Carport drain cleaning - with assistance

 

Can't get rid of them!

Brivis Wombat gas heater-

 Watching TV last night and must have fallen asleep because I didn't notice anything. ET yells out did I turn the heater on - nope - so got up to have a look. Ceiling vents blowing cold air... UH-OH

Checked the thermostat and heater was turned off - not good.

Ruby & Rosie angle parking

Ruby & Rosie preeing after showers

Rosie & Ruby preening after a outdoor shower in the front yard

Bailey with his mum

Very layback lol.

Something... in the air

Sprocket aka Sir

Bailey is very needy

  

Bailey is very needy, just finished a session with ET and then found my lap.

Wi-Fi Chicken Annex Door - Upgrade 1

 As planned I have upgraded the 3mm MDF door to a heavy gauge carbon steel Cookie Sheet - Arrruuuuggghh! (Tim Allen).

Product Details

• Dimensions/Size:
• Exterior: 1.8cm (H) x 43.5cm (W) x 28.3cm (D)
• Interior: 1.6cm (H) x 38.1cm (W) x 25.4cm (D)
• Material: Carbon steel
• Colour: Black

Features

• Medium size
• Heavy gauge, carbon steel for enhanced cooking performance and even heat distribution
• Premium 2 layer non-stick coating
• Oven safe up to 230 deg.
• PFOA free coating

Wi-Fi Chicken Door - Painting 2

Still have a few things to do including installing door sill guards and add some trim on the inside of the chook run door. Having said that we are already working on changing the timber doors to metal.

Chicken annex door - standing in the annex looking out.

Wi-Fi Chicken Door - Painting 1

We are painting the frames and surrounding areas that need a touch up.

Wi-Fi Bird Feeder repairs - Part 2

For Part 1 we repaired, modified and strengthened the bird feeder.

For this session we are reducing the height of the stand down to about five and a half feet.

Girls have been with me all the time in the workshop scanning for every individual seed lol.

Wi-Fi Bird Feeder repairs - Part 1

We need to further strengthen the feeder to withstand Cockatoo attacks!

Remove the Wi-Fi Valve aka Actuator from the base mount.

Wi-Fi Chicken Annex Door 5

With a medical appointment this morning and a dental one this afternoon wasn't much left of the day but did manage to fix the wire mesh to the door frames.

Trimming and stapling the wire mesh onto the internal (chook run) door frame.

Wi-Fi Chicken Annex Door - Part 4

With the wi-fi chicken annexe door installed went back this morning to tidy up the wiring for that. Looking around decided to review all the wiring - electrical and networking - and it's a good thing I did that!

Setting up to tidy-up the annexe door wiring.

Wi-Fi Chicken Annexe Door - Part 3

With the annex door installed into the annex gate we can move onto mounting the actuator on a base and make the actuator arm.

The door actuator is ready to install.

Wi-Fi Chicken Annexe Door - Part 2

In this session we installed the wi-fi door into the annexe gate.

Removed the annexe gate and took it into the workshop.

Wi-Fi Chicken Annexe Door - Part 1

 Making another door this time for the chook run annexe gate.

I stuffed around for quite a while making the first one for the chook run this one took less than one hour!

This one will cop the weather so we are using exterior 3mm plywood.

Wi-Fi Chicken Door - Upgrade 1

Yesterday we did the cookie sheet upgrade to external annex door. Today we are doing the same upgrade to the internal chook run door.

Removing the door frame.

Wi-Fi Bird feeder - Part 6

Modifications to stabilise the feeder.

Adding some improvised brackets at the base of the feeder.

Wi-Fi Bird feeder - Part 5

Worked out how to mount the bird feeder assembly atop the bamboo pole.

Finding the balance point.

Wi-Fi Bird feeder - Part 4

 

This morning we are making a stand for the Wi-Fi Bird Feeder.

Don't have any preconceived ideas about this one and certainly no napkin sketch. Let's go for a stroll around the place and see what we can find.

Wi-Fi Bird feeder - Part 3B

 Demo video.

Wi-Fi Bird feeder - Part 3A

In the last session we mounted the water valve on a round plywood base.

Components are sitting on two fence palings that I dressed in the planer/jointer machine. Thinking... shuffling things around.

Wi-Fi Bird feeder - Part 2

 This time I'm discarding the supplied hardware; mounting foot and pipe clamp and instead using a mounting block to which the actuator will be secured with nuts & bolts.

Happy with that so remove from the actuator to fix on the plywood disc.

Wi-Fi Bird Feeder - Part 1

I still have things to do with the Wi-Fi Chicken Door, some refinements and also need to paint everything.

Taking a break from that and starting a Wi-Fi bird feeder. This is for our Bluey the rose-ringed parakeet AKA ringneck parrot.

Bluey visits us morning and afternoon.

Wi-Fi Chicken Door - Echo Show Demo

This video shows how the wi-fi chicken door can be controlled via the Smart Life app on Amazon Echo Show.

Wi-Fi Chicken Door - First time for chooks

 

Wi-Fi Chicken Door - Part 11C Final

 Assorted videos as I built the box frame around the door.

Wi-Fi Chicken Door - Part 11B

 Finishing the install with some testing videos up next.

Wi-Fi Chicken Door - Part 11A

 The wi-fi chicken door is installed and working - yay

Wi-Fi Chicken Door - Part 10B

After gathering the tools we need went out to start installing the chook door and then... the heat got to me!

Wi-Fi Chicken Door - Part 10A

Construction photos showing the main components and configuration of the device via the Alexa app on my Samsung J7 Pro phone.

For testing am using my 14" band saw to secure the actuator mechanism (wi-fi valve)

Wi-Fi Chicken Door - Part 9B

 In the last session we decided to use the wi-fi valve mounting hardware and here we are making a new frame for the smaller 3mm MDF door using the previous chicken door.

The new door will slide inside the previous door which is now the new doors frame - confusing!

Wi-Fi Chicken Door - Part 9A

Having another go with a revised valve mounting arrangement and a lighter weight door. The actuator was struggling to lift the door not helped by me jamming it a few times stressing the servo mechanism.
I put that one aside for the Bluey bird feeder.

This time we'll use the supplied mounting hardware.

Wi-Fi Chicken Door - Part 8

 The 3mm plywood sliding door has been replaced with 3mm MDF.

The wi-fi valve was doing the job but the actuator arm was struggling a bit to complete the lift.

More thinking...

Wi-Fi Chicken Door - Part 7B

In this session we are routing the pulley, assembly and working mock-up.

Wi-Fi Chicken Door - Part 7A

With the door and frame assembled we can now start working out how to mount the water valve with a string connection to the top of the door - new ground.

This is where we finished the previous session.

Wi-Fi Chicken Door - Part 6

For this session we are up to the point where the frame sides and the bottom (base) have been screwed together with the door sliding nicely up and down. In the next session we will fit the frame top and take it from there. Oh... lovely day.

We can start putting it all together.

Wi-Fi Chicken Door - Part 5

Back after lunch... we are going to route channels in the frame sides. I haven't used the router table for over 12 months, had to clear away all the stuff that was stored on top and brush off all the sawdust - and cobwebs.

Preparing to route the side frame channels but things came to a abrupt halt - false start! Got held up with a router table problem!

Wi-Fi Chicken Door - Part 4

In this session we are assembling the frame.

Two screws for each corner.

Wi-Fi Chicken Door - Part 3

With the Wi-Fi Valve setup and operating we can start making the door frame and the actual door that will slide up and down inside a frame.

After rummaging through my limited timber supplies this should get us started.

Timber is so  expensive these days!

Wi-Fi Chicken Door - Part 2B

With the smart valve setup and operating we can start making the actual door that will slide vertically inside a door frame.

This is the desk return, to the left is the main desk with Lenovo AIO desktop with Canon printer plus other stuff. Made another higher stand to accommodate the Amazon Echo Show 8 on the left.

Wi-Fi Chicken Door - Part 2

The ZigBee Wi-Fi Valve has just been delivered by Amazon!

Ordered yesterday here today 

Wi-Fi Chicken Door - Part 1

Looking for a way to let the chooks in and out main chook run and the adjacent chook annex. With that in mind doing some research to come up with some ideas to make a wi-fi controlled chicken door that would sit inside the chook run gate, at the bottom and centered. 

 

The main reason for doing this is related to the morning egg laying ritual so I can remotely let the girls (at separate times) in and out too do their egg business. I am browsing Amazon looking for suitable wi-fi smart shut-off water valves (actuators) - compatible with Alexa.

The one above looks good with a choice of two Android apps, checkout the video!

Zia snoozing on desk.

  

Zia resting after solo zoomies.

Bailey - Morning sun

Moved Bailey's igloo to catch the morning sun.

Ruby & Rosie after treats.

 

The girls winding down with a pruning session after corn & rice treats.

Can you spot the chooks?

This photo to hard? try the next one

Windows Explorer crashing

I have been jousting with this for a while now! 

Explorer crashes if I try to copy a file or folder or right click to view file or folder properties - bugger!

I use WFE a lot to manage media for Facebook and blogging.

Tried all the usual things including running SFC to check for corrupt system files and finally started investigating shell extensions in particular third party shell extensions - Bingo!

Download ShellExView:

Extract and right-click run as administrator.

Extensions that appear in pink have been installed by third party applications.

You need to disable all of them and restart Explorer to check that it's working OK.

Then one-by-one go through enable only one and restart Explorer.

Repeat to find the shell extension that crashes Explorer.

In my case it turned out to be Format Factory, a file conversion programme.

Rosie likes this box.

Looks like Rosie is happy with the larger kitty litter tray - yay

 

The Bone Bus

Back home after a scan in the carpark at the local GP clinic.

The last one was 06-08-2018 - time flies!

 

Rosie roost - Version 6.2.1

Found another kitty litter tray the same size as the two below. Rosie decided the other tray was to small - it was. Looks like she's given this one the thumbs up! Also fitted a length of dowel (perch) to the top of the front pine edging.

 

Zia & Bailey on alert

Zia & Bailey on alert while ET feeds the birds.

Bin collection today

Yellow bin is recycle and Green garden & kitchen waste.

This week Yellow is chockers due mainly to the concurrent annual hard waste collection so I've been doing the rounds collecting whatever can go out.

Before the trucks come around council inspectors have been monitoring bin contents to check that residents are following the bin sorting rules - they are watching! Some neighbours have had their bins tagged warning and notifying to follow the rules.

Anyway... went out this morning with another hand full for the Yellow bin a we have - been tagged!

 Ruby & Rosie exploring the front yard.

Bailey demanding cuddles

 

Bailey demanding cuddles from ET.

(One of his human carers)

Remembering Pixie (i year on)

 

On this day 1 year ago we said goodbye to our beautiful Mini Pin.

RIP my girl.

Indian ringneck parakeet

 

Indian ringneck parakeet is back again today.

Ruby & Rosie modified roost

As usual Ruby is in first.