Putting in a supporter post.

While workin' hard on the farm today, I decided to take pictures of the steps for putting in a post and make a "how to" blog about it... just for fun :)

See, I just put my boar hog back in with my sow for breeding but one area of my pen needed to have some better support (because my pigs are a lot bigger now then the first time I bred them). So I put in a middle post at the south panel and set up boards all around the panel tops. Listed below are my pictures of the tools you will need and the steps you should take for putting up a fence post.

Love is in the air... Left to right: Jingle Bells and Plan B

My Dad and brother helped put up the top boards first.

My boar hog "Plan B" weighs about 700 lbs.

The tools you'll need: A pair of post hole diggers and something to chop up any roots you might come across.

First, take your post hole diggers and dig your hole down deep enough for your post to be sturdy once packed in. (In other words, you don't want your post sticking up to high above your fence)

Once your hole is dug to fit your post, start filling in the hole with the dirt you dug out.

After each new layer of dirt you put in the hole, gently pour some water in with it to help pack it down.

After adding a layer of dirt and water, tamp down the dirt around the post to make it more secure. (I used the handle of my root cutter to tamp down the dirt... probably not the safest thing to do but I couldn't find my tamper at the moment.)

Once you've filled your hole and made sure your post is secured satisfactorily, you can start securing your fence to your new post.

You'll need: a hammer, a screwdriver(not pictured here, sorry), screws for the board, and staple nails for the panel. I used three inch screws. I only had smooth stable nails but I prefer the barbed kind, they drive better and hold better.

I screwed in my top board first for upper support. (I use an impact screwdriver.)

Then I nailed my panel to the post. I put a nail every other wire. Note: I drove the nail over the vertical wire, not the horizontal wire, this method helps prevent the panel from slipping when a hog rubs/lays against it.

While hammering in the nails, it's a good idea to have someone push against the post as you hammer so that you don't knock your freshly packed post loose from the ground (because the ground hasn't had time to finish setting yet). But if you're alone, you can wrap your arm around the post and pull it to you as you hammer.

My finished post job.

Alright! You now have the basics for putting up an extra post for your livestock pen, good luck and happy farming! :)

~RebelYell

 

Awkward.....

So... my brother and I were sitting in a restaurant together, you know, the kind where the outside walls are all window. My brother and I sat at one of the window side tables. Enjoying sweet tea. Enjoying our basil parmesan pizza. We sat at our table quietly, the sound of '80s music coming from the overhead speakers and our fingers "tip tit tating" away on our computer keys.

A lovely setting.

Suddenly, a figure at the window. People passing by the window on the sidewalk outside isn't unusual but this one wasn't passing by. I first noticed the figure out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head to look and saw a middle aged woman standing outside with her face pressed up against the window so she could see in better.

My brother turned to look and got a start. I laughed at him.

Suddenly we were sitting there trying to choke back laughter. We figured it wouldn't be polite to laugh at the woman while she was still standing there.

Finally, the woman left and we laughed out loud. The guy sitting at the table across from us laughed with us and said "Yeah, that was odd."

Strange people are out there says I.... ;)

People in Public...

I don't care how alone you might "think" you are, if you're not at your own home with the doors locked and the curtains drawn, there's always somebody watching.
Yes, the grocery store aisle may be empty. Yes, your boss may be away at lunch. Yes, you might be the only one in your car. But if you are doing something ridiculous you better believe someone is going to see it. So don't be upset if it ends up on YouTube! Anything you do in public is fair game. Especially  if you happen to be one of those people who do crazy things while there are people around.

Now... for some visual examples :)

Groovy Best Buy shopper. What makes this one even more hilarious for me is that this guy looks just like someone I know.

Little boy boogies in hotel lobby. You go kid.

Our tax dollars at work. I feel safe with this guy on duty....

This guy is enjoying life! Ok, I would LOVE to work with this guy!! He knows how to make a work day fly by.

Walk it Out Grandma!!! Woot! Woot!

Just a bit of footage proving that you are never alone. >:)

Aaaaaannnnddd.... they're off!

"Welcome back Students!" Oh yeah, there's an over used phrase if I ever heard one! But a college town is a college town, which means that: Every. Single. Business. Is going to be perkily welcoming back students and opening their arms to the new ones. Campus and near by Housing will be greeting students with great big "Welcome back Students" banners... specials... parties... and extravaganzas! All this increase in student population on our campus also means we have to expand.... and with expansion comes *less parking*.

Day 1: I hit campus full force that day. As soon as I was within 2 miles of school I could smell *them*... Freshmen. The entire campus reeked with the stench of Freshmen. I caught the green light for the second of the two roads leading to campus and just beat the late morning in-comers. As I turned at the light I could see vehicles crammed into the turn lane farther then I could see, waiting for their light to turn green. I shot down the road and turned onto campus. Bumper to bumper... and that's an understatement. They were all fighting to get down the the campus' middle parking lot. I knew better. I quickly made my way to the parking lot between the road and the library. I soon discovered that during the break between semesters the construction crew, constructing our new performing arts building, had managed to rob us of even MORE parking then they had already taken. Not a single parking spot stood open and desperate students were parked along the curb: tickets waiting to happen. But this was no big deal, I knew the secret to getting a parking spot. Patience. Me and a few other vehicles circled the small lot, they were probably looking for a spot that someone had magically overlooked. Not gonna happen. It was 9:40 now and my class started at 10:00. Another couple of students lost nerve and parked along the curb. Then I saw them: there was maybe a handful of them. Free students. They walked into the parking lot and made for their vehicles like ants desperate for their anthill. I turned down an isle and saw a vehicle's backup lights come on. I rushed over and left him just enough room to back out, I was already blinking. That's when the other one came. It was a little rinky-dink car from the other direction. They probably figured I wouldn't be able to fit my truck into the spot and were waiting for me to surrender so they could claim it. As soon as the parked vehicle was out of my way I pounced. One flawless swing and I was perfectly placed in my new parking spot... my new *shaded* parking spot that is. The car drove away. I laughed. That poor unsuspecting Freshman... she thought she would get an easy spot but I had news for her: I can fit that huge '93 Ford F150 into places she can't even dream of getting her car into! She hasn't been driving long enough and she's new to campus. She has no clue yet.

Day 2: No class this day, just work. I work on campus though. I needed to be in my office by 8:30. I went ahead and scoped out the parking lot near my building but after about 15-20 minutes of circling this much larger lot I knew patience had nothing to win me here, there wouldn't be any free students(and there for parking spots) until 9:00. So I flew back over to my library parking lot and, BEHOLD! The entire east side of the lot was empty! I know now where I'll be parking for work this semester ;) I took a "legal" curb parking spot right next to a huge, *shady*, oak tree. I even had time to back into my new spot :)

Day 3: This would be today. Basically, I just played the same game as day 1. Drove around until free students started popping up. Don't be fooled though! I followed two students who ended up walking out of the parking lot because they lived in housing across the street. My third student I saw was a guy with keys. I watched which isle he walked onto and turned down there. I then drove right up behind him and followed him with my blinker on while he walked. (The blinker shows non-freshmen that the free student's parking spot is now claimed. Freshmen don't understand this lingo yet so you kinda have to fight them a bit.) The guy gets into his vehicle and I see another car come flying down the other end of the isle. I sit there still blinking. My guy backs out... hardly enough space for him to do so between me and my new competitor. He turns to leave, my competitor turns toward the parking spot to avoid getting hit by my guy. I don't take the chance that "competitor" won't take my spot. I whip in and snatch the empty spot. Victory! and it is also partly *shaded* :)

So yeah, we've made it to the week's midway point. Welcome back fellow students.... and welcome to the House of Parking Pain freshmen!!!!
If you're are Freshman at my school I have one *very* important parking lot tip for you. If ya' see a huge  two-toned '93 Ford F150.... get outta da way! ;) Consider this a tip from a campus parking veteran :)
Until next time, park at your own risk ;)
~RebelYell

Office Freezer.

Ahhh Thursday. It was my last day of work for this week. I got to the office at 8:00 and proceeded to put my lunch in the mini fridge. I then put my coke can into the mini fridge's "freezer". Surely that wouldn't be cold enough to hurt the can.... I came back for my soda around 2:00. It was feeling pretty solid. I set the can on my desk and popped it open. Put simply, it was like watching Mount St. Helens erupt on my desk. I sit there in slight shock and watch as the mess bubbles out angrily, good luck cleaning that up! I wiped and wiped and rinsed and when I finally got off work that day my desk was still sticky. By the time it was finished erupting there was about 1/3 of the contents left in the can and they were too frozen to drink right then. Moral of this story?: Don't put your soda in the freezer...ever.

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Who did we encounter?

It's a warm weekend day and the ocean is lazily lapping against the sandy shore. Out at the sand bar, small waves leap about and cause a beautiful white foam. Looking closely, one can see small fishes swimming within the waves... these same fish jump entertainingly out of the water when it's calm. A few feet away, a big black shape breaks into view and then dives into a wave, disapearing from sight.

CUE THE JAWS THEME MUSIC!

Remember those cute jumping fish? Well, apparently it's a sign that a shark is in the vacinity and the fish are attemting to escape. This bloggy post is a shoot off of my previous post about our trip to the beach/shark encounter. I found a really interesting post on wikihow about signs of a shark nearby and a few other pointers:

http://www.wikihow.com/Prevent-a-Shark-Attack
http://www.beachhunter.net/thingstoknow/sharks/ (this is a GREAT site)


I'm not going to list everything, obviously, which is why I'm sharing the link above... but here are the things we pretty much messed up on during our trip to the beach.

1) "Avoid deep dropoffs and the areas between sandbars". Well, we crossed that area in order to go stand on the sandbar.
2) "Avoid swimming near fishing activity". Well, there were plenty of fish around, and a ways down the beach there were fishers. There were also shrimping boats off in the distance.
3) "Stay out of the water at night and during dawn and dusk". We were swimming at about 8:00AM. Sharks are really active in th early morning and late evening.

Yeah. But here's what we did right:
1) We were aware of our surroundings.
2) We were wearing really calm colors. (Well, I was anyway. My bro was in orange and blue.) I wore black & slightly red swim trunks and a tan shirt. We also weren't wearing any kind of jewlery.
3) Remain calm (at least partially) and don't make a lot of splashing while heading to shore.

Here for instance: http://www.gainesville.com/article/20100819/ARTICLES/8191047/1118?Title=Gainesville-boy-bitten-by-shark-near-Crescent-Beach is a case I was told about, this little boy handled the situation very calmly and rationaly.

Now that we've covered how to properly avoid/handle shark encounters a bit, I'll give you a little insight on what shark types I consider possibilities of our encounter.

This website: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/nsrc/profiles.htm is a really good database about sharks and I was able to browse through tons of sharks and try to narrow down which one we most likely came into contact with.
I first started my resereach shark info tidbits that I already knew, like: bull sharks are one of the three most accounted for sharks known to attack people and they can swim in water as shallow as knee deep.
I built on my search from there: tiger and white sharks are the other two most common sharks to attack people unprovoked. Tiger sharks swim in shallower waters like bull sharks.

Bull Shark: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/bullshark/bullshark.htm
Tiger Shark: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/Tigershark/tigershark.htm
White Shark(Great White): http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/Whiteshark/whiteshark.html

I went ahead and read up on these three shark types but was already considering the fact that the shark we saw was not acting aggresively and was simply swimming away from us and the other two swimmers. Bull sharks and tiger sharks are quite aggressive and are know for launching unprovoked attacks, this shark did not act like it was about to attack.
So now I'm narrowing my search to shallow water swimming, less aggressive sharks. I also bring into my equation the shark's color. It wasn't a tan color that blended in with the sand or a bluishwhite color that was hard to make out in the water. It was black, or at least a dark enough color to really stand out.
So here's what I pulled together:

Blacktip Shark: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/Blacktip/Blacktipshark.html
Spinner Shark: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/spinnershark/spinnershark.html
Bonnethead Shark: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/Bonnethead/Bonnethead.html
Great Hammerhead: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/GreatHammerhead/GHammerhead.html
Nurse Shark: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/nurseshark/nurseshark.htm

I know some of these sharks can get quite large but a shark will go where ever it can fit. Adolescent Great Hammerheads are known to lurk in shallow waters, for instance. Even large Bull Sharks and adolescent White Sharks have been found beached before. It's really common to see Blacktip sharks in shallow waters and Spinner sharks are know to jump out of waves near surfers. Nurser sharks enjoy shallow waters and are usually calm natured... but they *will* bite if provoked or stepped on (they like to lay on the bottom and they blend in really well).
So. After looking closely at all these sharks plus *many* more, I've narrowed down my list.

• Bull Shark
• Blacktip Shark
• Spinner Shark
• Bonnethead Shark
• Great Hammerhead

Yup, these are the sharks on my list of "most likely" encountered. I wish I could narrow it down right to the exact shark but that will be impossible because I lacked a closer look at it. This list of five sharks is a bit bigger then I would have liked.... but it's actually pretty good considereing that there are like, over 300 identified species of sharks in the world. So this is my list and these are my reasons for having each shark on this list:

• The BULL SHARK I'm keeping on my list because they are so commonly seen in this area and in the shallows, and because of their dark coloration. I know we talked earlier about how aggressive they can be but that doesn't mean they are out to get us. It's possible that it could have been a Bull shark and that it left without so much as a nibble of human flesh.
• The BLACKTIP and SPINNER SHARKS are on my list because they are extreamly common for the area we were swimming in and are often found in the shallows and near surfers.
• The GREAT HAMMERHEAD because it's not extreamly uncommon to find them in shallow waters, especially this time of year when the females are moving into shallower waters to give birth. Plus, adolescent Great Hammerheads are known to swim in shallower waters as well. Hammerheads are also quite shy which could lead to them leaving calmly and quietly. Hammerheads can also be dark in color.
• The BONNETHEAD SHARK because they tend to like shallower waters. I'm mainly keeping the Bonnethead on my list because I some what feel like there is a great chance that it would have been a Bonnethead as compared to another Hammerhead because the front end of shark I saw didn't seem to have that "hammer" shape... I'm not going to cut them from the list though. So if it were a type of Hammerhead it was most likely the Bonnethead because their heads are a bit smaller than the others and would therefore be harder for me to have distinguished from where I was standing.

So after hours of extensive research and calling upon my memory of the encounter, this is what I've come up with. I hope someone out there enjoys this and gets something from it. If anyone does read this, feel free to comment, I'd love to hear from you! You can even leave your own shark encounters/information if you'd like! Here's one more website I found to be awesome concerning sharks :) http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/shark-week/
Hope you've enjoyed this post.
Till next time.... swim at your own risk ;)
~RebelYell

Close Encounter

Yeah so, me and my family are on a mini vacation this weekend at the beach (compliments of my awesome and oh so sweet Military Uncle). Last night me, my brother, and my Dad all went swimming in the ocean and my Mother stood on the beach taking pictures. I've always been a beach hater but last night was actually ok... I actually got to go swimming this time. So this morning, me and my bro head back to the water and my Mother, again, goes to take pictures. My brother and I wade out into the water, through the culvert, and up onto the sandbar. We stood letting the stomach high waves hit against us. A few feet away there were three fish that kept jumping up out of the water; this really amused the two of us, especially when we could see them riding in the top of a wave. So we're standing there in thigh high water watching the fish when suddenly something to our left catches our eye. We both look over and I see it's a surfer heading out to the bigger waves. It was diving under a smaller wave and I was about to tell my brother to watch it when I hear him yell "Shark!" at me.
....... that's when I realized the "surfer" never came back up out of the water. I look again but the black figure is gone. Now don't think for a second that my brother would have grabbed me up and drug me to shore so I wouldn't get eaten... no, no, no, no. I turn around and he is already half away across the culvert that separates the sand bar from the beach.... leaving me all alone on the sand bar. Thanks bro, love you too ;) So I split and when we both finally make it to the beach we stand and stare out at the water. No sign of a surfer *anywhere*. We look and look but the surfer shark is gone. We've concluded that it had to be a shark because the only other explanation would be that if it were a surfer... then the reason why he never came back up is because he got carried away in a rip tide. So yeah, me and my brother were swimming just a few feet away from a shark this morning... one more thing to scratch off my bucket list ;)
I've always been real interested in sharks and love to learn about them... I figured it was a bull shark because I know they can easily swim in knee deep waters.... but as aggressive as they are I doubt he would have just left... there were me and my brother swimming on his right and a father and his young son swimming to his left. Surely he would have rather had a bite out of us rather then those tiny fish. So it probably wasn't a bull shark... I'll have to research a bit on this later today :) Maybe I can make a post about it later.
~RebelYell