47F and overcast. Light misty drizzle. Wet grass.
Lawn guys blowing leaves woke me up. Still feeling a bit under the weather.
Gotta check the new rat trap. Lots of activity last night. I really need a camera up there, because I can’t understand what I’m hearing. Unless rats like to just play ‘chase’ and tear back and forth, it doesn’t make sense.
n
No rats in trap. I think they’ve learned that peanut butter = death. I’m going to re-bait with something else.
n
I use FireFox in it’s latest incantation
Presume you mean Quantum – I just installed it yesterday and initial impression is it does seem faster than Chrome – time will tell…
Gotta check the new rat trap. Lots of activity last night. I really need a camera up there, because I can’t understand what I’m hearing. Unless rats like to just play ‘chase’ and tear back and forth, it doesn’t make sense.
Squirrel. Unfortunately, that will require the old fashioned approach, and you will have to use decking screws to fasten the spring-loaded trap to a structural piece so the critter’s death throes don’t result in the corpse decomposing somewhere impossible to reach.
Once the squirrel is gone, check all of your fascias. You probably have a hole convenient to a tree.
Squirrel.
Second that diagnosis.
Had a squirrel in my attic making at various times. Found the entry point was one of the end caps for the ridge vent. Waited until it was gone and put in a new end cap. Next day it was back and had ripped the end cap out. This time I put in two end caps. It tore both of them out. Time to get even.
I bought a trap for squirrels and set it on the path it normally uses to exit the roof and forage for food. Baited with dried corn on the cob. Waited until it was out and sealed the end of the ridge vent with two caps again. Only this time the outer cap was covered in a piece of tin I cut to fit. Secured the tin to the end cap and secured the end cap with screws to the ridge vent.
Next day the trap was gone. The squirrel had been caught and in it’s squirming had managed to move the trap from off the roof to the ground. It was pissed, as in really angry. Took the trap and drove 10 miles away and released the animal. It tried to attack me and was met with a swift kick that tossed it about 15 feet. At which point it ran away.
When we replaced the front bay window we found the nest. Fairly significant in size and apparently there had been a family raised in the nest. Thus I think the “it” was a she but don’t know. The nest could have been from years ago and was just taken over by the current, now former, resident.
No rats in trap. I think they’ve learned that peanut butter = death. I’m going to re-bait with something else.
Try Vienna Sausage. It is the only thing that my dog will eat reliably.
People do not give rodents (rats, mice, squirrels, chipmunks, voles, etc.) enough credit. They are smart and they learn. They also teach their young.
Cats are the best solution, but not just any cat. Barn cats and reformed feral cats. It takes time to allow them to acquaint themselves with your situation. But given patience they will become ruthless.
My perimeter is guarded by a colony of feral cats that I manage (Trap, Neuter, Release). Each year a couple of mice get past them and into my garage (usually fall and winter), but I have an indoor reformed feral cat that has radar ears and hears them. She demands to go into the garage (the crawl space too). In a hour or two she calls and gives us a present of her conquest. We have not had a mouse in the house in years.
Not everyone can cultivate a cat army, it takes time, patience, and understanding. But it is worth it.
Ray wrote:
“Took the trap and drove 10 miles away and released the animal. It tried to attack me and was met with a swift kick that tossed it about 15 feet”
Wouldn’t a bucket of water done the trick?
Air cooled modular nuclear reactor gets key approvals from NRC, investments, and a customer.
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/02/nuscale-factory-built-modular-50-megawatt-nuclear-reactors-have-funding-customers-and-some-nrc-approval.html
Dammit, who told you my plans for world domination? Now you must be eliminated. If you hear meowing … it’s too late.
Not everyone can cultivate an [EVIL] cat army. FIFY….
Lots of squirrels in the trees, and I found the hole in my soffit. It’s by the downspout. I saw a rat use the downspout, so I’m pretty sure it’s rats. The rodents I caught have all been rats, and the fur left behind on the glue traps has all been grey like the rats, not brown or white like the squirrels. The scat looks like rat and not squirrel….
But, there will be moments of LOTS of noise and thrashing. When one is getting free from the glue trap that makes sense, but I haven’t stuck one in a few days.
I need to check the poison in the bait box. I fully expect to see the opening blocked so rats can’t get in.
I’m not underestimating the little bastages. They are really smart and absolutely pass on what they’ve learned. How else to explain them setting off, moving, or flipping traps? My wife says I’ve already killed all the dumb ones and only the most canny are left.
I’m pretty sure they are mocking me….
n
Nick — I posted about five minutes ago and it’s not here. That happened yesterday, too.
ANyway, I suggested liverwurst as bait for the RATS. Something in the smell of liver or fermenting meat attracts insects (esp. yellow-jackets) and might attract RATS as well.
Came across this on Facebbok just now. I posted it five years ago to the day. Might seem appropriate considering yesterday’s stock market..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tulip_price_index1.svg
Air cooled modular nuclear reactor gets key approvals from NRC, investments, and a customer.
Good thing Cankles didn’t get elected. This would be dead in the water.
Oh, yeah…
Hillary Klinton will never be President!
@jim~, I don’t see anything stuck in spam or moderation.
Sometimes linky stuff gets jammed up.
A crash in bitcoin to effectively zero would be a big deal in the news, but how many people are really affected? It’s already lost half… It could trigger other stuff though.
I maintain that we are balanced on a knife edge financially. There are active forces at work to make major changes (see also Russian alternative to SWIFT, petroyuan, etc) that would weaken the US and could cause real disruptions and panic.
Used car financing is currently like the jumbo loans for houses (and ninja loans) were.
Sooner or later it’s all gonna blow up. IT ALWAYS DOES. The markets are cyclical. A generation grows up not knowing loss…. and then it crashes. It’s pretty hard to ‘call the top’ but we know there WILL BE ONE. I think we’re way overdue, that outside factors have been keeping it afloat, and that they can’t forever. (BTW this is the position of my financial advisors at the former American Express Financial too.)
n
Bait in poison box looks basically untouched. I think I’ll move it to the attic on one of the paths they use.
I’m gonna try maple syrup as bait tonight on the bucket trap.
n
@Nick … maybe the bait is untouched because of all of the other bait you are using. Perhaps the other bait is more ‘tasty’ or enticing, so they are leaving the poison bait alone.
I’m still of the opinion that using D-Con as the only bait used is a better choice. Plus nailing some tin over the access holes.
I’m still of the opinion that using D-Con as the only bait used is a better choice.
Or you could scatter cellphones in their path …
🙂
I have heard that sales of crypto-currency mining equipment are driving a significant share of the semiconductor market. A crash will affect more than just the speculators.
Cats are the best solution, but not just any cat. Barn cats and reformed feral cats. It takes time to allow them to acquaint themselves with your situation. But given patience they will become ruthless.
We used to have one of these, a 5 lb female tabby. She was was a terror to any rodent. She was known as “The Executioner”. And she did not believe in clean kills either, her goal was blood splatters on the ceiling, blood splatter on the walls were common.
“Air cooled modular nuclear reactor gets key approvals from NRC, investments, and a customer.”
Why would anyone build an LWR when molten salt reactors are coming? They will revolutionize everything. If they work out.
Like fusion, flying cars, they’re always just 20 years away…..
n
@Mark W, you do not want to touch molten salt reactors. I can’t go into details, but I have worked with Big Reactor (DOE, U.S. Navy, Westinghouse, GE, Bechtel, Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, and more, foreign and domestic) for more than 40 years. The only general detail I will throw out there is with liquid salt/metal reactors there extreme likelihood of primary containment breach with plenty of contamination and runaway fission.
Ok, set up a camera and recorder on the bucket. Smeared the ramp and the log roll with syrup. Even if they don’t go up the bucket, I should see them on one of the common paths.
little bastages.
n
Air cooled modular nuclear reactor gets key approvals from NRC, investments, and a customer.
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/02/nuscale-factory-built-modular-50-megawatt-nuclear-reactors-have-funding-customers-and-some-nrc-approval.html
“Cost – Numerous advantages due to simplicity, off-the-shelf standard items, modular design, shorter construction times, <$5,100/KW"
Neat but is not going to be price competitive with natural gas.
"Fuel – Standard LWR fuel in 17 x 17 configuration, each assembly 2 meters (~ 6 ft.) in length; 24-month refueling cycle with fuel enriched less than 4.95 percent"
Uh oh, that is a deal killer. Still has to be refueled every two years.
Well. I seem to have an early 2002 truck. My new $6.85 window switch doesn’t work the window. No light either. But I can now work the window from the driver’s door switch panel.
Maybe it’s a bad switch. I don’t know. The bump that makes the switch install one way is different. On the new switch bump is on the other side of the old switch.
I’m good. I can work the window and the dogs can’t. 🙂
I don’t suppose the old “turn it around” trick would do any good? Like with nails which have the point on the wrong end?
Hmm, how do people afford to eat out all the time? Especially, how do POOR people do it?
I just ordered two pizzas and half dozen wings from our local shop. $40 and I have to pick it up. I can and do cook, even from prepared Costco entree’s for far less than half that. I can serve STEAK for half that. Last time I got the kids McD’s 4 meals came to almost $30. It’s $40 if you get shakes. A few months ago I was craving fried chicken and hit the KFC and it was $40.
If fast food dinner is $40 a night, that adds up to a mortgage payment every month.
How the he11 does a working class family of four do that? That is certainly one of the primary targets of the marketing I’ve seen. I know McD’s has been closing stores and downsizing, and I see a lot more of the combined stores (pizza hut and KFC in the same building forex) so maybe fewer people can afford that, but there are still a metric ton of stores out there.
n
$5B for a 1GW plant? That doesn’t sound like a particularly attractive price. Even after adjusting for inflation (using the 1% annual rate the Fed’s been using for a decade or two) I think that’s more than current plants cost when they were built.
As for the 2-year refueling cycle, how long is the reactor down for? How much needs to be replaced? How much will the replacement cost? And, most important, where does the old stuff get disposed to?
(On that last point, there are a dozen acceptable ways to get rid of nuclear waste. Acceptable to rational human beings, that is. I think Donald Trump should declare himself dictator and order the executions of environmentalists, communists, stupid people, and judges appointed by Democrats (some category overlap may be noticed), one the first day and doubling every day, until the idiotic objections to safe disposal have ended.)
Nick, it boggles my mind as well. I can get a whole fresh chicken for 5 or 6 bucks and it lasts me a week. A gallon of whole milk is 2.49 — about what you’d pay for 2 cans of Coke from a vending machine. Rice and beans are a cheap and there a thousand ways to use them. Lentils come in a million varieties, and are cheap and extremely nutritious. Garbanzos, especially. Making hummus is a snap. Cheese is comparatively cheap. Pasta is cheap. I took a cab today and got chatting with the driver, from Ethiopia. We got talking food and he not only has noticed the same thing, but also the amount of pure crap Americans eat. No wonder we’re all so friggin’ fat, except for Slim who gets so much exercise from pushing that slide rule back and forth….
I think Chuck Waggoner has ranted about this before, and he’s spot on. A good friend lives in Italy and we both almost always just buy fresh food and cook it well and Bob’s your uncle. We both weigh about 10 lbs more than we did in high school: 150lbs.
Yep, I can do steak dinner for 2 adults and 2 kids, with fresh sides for under $20, and use really GOOD steak for under 40$.
Grilling steak and boiling some sides isn’t exactly hard to do either.
I LIKE eating out, at nice places. I spent years on per diem and living in hotels. I can eat the HECK out of a steak dinner or sushi at some of the finest restaurants in dozens of towns. But I’m good with cooking too. It doesn’t have to be hard, or complex, or take a long time, and anyone can (and everyone should) learn to cook at least one ‘signature dish’ to restaurant quality. I’ve got 3 dinners that I’d put up against your average ‘fine dining’ restaurant, and I’m working on a fourth. I’ve got a dozen more that are great for family and good enough to serve guests.
Cooking instead of eating out, cut back or eliminate smokes and alcohol and soda, and you can save money and get fitter. What’s not to like?
n
“a dozen acceptable ways to get rid of nuclear waste”
Nevada should be forced to take it… They took the money with both hands to build the storage facility, but then decided they didn’t want to take the waste. F that. Pay the money back with interest, or start stacking.
n
I can get a whole fresh chicken for 5 or 6 bucks
$4.99 at Costco already cooked for you, and averaging 3 lbs cooked weight.
https://www.eater.com/2018/1/5/16853818/rotisserie-chicken-costco-grocery-stores-price
Yep, really like the costco chicken roast when i’m in a hurry, and both better tasting and cheaper than McD’s.
n
Hmm, how do people afford to eat out all the time? Especially, how do POOR people do it?
Welfare. Male and Female are not married. Father works. Mother does not. Mother gets lots of money from the state for the kids and money from a tax refund for taxes she never paid. Once a year for a couple of weeks male lives at parents so female can state during the qualification period that the male does not live with her. Thus money for rent, utilities and debit card for food.
I, and my wife, had heard kids state at school that they don’t need an education. They will just drop out when they reach 18 and live on welfare. It worked for their parents. Thus they see welfare as a career path.
Female finds a mate(s), gets pregnant, not married thus state pays for entire pregnancy and delivery. Post natal care includes lots of supplies for the kid including diapers, formula and medical care at no charge to the parent.
They state it is free stuff and money from the government. I point that the government does not earn money and is only using money taken from others. Their limited intelligence response is “nuh-uh” while texting (or snapchatting) on their new iPhone because they broke their last phone that was only six months old. In other words they don’t care about things because it is not their money that purchased the product.
Ray, perhaps you should (re)take that programming job, as you mentioned a couple days ago. Exposure to the little bastards is making you all cynical n stuff.
“No wonder we’re all so friggin’ fat, except for Slim who gets so much exercise from pushing that slide rule back and forth….”
Yes, it requires more calories than pushing buttons on my HP-45C hand calculator. Really happy to have it!
Hmm, how do people afford to eat out all the time? Especially, how do POOR people do it?
The take-n-bake pizza chains accept EBT (food stamps) thanks to the loophole that they are effectively selling uncooked food.
When we lived in Vantucky (Vancouver, WA), the big take-n-bake chain with ticker symbol FRSH was the dominant player in the pizza market. Thanks to the EBT subsidy for the fixed costs, cost to feed a family of four was $20. Even the other bottom feeder chains typically ran $30-40. $50 if you wanted a half dozen midget wings.
Vantucky is like a glimpse into the future. If you want to see what $12/hr. minimum wage, legalized weed, and drawdown of bricks-n-mortar retail due to external forces (in this case, tax-free shopping in Portland) will do to an economy, I highly recommend a visit.
Yes, it requires more calories than pushing buttons on my HP-45C hand calculator. Really happy to have it!
Even carrying a calculator to classes in grad school made people look at me like I rode a horse in to attend class.
I had my Swiss Micros RPN calculator in an interview/coding test the other day, but fortunately, I didn’t have to use it. European company, but most of the staff were Millenials from the US or India.
This welfare racket sounds pretty good. How do I get in on it at 62?
Sorry, MrAtoz, you’ll have to get rid of your white privilege before you are allowed to say Gimme muh gibs.
Swiss Micros RPN
They look real familiar to the HP models. Licensed or stolen design?
Yeah, what’s a Swiss Micro? Or do I have to Google it?
I’m GOING to Google the HP-45C. Didn’t you mean the HP-65C?
Bet that’s worth a few bucks on eBay these days!
I have an 11C, a 12C, and a 15C, which gets the most use.
So used to RPN that a regular calculator would drive me nuts.