Trail Cameras Again

[pbd 264]

18 hours ago, Pedagogical Tom said:

The camera is close enough to the house that if I happened to be on the porch with a gun and saw them, I could pick one off. Thing is, they're smart and skittish and have great eye sight. I still haven't actually seen them myself and if I do, it'll be a glimpse as they disappear. In the video above, they were calmly walking north in the first few clips then making tracks the other way in the last one. I suspect one of my animals noticed them, or maybe I came out the door and didn't notice them. Anyway, I'd like to eat one but don't think I have the patience and skills to actually kill one so I haven't ever hunted them and won't start now.

FIFY

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

On 3/7/2021 at 2:38 PM, pbd said:

FIFY

I think people misunderestimate how smart birds are. Anyway, they're smart enough to avoid even being seen by me.

I enjoy seeing them and all the other critters on the camera. I see possums, coons,  and armadillos all the time on the camera but rarely see those in person either.

[Mrleft8 3,556]

2 hours ago, Pedagogical Tom said:

I think people misunderestimate how smart birds are. Anyway, they're smart enough to avoid even being seen by me.

I enjoy seeing them and all the other critters on the camera. I see possums, coons,  and armadillos all the time on the camera but rarely see those in person either.

I have a Guinea fowl. The last one left after raising a dozen last spring. His name is "Ellis".... As in "L" "S" Last Standing. He's pretty smart for a Punk rock chicken. He's learned to trust me, and lets me pet him on occasion. He chases the puppy, the cat, and any neighbor dogs that come in to the yard. He knows exactly when feeding time is, and where it is. So far he's been smart enough to avoid coyotes, or hawks, or owls. He roosts inside the garage at night, not out in the trees like the others did.

 I won't say he's "smart" smart, but he has more brains than a Dog I've seen....

[Grande Mastere Dreade 4,168]

On 1/8/2021 at 2:22 AM, boomer said:

During the day, when the lower pasture isn't being used by livestock in the winter, the doe bring their young in as well as give birth and wean their young. When the doe hear coyotes in the spring when the grass has started to grow, they hide the newborns in the tall grass, jump the fences and draw the coyotes off on a chase, returning later in the day. Final image is partial image of the old place from the air - the road goes from behind the tree at the top of the triangle, down thru the trees towards the former hydro dam.

 

 

cool place booms...  but you need to add a 2000sqft shop somewhere on there..

[Grande Mastere Dreade 4,168]

On 3/6/2021 at 7:42 AM, Pedagogical Tom said:

The turkeys are back, this time with a large male that I don't recognize from the previous visit.

 

Did you name him Tom,  Tom?

[Steam Flyer 8,439]

9 hours ago, Grande Mastere Dreade said:

cool place booms...  but you need to add a 2000sqft shop somewhere on there..

Door to the right, in the corner of the underground hangar

- DSK

[boomer 1,368]

On 3/8/2021 at 7:26 PM, Grande Mastere Dreade said:

cool place booms...  but you need to add a 2000sqft shop somewhere on there..

Have two shops in the house totaling 1400 sq. ft and a 24'x40' shop out of the pic in the trees, there are also two more structures, one behind the house and another for critters just out of the picture to the left of the stones lower right. Also have more equipment, tractors and mower then shown in the pic. My wife moving equipment with her newest compact tractor.

 

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

Still seeing the regular crowd around my camera, including the bobcat

And coyote

But my neighbor told me he saw a panther wandering through his yard in daylight yesterday, so I moved the camera to that part of his yard. Many of us have seen panthers around here, including me many years ago, and I first bought my original trail camera hoping to get a shot of one. Still hoping!

[Mrleft8 3,556]

8 hours ago, Excoded Tom said:

Still seeing the regular crowd around my camera, including the bobcat

And coyote

But my neighbor told me he saw a panther wandering through his yard in daylight yesterday, so I moved the camera to that part of his yard. Many of us have seen panthers around here, including me many years ago, and I first bought my original trail camera hoping to get a shot of one. Still hoping!

I heard one (Panther), or at least I think it was one the other night, and the donkeys about a quarter mile away were braying up a storm...

 I haven't seen a Florida Panther that I can verify yet, but the Catamount that I saw up in Vermont was majestic.

Just like an Elephant, or Dall Sheep, I can't imagine how anyone would want to kill one just because they could.

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

After a few days in my neighbor's yard, only got one of those short tailed panthers.

And even cropped in and "enhanced" by Photoshop it's a lousy pic.

He has LOTS of bunnies over there, and a hawk that knows it.

I got a pic of the hawk sitting on top of his outboard engine (just out of the cropped pic above to the right.) Then, an hour later, this pic of the hawk in flight:

 

[Pointy End 32]

Can anyone recommend, to a trail cam novice, a Brand/Make/Model, etc. for critter/property monitoring in the mountains of W. North Carolina?  Have seen lots of the usual in that area, white tail, bobcat, turkey, racoon and even elk and black bear, but am always too slow with the cell phone cam to snap a decent picture as proof.   Thank you!!!

[DA-WOODY 1,284]

47 minutes ago, Pointy End said:

Can anyone recommend, to a trail cam novice, a Brand/Make/Model, etc. for critter/property monitoring in the mountains of W. North Carolina?  Have seen lots of the usual in that area, white tail, bobcat, turkey, racoon and even elk and black bear, but am always too slow with the cell phone cam to snap a decent picture as proof.   Thank you!!!

I can supplement yer Raccoon stock with fuckers who don't give a fuck

these fuckers will stare you down

you get plenty of time to charge yer fone and then get a pic of them Fucking-Up Shit

had one defiantly climb a next-door neighbor's fence and stare me down

I happened to have a truck/trailer parked with sum lumber in the back

I grabbed a 1" X 4" board about 6' long and walked to about 5' away from the fucker

fucker kept staring me down

Till out from Stage Right the end of the board (Flying flat) as hard as I could swing it

Connected with the Fuckers left as it made a Pleasant Sound of a SOLID Hit

Fucker landed on the ground with a UN-Cushend Thud

I went inside my house before the other 4 (they roll in a pack of 5) showed

didn't kill it Sadly and neighbors said they heard the THUD

was easy to tell that one from then on

As it would Stare ya Down

But kept glancing to the Left

[Fat Point Jack 291]

8 hours ago, Excoded Tom said:

After a few days in my neighbor's yard, only got one of those short tailed panthers.

And even cropped in and "enhanced" by Photoshop it's a lousy pic.

He has LOTS of bunnies over there, and a hawk that knows it.

I got a pic of the hawk sitting on top of his outboard engine (just out of the cropped pic above to the right.) Then, an hour later, this pic of the hawk in flight:

 

I was hoping that some panther scat would be found in Mudrock Village.

[Grande Mastere Dreade 4,168]

we have a Moultrie but i'm sure there are better

[Grizz 155]

On 3/6/2021 at 11:11 AM, Fat Point Jack said:

Spring Gobbler season opens on March 6.  

People spend a lot of time and money to get a shot like that.

This one walked into my garden 6 feet away from me last week- hung out and strolled around for a half-hour or so. The picture's from my iPad. Northport, Long Island, NY

 

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

19 hours ago, Pointy End said:

Can anyone recommend, to a trail cam novice, a Brand/Make/Model, etc. for critter/property monitoring in the mountains of W. North Carolina?  Have seen lots of the usual in that area, white tail, bobcat, turkey, racoon and even elk and black bear, but am always too slow with the cell phone cam to snap a decent picture as proof.   Thank you!!!

Mine's a Moultrie. I looked on hunting forums several years ago and it seemed to be well-liked. When a branch smashed it in 2019, I bought the new version of the same model. I like it but really don't know what else is available. I like the one I have because it has three cameras covering 180 degrees but it might be possible to just buy three cameras for the same money. I don't know.

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

I think my trail camera got a juvenile bald eagle. I've gotten lots of pictures of red shouldered hawks on it but this bird looks bigger, browner, and has fatter legs. I added on a short clipe of one of the hawks taken a couple of days later in nearly the same spot for comparison.

 

[Snaggletooth 5,199]

I thick ist a Broadwing Hawke.

[cyclone 573]

Maybe a Red-tailed fledgling 

[sailm8 126]

[Grabbler 364]

Caught on one of Grabs Jr's game cams last night...if this is what it looks like it hasn't "existed" in MS in the last 80-100 years according to Mississippi wildlife experts...for scale that's a knocked over corn feeder it's walking behind...

[valis 646]

Got this bobcat on video back in February.  This is our pond in NorCal.

 

[DA-WOODY 1,284]

2 hours ago, Grabbler said:

...for scale that's a knocked over corn feeder it's walking behind...

in DAGO that is not a useful reference of measure

WTF does corn eat anyway ?

[dolphinmaster 166]

1 hour ago, valis said:

Got this bobcat on video back in February.  This is our pond in NorCal.

 

Not even early am,  banker cat?

[valis 646]

1 minute ago, dolphinmaster said:

Not even early am,  banker cat?

They show up all hours, day or night.  Mountain lions, too, but very seldom seen (once I did see a lion cub sitting on top of one of our fenceposts mid-day).  And coyotes, and the very occasional black bear.  This is western Sonoma County, a few miles from the ocean. 

Up in Friday Harbor, the biggest four-legged predator is the fox, but there have been bears who swim from island to island -- never seen one of those though.

This one isn't from a trailcam, but still a great video from San Juan Island:

 

[DA-WOODY 1,284]

16 minutes ago, valis said:

They show up all hours, day or night.  Mountain lions, too, but very seldom seen (once I did see a lion cub sitting on top of one of our fenceposts mid-day).  And coyotes, and the very occasional black bear.  This is western Sonoma County, a few miles from the ocean. 

Up in Friday Harbor, the biggest four-legged predator is the fox, but there have been bears who swim from island to island -- never seen one of those though.

This one isn't from a trailcam, but still a great video from San Juan Island:

 

in regards to Island to Island travelers

snakes LOVE to Swim

don't know if salt water makes any difference

a swimming snake in the ocean is likely lower on the food chain

wonder about Birds or Prey plucking a rattler

guess it just another thing to eat no matter where

would have to taste better with sum salt fursure

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

More of the same cast of characters on my camera lately but no pics good enough to keep.

A guy who lives down the street posted this shot from his cam on FB though:

I have Sandhills and occasionally gators in my yard too but never got either on the camera, let alone both walking together.

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

Lots of the usual critters on the trail camera last month. Coons and squirrels and my cats and dogs and armadillos and such. One bobcat, a male this time. NOT present in over 400 pictures: any picture of a rabbit in daylight. I saw only a few, all at night, and those looked scared.

The rabbit population waxes and wanes and bobcats come and go, but there are always rabbits and always in daylight as well as dark.

A pair of barred owls is nesting next door. I think I know why there are no bunnies.

I mentioned in the dog thread that my wife tossed a tennis ball for my dog and one of the owls chased the ball, really pissing off my dog.

Yesterday, my neighbor said that he heard a really loud bird fight and he suspected that the owls got a turkey. Probably the turkey in this video.

I think that otter has a den next door too. It was in the pond yesterday morning but not interested in playing with dogs. Pretty sure I saw it leaving yesterday evening. It's probably out there right now fishing for its young. I'll go let the chickens out and find out.

These are the owls after they almost, but not quite, killed a baby coon the other day.

 

[See Level 1,186]

Bobcat strolling through the backyard just now.

[valis 646]

One of my kids lives in southern Oregon, in the Klamath Mountain foothills.  A few days ago he caught a Fisher (similar to a weasel) on camera:

 

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

The otter is still dropping by the pond for breakfast but I haven't seen it in person again.

The owls are still around and seem to have eliminated the bunnies and started on the squirrels. I see them all the time. Yesterday they were both on the ground right where I had my game camera pointed, until I moved it.

I moved it to a spot I thought they were more likely to be hunting but only got a hawk pic.

And in non-trail cam news, I was rooting around in the pile of old power poles and found some large steel beams so now I plan to make a bridge out of them. I'll make concrete and steel buttresses for the ends to hold the beams vertical.

They're 6" by 3" galvanized boxes with 1/4" thick side walls. My guess is that my golf cart can't bend them enough to matter. My engineer friend (the Cowmaran guy) said it should bend about an inch if the entire weight of the cart were somehow concentrated in the middle. I'm going to put that much water in barrels in the middle and see if he's right before trying it with the cart.

[valis 646]

1 hour ago, Pertinacious Tom said:

And in non-trail cam news, I was rooting around in the pile of old power poles and found some large steel beams so now I plan to make a bridge out of them. I'll make concrete and steel buttresses for the ends to hold the beams vertical.

They're 6" by 3" galvanized boxes with 1/4" thick side walls. My guess is that my golf cart can't bend them enough to matter. My engineer friend (the Cowmaran guy) said it should bend about an inch if the entire weight of the cart were somehow concentrated in the middle. I'm going to put that much water in barrels in the middle and see if he's right before trying it with the cart.

Here's a beam deflection calculator you might try: try:https://www.easycalculation.com/engineering/mechanical/deflection-hollow-rectangular-beams.php

If I plug in a 12-foot span (?), your 3" x 6" beams oriented with the 6" side vertical, and 200 lbs center-load (I assumed 400 lbs total weight, split between two beams), I get a 0.34" deflection.  If you lay the beams with the 6" side facing down then the deflection is about one inch.  Plug in your actual numbers and see what you get.  And then test with the barrels first!

[Snaggletooth 5,199]

Ide wante thoise beames withe 6" side verctical.

[valis 646]

32 minutes ago, Snaggletooth said:

Ide wante thoise beames withe 6" side verctical.

Of course!  I just mentioned the other way to show why the "proper" orientation is important. All the horizontal faces are doing is keeping the load-bearing vertical faces from splaying.

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

16 hours ago, valis said:

Here's a beam deflection calculator you might try: try:https://www.easycalculation.com/engineering/mechanical/deflection-hollow-rectangular-beams.php

If I plug in a 12-foot span (?), your 3" x 6" beams oriented with the 6" side vertical, and 200 lbs center-load (I assumed 400 lbs total weight, split between two beams), I get a 0.34" deflection.  If you lay the beams with the 6" side facing down then the deflection is about one inch.  Plug in your actual numbers and see what you get.  And then test with the barrels first!

Thanks. The span is about 25 feet, more or less depending on where I put the buttresses. Those are 35 foot beams. I want to drive this over it:

Weighs about 1,700 empty, so figure 2,500 with four 200 lb people. You don't expect the people to get out and walk across, do you?

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

18 hours ago, valis said:

Here's a beam deflection calculator you might try: try:https://www.easycalculation.com/engineering/mechanical/deflection-hollow-rectangular-beams.php

If I'm doing that correctly, it says putting 2500 lbs in the middle will result in almost 3 feet of deflection. That's a little more than I had in mind.

[Fat Point Jack 291]

Screw the math.  Use the primary theorem of the Bryan Lukas School of Engineering, It don't look strong enough, let's add a bigger piece of metal. 

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

1 hour ago, Fat Point Jack said:

Screw the math.  Use the primary theorem of the Bryan Lukas School of Engineering, It don't look strong enough, let's add a bigger piece of metal. 

I'm pretty sure I'm not using that thing right. I just walked out onto the middle of one beam. It sagged maybe an inch. The calculator says it should have been 0.0004 inches. I didn't have a good way to measure but it was a lot more than that.

[Steam Flyer 8,439]

Your problem isn't strength, it's stiffness. Put a downward spreader and some stays on it.

- DSK

[valis 646]

4 hours ago, Pertinacious Tom said:

If I'm doing that correctly, it says putting 2500 lbs in the middle will result in almost 3 feet of deflection. That's a little more than I had in mind.

Yes, if you put *all* the weight on one beam.  You have two beams so the load will be 1/2 of that, giving you a deflection (calculated) of 19 inches.  That's still probably way too much, and I don't know if the beam is being stressed beyond safe limits.  Now in reality with your long wheel-base you don't have a single-point load, so the deflection won't be as extreme. 

Steam's strut / stay suggestion may be a reasonable approach, but I'm not a mechanical engineer and wouldn't know how to accurately calculate the forces.

[longy 855]

Keep looking through that "pile of poles"

[DA-WOODY 1,284]

On 3/3/2022 at 3:57 AM, Pertinacious Tom said:

These are the owls after they almost, but not quite, killed a baby coon the other day.

 

How much for a pair of Breeding Pair of Koon Killers ??

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

17 hours ago, valis said:

Yes, if you put *all* the weight on one beam.  You have two beams so the load will be 1/2 of that, giving you a deflection (calculated) of 19 inches.  That's still probably way too much, and I don't know if the beam is being stressed beyond safe limits.  Now in reality with your long wheel-base you don't have a single-point load, so the deflection won't be as extreme. 

Steam's strut / stay suggestion may be a reasonable approach, but I'm not a mechanical engineer and wouldn't know how to accurately calculate the forces.

It'll be interesting to see how much it actually bends. My neighbor was over yesterday. He's a contractor and can build or fix anything. He looked at those beams and said, "That's what we make swamp buggies and equipment trailers from!"

I told him my general plan and he rejected it immediately as too complex and expensive. His idea was to sink a couple of piece of steel into concrete on both shores and then bolt the beams on. They're going to get stiffer because the next step will be to bolt long boards to the beams to use to screw on the deck. Big, rough cut 2 x 10's or something.

My reaction: "You're hired." Poor guy can't resist a project. He's building about a dozen homes right now, running his restaurant and nursery, and raising 3 teenage boys, so he has plenty of spare time for my games.

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

17 hours ago, DA-WOODY said:

How much for a pair of Breeding Pair of Koon Killers ??

So far, they're leaving the coons alone. The bunnies are mostly gone and the squirrel population is noticeably down but the coon families still show up on the game cam regularly.

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

20 hours ago, Steam Flyer said:

Your problem isn't strength, it's stiffness. Put a downward spreader and some stays on it.

- DSK

It's an interesting idea but my plan is to have the beams clear the water by enough to miss my snorkel. So we'd be talking a really short spreader or one sitting in the highly corrosive water.

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

On 3/19/2022 at 11:52 AM, DA-WOODY said:

How much for a pair of Breeding Pair of Koon Killers ??

That's a cypress tree. They're pretty smooth. Little f'ers can still climb up and down.

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

On 3/19/2022 at 11:52 AM, DA-WOODY said:

How much for a pair of Breeding Pair of Koon Killers ??

Price went up! A family of them has figured out how to get into the chicken run and steal leftover food at night. I got some trail cam pics of them but they're not good. Just glowing eyes inside the coop.

But I do have a new picture. Bridge beams bolted to steel rails sitting in reinforced concrete piers in the ground. Waiting on the wood to deck it.

[Mrleft8 3,556]

Too late now, but did you think about putting a bit of camber in them?

 A nice sort of Monet-ish arch? (Not so dramatic, but.....)

[Snaggletooth 5,199]

11 minutes ago, Mrleft8 said:

Too late now, but did you think about putting a bit of camber in them?

 A nice sort of Monet-ish arch? (Not so dramatic, but.....)

Howe cane be bothe?  Monayish? and Notte Dramactic?

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

7 hours ago, Mrleft8 said:

Too late now, but did you think about putting a bit of camber in them?

 A nice sort of Monet-ish arch? (Not so dramatic, but.....)

I'm not even sure how/whether that could be done. I'm just using them as I found them.

A big pile of 16' rough cut 2 x 6's has appeared out there today. Might get it decked this weekend but I just had hernia surgery and am not allowed to do anything useful so that's my neighbor's boy and his buddy in the pic doing the work. They'll be back when they get back.

 

[Mrleft8 3,556]

2 hours ago, Pertinacious Tom said:

I'm not even sure how/whether that could be done. I'm just using them as I found them.

A big pile of 16' rough cut 2 x 6's has appeared out there today. Might get it decked this weekend but I just had hernia surgery and am not allowed to do anything useful so that's my neighbor's boy and his buddy in the pic doing the work. They'll be back when they get back.

 

Cut a bunch of shallow "v"s in the beams, and weld the cuts up nicey nice.

But, yeah..... Next time.

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

12 hours ago, Mrleft8 said:

Cut a bunch of shallow "v"s in the beams, and weld the cuts up nicey nice.

But, yeah..... Next time.

It would look cool but I avoid cutting metal if possible and I don't weld.

It was too wet and full of cypress knees where one of the piers was supposed to land so the boys had to move it and drill a new 3/4" hole through the beam for that one on the left in the foreground of the pic. He asked me if that plan was OK and my only comment was when it comes to drilling big holes through big pieces of steel, better him than me.

 

[DA-WOODY 1,284]

every 10 years flip the beams over for a desired crown

[valis 646]

Bobcat at the bobcat-feeder (gopher holes) today in our NorCal yard.  We've seen this one (probably) at night on the security cams, but today I was able to use my good camera, looking through the bedroom window.

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

7 hours ago, valis said:

Bobcat at the bobcat-feeder (gopher holes) today in our NorCal yard. 

Nice picture. I almost never see them in person or in daylight.

In this area, if someone says "gopher" they mean a gopher tortoise. We even have a day to celebrate them. They're a "keystone species" because lots of other critters use their burrows (and would be fucked without them).

There are already several pics in this thread of my dog carrying them around. She flips them over and guards them until I discover them. Two in the past two days because they're pretty active this time of year. Dogs can kill them but she doesn't harm them, just guards them.

[valis 646]

On 4/14/2022 at 5:35 PM, Mrleft8 said:

Cut a bunch of shallow "v"s in the beams, and weld the cuts up nicey nice.

But, yeah..... Next time.

Arches:  They work by converting bending force (beam deflection) to linear or compression force (pushing the ends apart as the beam tries to straighten).  You need to secure the ends, and for a shallow arch there is a lot of force pushing sideways.  I don't have the math chops to calculate the forces in an arch, but I could approximate using triangular geometry, as is done on a sailboat for the forces on turning blocks.

Anyway, you would need a significant arch to make a difference in your case.

[BeSafe 1,543]

I'm not a Mech E. either but just eyeballing your setup and guessing at the load, it looks like the deflection should be around 6" max.

[valis 646]

The Bobcat seems to think it owns the place.  Here it is again today:

[hobot 4,431]

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

13 hours ago, BeSafe said:

I'm not a Mech E. either but just eyeballing your setup and guessing at the load, it looks like the deflection should be around 6" max.

It's going to be turned the other way.

But we'll find out the real answer soon enough. Once it has a deck, I'm going to fill barrels of water out on the middle of the bridge. I'll have a transit set up to measure how much it dips.

17 hours ago, valis said:

Anyway, you would need a significant arch to make a difference in your case.

I think he was looking for an aesthetic difference and a shallow arch would look nicer than my flat thing. I don't much care, just want to drive across. Someone had suggested plopping a shipping container across the gap and cutting out an end. Instant covered bridge! I liked the idea but my wife immediately vetoed it.

[valis 646]

In a rural development where I used to live there was an old single-lane bridge across a narrow/steep creek, set on crib footings made of redwood logs on either bank and filled with boulders / dirt.  This was a serious bridge, needing to carry big trucks, cement mixers, etc.  After *many* decades, the footings were settling and the girders badly rusting.  The property owners assoc (I was prez at the time) hired an engineer and the final permitted design used poured concrete footings and two side-by-side railroad flatcars.  We (me and other volunteers) planked over the flatcar beds and we ended up with a very solid design.

I guess that would be overkill for your bridge though!

[note: the only reason to join a HOA/POA board is to keep someone even worse off it]

[Mike in Seattle 390]

17 hours ago, valis said:

The Bobcat seems to think it owns the place.

? possibly a pair ? 

[valis 646]

6 hours ago, Mike in Seattle said:

? possibly a pair ? 

I assume not.  Apparently bobcats are solitary animals and generally respect each other's range (although females are more tolerant of range overlap).

[Fah Kiew Tu 3,239]

9 hours ago, valis said:

[note: the only reason to join a HOA/POA board is to keep someone even worse off it]

That's the logic I used to use as to why I sat on the work OH&S committee. We'd have injuries at sea usually due to carelessness/stupidity and then they'd want to do something REALLY stupid to ameliorate the risk. Like replacing heavy steel watertight doors opening on to the trawl deck with something lightweight so people didn't get their fingers crushed. I had to point out that getting the ship full of water was a bigger problem.

FKT

[Mrleft8 3,556]

On 4/18/2022 at 4:52 AM, Pertinacious Tom said:

It's going to be turned the other way.

But we'll find out the real answer soon enough. Once it has a deck, I'm going to fill barrels of water out on the middle of the bridge. I'll have a transit set up to measure how much it dips.

I think he was looking for an aesthetic difference and a shallow arch would look nicer than my flat thing. I don't much care, just want to drive across. Someone had suggested plopping a shipping container across the gap and cutting out an end. Instant covered bridge! I liked the idea but my wife immediately vetoed it.

Aesthetics indeed.

BUT Now that you mention water barrels..... Why not plop a couple of those under the center of the span (Not filled with water, but rather filled with air, and plugged) to keep the sag from happening, and possibly even create a slight aesthetic arch.....

[Wetabehindtheears 151]

My NC mountain house a couple weeks ago. This wood pile is about 20ft from the house. We get numerous deer walking by almost daily.

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

On 4/19/2022 at 5:58 PM, Mrleft8 said:

Aesthetics indeed.

BUT Now that you mention water barrels..... Why not plop a couple of those under the center of the span (Not filled with water, but rather filled with air, and plugged) to keep the sag from happening, and possibly even create a slight aesthetic arch.....

I hope that's not needed but it has been discussed. The main issue is that it's already single-file only for swimmers going into and out of the spring. I don't want a big barrel in the way. A cement piling would be a more likely choice, but I'm still hoping it will just work as is.

[Mrleft8 3,556]

9 minutes ago, Pertinacious Tom said:

I hope that's not needed but it has been discussed. The main issue is that it's already single-file only for swimmers going into and out of the spring. I don't want a big barrel in the way. A cement piling would be a more likely choice, but I'm still hoping it will just work as is.

What does the Army corps of engineers think of your bridge project?

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

21 minutes ago, Mrleft8 said:

What does the Army corps of engineers think of your bridge project?

The closest I've got is my neighbor who used to run the building permitting bureaucracy in the next county South. He knows a thing or two about engineering and plans. He thinks I'm building a foot bridge that will never carry a cart. We'll see...

[Mike in Seattle 390]

? why not build a "test stand" ?

[Mike in Seattle 390]

On 4/18/2022 at 3:47 PM, valis said:

I assume not.  Apparently bobcats are solitary animals and generally respect each other's range (although females are more tolerant of range overlap).

Granted differences in lighting, and way more spots than I can count re/ "pair?" comment. 

" although females are more tolerant of range overlap"

 

It's springtime,, ( but I make no claim of being a biologist  )

 

 

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

The neighbor boys were building my bridge in the rain yesterday. They didn't quite get done but probably will today. 4 of us, weighing over 700 lbs, stood in the middle and it sagged less than an inch. When we jumped around it was a bit springy. Their dad came by and drove my old golf cart out onto the bridge but his wife was with him and objected loudly so he backed off. They're big people and that cart weighs about 1,200 lbs with them both aboard. So preliminary tests indicate that it might carry my golf cart. Or maybe not. We didn't want to get the transit out in the rain to actually measure how much it's moving.

 

[Mrleft8 3,556]

I remember seeing pictures of your spring in the past.... It truly is a beautiful little pool of water.

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

7 hours ago, Mrleft8 said:

I remember seeing pictures of your spring in the past.... It truly is a beautiful little pool of water.

Thanks, it is one of the better looking environmental disasters I have seen. But, as mentioned in the WOTUS thread, it is a minor disaster.

On 10/9/2018 at 6:21 AM, Pertinacious Tom said:

The spring that feeds my pond is one or the other of those and is considered a minor ecological disaster. One of many. See pg 167 of this report for a map of most of the known ones.

https://www.charlottecountyfl.gov/boards-committees/pz/Site Documents/5_PA121014LS_Application_Attachment2_GroundwaterBasinResource.pdf

They try to plug these old, runaway wells. In addition to mixing layers of water that shouldn't really be mixed, mine throws 50 gallons a minute into the Gulf of Mexico. Fortunately for me, mine has been declared an Act of God and is not a plugging target any more.

The other end of the system isn't as pretty but is amusing if you have a teenage boy sense of humor. Turn your sound on and make sure you're alone, then play.

 

[DarthSailor 246]

On 1/9/2022 at 6:33 AM, Pertinacious Tom said:

More of the same cast of characters on my camera lately but no pics good enough to keep.

A guy who lives down the street posted this shot from his cam on FB though:

I have Sandhills and occasionally gators in my yard too but never got either on the camera, let alone both walking together.

We get these in the backyard in the summer, the sandhills not the gator. My 130 pound dog and these guys just look at each other thinking 'it's not worth the effort' 

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

17 hours ago, DarthSailor said:

We get these in the backyard in the summer, the sandhills not the gator. My 130 pound dog and these guys just look at each other thinking 'it's not worth the effort' 

My 80 lb dog is 13 but somehow still has the energy and mobility to chase anything airborne. And to dig up my yard. She has one working leg at this point but still digs like a backhoe.

Unfortunately, she and our other dog ignore otters. It was a lot more fun when I had dogs that would chase them. The otters loved it. One once played with Luke the Cowdog for hours. My wife, knowing that cowdogs don't know how to quit, decided it was time to bring him in. That otter came out of the pond onto the grass and started barking at the sliding glass door, wanting his buddy back.

Yesterday three of them were playing in the pond and then decided to lounge on the mangrove roots. Luke never would have allowed this.

But that wasn't the BIG EVENT yesterday. This was.

Yes, my old dog still has to follow me everywhere. The steel beams were strong enough, but a bit too springy, without pilings in the center of the span.

The artesian spring looks like this from the bridge. I've wanted to see this for 30 years.

Oh, and there was nothing interesting on the trail camera.

 

[DarthSailor 246]

4 hours ago, Pertinacious Tom said:

My 80 lb dog is 13 but somehow still has the energy and mobility to chase anything airborne. And to dig up my yard. She has one working leg at this point but still digs like a backhoe.

Unfortunately, she and our other dog ignore otters. It was a lot more fun when I had dogs that would chase them. The otters loved it. One once played with Luke the Cowdog for hours. My wife, knowing that cowdogs don't know how to quit, decided it was time to bring him in. That otter came out of the pond onto the grass and started barking at the sliding glass door, wanting his buddy back.

Yesterday three of them were playing in the pond and then decided to lounge on the mangrove roots. Luke never would have allowed this.

 

But that wasn't the BIG EVENT yesterday. This was.

Yes, my old dog still has to follow me everywhere. The steel beams were strong enough, but a bit too springy, without pilings in the center of the span.

The artesian spring looks like this from the bridge. I've wanted to see this for 30 years.

 

Oh, and there was nothing interesting on the trail camera.

 

Congrats on the bridge, I was wondering if pilings would help when reading your prior posts. Also my dogs don't chase birds unless they get in our yard but if one of these shows up it's on. I have had to rescue one of them from the pond after he broke through the ice chasing one and decided that death could take him. The pond is like a foot deep but I think the cold kind of took him by surprise, so he just stood there. I fortunately had waders.

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

20 hours ago, DarthSailor said:

Congrats on the bridge, I was wondering if pilings would help when reading your prior posts.

I didn't want anything in the way of swimmers so was reluctant but it just didn't seem strong enough so we changed the design. They're really not much in the way of pilings, just pieces of the same rough cut 2x6's used for the deck. Jetted in place with a hose, then we used ratchet straps to bend the bridge upward just a bit before installing bolts. When it's warmer and doctors say i can swim again I'm going to wrap them in rubber piling wraps.

It feels solid when you jump on it or drive the cart on it. Also, it's now possible to dive from the bridge into the sand. That sand is more liquid than solid and you can swim right through it. No light gets through it, so crashing through the sand with goggles is kind of an interesting experience. It's also a bad idea. I once had a doctor tell me, "Your ears are self-cleaning, don't stick anything smaller than your elbow in there!" Yeah. Not if you dive through sand.

But some 200 pound plus person is not going to listen to that last part and is going to take that dive and the side load on the structure will be... something I hadn't considered in the design. But the pilings should help.

Glad you were nearby to save the dog. I worry about Libby because she still goes in the pond but it's not so easy to get back out with one working leg. In her head, she's still this 3 year old.

[Pertinacious Tom 1,931]

This bobcat was very close to my camera the other day. It was 7:17 and sunset is after 8 this time of year, but it's a shady area and the camera had already switched to night/IR mode.

The bobcat alerts to something and then walks off in that direction. That little structure in the distance is my chicken tractor. Still haven't ever had a bobcat figure out how to get them.

About ten minutes later, the camera took a pic of me driving by, so I just missed seeing it in person.