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Yesterday's & Today's Photos

He didn't make it here at all on Monday. The following notes apply to work done on Tuesday and today.

Minor, but steady progress the last couple of days. He dug out some dirt from the back of the shed to allow for the installation of the shower and toilet drain pipes and to connect them to the septic tank. He drilled the hole in the floor for the shower. He brought some 4'x8' sheets of OSB to put on the walls behind the toilet and shower. I cleared away some branches of some juniper trees to make it easier to dig the trench from the water cisterns to the outhouse/shed.

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Today's Photo

My contractor stopped by today to pick up his trailer he left at my place a while back after delivering some supplies. His next return trip will be with the trailer loaded with the pallets we will be using to put under the two 275 gallon water cisterns. I'm pretty sure he will have other supplies, such as the three 3" pipes we will be using for a solar water heater.

The photo shows the OSB sheets he will be installing behind the toilet and shower stall. I'm sure he will also be putting a waterproof layer over that, but we haven't talked about that in detail yet.

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My contractor stopped by today. We didn't get much done, but he dropped off some parts & supplies and we talked about what would be happening next.

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Today's Photos

We got a bit more done today. He installed a riser to the opening of the septic tank. I'm not sure if he buried the septic tank too deep or it needed to go that deep, but whatever the reason, a riser was needed to have the septic tank opening closer to or right at ground level.

He also cut the hole in the floor for the toilet. Not a whole lot today, but we're getting closer. He may bring the palettes to go under the water cisterns on Monday.

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Today's Photos

This is my first attempt at a bucket mousetrap. As soon as I'm satisfied with this one, I'll make a second one. For now, I'll be placing one in front of each vehicle. I almost don't care if they are anywhere else on the property, but I don't want them climbing into my engine compartments and having my wiring and hoses for dinner.

This first one is fairly complete, but I didn't have a ramp for it, and it was getting late in the day so I used what I could find, which in this case was a piece of foam. And I didn't attach it very well. The next morning, I found it lying on the ground. The final photo shows my new and improved ramp. This time I drilled holes in both the wood and the bucket and used wire to connect the two. I've seen some people using wire "netting" as a ramp.

It's only been out one night and it caught nothing. But it's been raining a little bit every day, so that could be why. I'm not going to expect anything until we have a few days with no rain.

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Today's Photos

Flying insects have been absolutely bugging me lately (pun intended) - both flies and "no-seeums". I bought some "old school" fly paper strips and put up about 5 of them. They filled up pretty quickly. I also bought an old school fly swatter and got some exercise using that.

But it was eating up time I didn't really want to waste, so I bought a couple of bug zappers and turned those on overnight. Today's photos are the result of about a week or so of working overnight. You might have to look pretty closely at the first photo, but there are quite a few. They are easier to see in the second photo. And as I was setting up and taking the second photo, there was some wind so some of them blew away, but this shows the majority of what was there.

I think there were so many because of the heat and somewhat low humidity, because about a week after this, it rained a little bit each day and they dwindled away fairly quickly. Over the next few days since these photos were taken, I'm not being bothered much at all. Phew! I'm grateful for that.

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I checked my bucket mousetrap this morning and found a (dead) mouse. I had been checking it about every other day since I put it out about a week and a half ago (nothing until this morning). It has been raining a little bit just about every day and the peanut butter bait was there, but not in the best shape (so I slathered on a new "dab"). Also, all the cardboard is getting beaten to a pulp by the rain. I'm going to have to think about using something that is more durable. But at least I know it is working!

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Today's Photo

Because the rains were quickly destroying the cardboard of my Bucket Mousetrap 1.0 (September 5^th), I used some Coroplast I have (plastic cardboard) to replace the paper cardboard. This 2.0 version should last quite a while. I left the one on the right just where it is in the photo because this morning I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. I'm not sure if it was a mouse or a lizard, but that's why I'm going to leave it here (right up against the shed). I moved the one on the left to where it was when I caught the mouse yesterday.

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First use of the propane heater this season. Only needed it for the coldest time of the night.

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This is the first dry day we've had in a while. Much wetter than last year and we haven't even entered the winter season yet.

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