box takes ~12 hours to print and the top another ~8 hours. Basically a day per Death Trap. Even worse, there isn’t enough filament on a single spool to print two entire Death Traps! There’s roughly 330 meters of filament on a 1Kg spool, a little over 360 yards.

Double Trouble or Death Trap Jr.?

At first I tried simply halving the rat sized version into a mouse sized version, but it ended up being slightly too small. Another hastily designed prototype hot off the presses, er, printer, lead to a second generation with the same features as the rat sized version, i.e. beveled edges and glued in mesh. Even a top with the embossed “Death Trap” logo.

So now both printers are hard at work printing Death Traps, the new one the large rat sized version and the old one the mouse size versions. But half sized means one eighth the print volume, so the mouse sized versions take only a few hours each. For comparison, the top takes only 18.61 meters and the base just 22.93 meters.

The Death Traps are specifically designed around the dimensions of the Victor M035 Mouse and M205 Rat traps. I originally printed the mouse versions in black, but it appears just the heat from sunlight is enough to deform them. New ones in white are coming soon.

So far, they’ve caught zero rats or mice. Sadly, I did managed to snap a squirrel though. No more leaving them set them during the day. In the past we may have gutted and dressed out that squirrel for a meal, but these Florida squirrels are tiny compared to the ones I grew up with in Ohio. He’s on his way to the dump or incinerator with the trash pickup.

Taking The Win(s)

While I may not have caught all the rats, at least i caught half of them. Still wondering where they came from and why such a large number of them? At this point I’m taking the win. From the research I’ve done, rats are leery of something new to the environment, so it may take some time after introducing the Death Trap for them to get acclimated. Time will tell.

Another win I’m taking is the week off for July 4th along with both the weekends surrounding it. Well, at least the weekend before. The Saturday of the weekend after was helping the kids move most of their stuff to their new digs. But that was the only big interruption of progress.

The biggest recent win for me by far is getting the old Tevo Tarantula Pro 3D printer back online and cranking out the prints. When I bought the new, bigger one to replace it, it promised to be faster, but the old one continues to run circles around it. I thought I pushed it to its limits before, but accidentally set it to slice even faster and it still keeps printing!

Fixing The Floor (Again)

I was finally able to get the plywood floor of the office sliced in half and properly supported. Because the actual office floorboards are the original porch decking, they slope toward the back wall at ¼” per foot, for a total drop of 2″ over the nearly 8′ width. I placed a 4’x8′ sheet of ¾” plywood over it, supported in the middle by 1×4 and a 2×4 at the back edge.

Since the porch porch has settled of the century the house has been here, and continues to settle, I overcompensated a bit, just in case. The first 2′ of the 4′ width of the plywood sheet is raised ¾” by the 1×4 and the remaining 2′ another ¾” for a total of 1½” by the 2×4.

The problem was both supports shifted away from where they originally started out and the plywood became “spongy” and “bouncy” and anything sitting on the plywood bounced right along with it. I didn’t dare stack anything for fear of it toppling over when I walked on it.

Nick gave me his battery powered circular saw that made quick work of it. That is, once I had everything off the plywood, the carpet pulled back, and the centerline measured and marked. Why cut it in half you ask?

Better Than Ever

Because it’s much easier to lift out half that sheet of plywood, leaving the desk and computers in place, then place the supports where they belong and fasten everything together. With that done and the carpet back in place, now it’s solid as a rock, just like I wanted it to begin with. Better than ever!

Now I want to extend the areas under my desk and off the end under the work cell so everything is at the same height. It’s bothersome having the ¾” plywood just end where my feet hit the floor under my desk, with a similar situation under the work cell. But that’s a problem for future me as they say.

We cleaned out my closet, and the only thing I kept was a single polo shirt and my motorcycle boots. Everything else is gone. And with that, I’m going back to getting things done. Time to start making room for all my HO scale stuff still sitting in the corner room over at the other house. And styrene model kits. And file cabinet. And… You get the idea.

Making Room

I accomplished a lot of the things on my list, not as much as I wanted to get done, but I never do. Making room for the most recent acquisitions in the closet was a big goal for me over my time off, and I managed to get most everything stuffed in the closet, but there’s still more to be done there.

The idea is to make room for all my bins, currently sitting on top the file cabinets, over on the cabinet at the foot of my bed where all those recent acquisitions used to sit. Mission almost accomplished. But now I need lights in the closet to see what I’m doing.

I had to take time away from that task to look into it. To that end, I feel another Lighting project coming on… I’ll spare you the details and save them for another post. When I put in the new closets, it was long past when we rewired the house, and before I tore them out the originals didn’t have electricity run to them either. Battery power it is.

Stay tuned for more updates on that and the progress of moving what’s left of my HO scale empire from the other house out here. I feel a bookshelf layout coming on… Nope. Not until we’re able to run train the the Barkyard again!