Sugar gliders can be very active animals inside of their cages. In fact, they very often leap from side to side in the course of normal movement. They also tend to play with things where possible and a water bottle is a very good target for attention and general mishap. Many people report that their water bottle was found on the floor the next morning leaving the sugar gliders without water for unknown period of time.

For this reason most folks recommend having at least two water bottles on the cage. If one disappears, there is the back up. It also allows you to worry less often about water. If one of the bottles gets empty, the other will hold.

Most water bottles come with a very flimsy metal band with hooks on the end to hook the bottle to the cage. Sugar gliders can very easily dislodge these thusly ejecting their water supply. I have had the idea of using solid core pvc coated copper wire in place of these straps for some time but a recent forum post got me going and I finally did it.


First, cut a foot of the solid core wire. I happened to have a spool of 14 guage white wire on hand. You can also use that standard 120V three wire cable that is usually in the walls of your house, and just snip out one of the wires.



Then bend just over an inch on one end to hook over the cage wire.



Wrap it around until it is secure and try to dull any pointy remnants to avoid possible injury.





With the bottle in place, fenagle the wire around it for a loose fit for easy removal, then begin bending the other end.



Trim that end down to about one inch and wrap it around.





And then you have a nice and safe wire holder for your water bottle and it is easy to slide them out for servicing.

I caught the ISS tonight. Usually when the shuttle is up it is docked so there is nothing special. Tonight it wasnt docked, it was a few seconds behind so there were two dots in the night sky which was a very nice surprise for someone who goes out often to look at a dot moving in the sky.

I got some first attempt footage of it.




You can check siting opportunities from you area on the web site .

And it looks like other people are intrigued by this as well so there are many other videos of dots flying overhead and there are some neat ones of images from telescopes. I've been thinking that this would be a fun web site project if I could get my PTZ camera base hooked up to some sat tracking software with added motion tracking for auto fine tuning.




This one is kewl.




When I was a teenager I talked to the shuttle once on my ham radio. This was right after the astronauts started getting their licenses. It was a big deal back in a day, not so much now.

I caught the Gulf Fritillary butterflies laying eggs today so I got some photos. I cant wait until next year when the vines should be much more full and healthy. I'm thinking of planting even more of them around the yard and up the fence.

It is summer here in Texas and we have been experimenting with new plants around the house. On the patio we planted some butterfly friendly stuff and have been awed over the last few weeks by watching the eggs, larvae, pupae and adults doing what they do.

The passion vine took off up the pergola and looked like it was going to be rather invasive, but then the butterflies came and put a reign on that. Apparently passion vine is for egg laying and the larvae voraciously eat the leaves. You can see them eating with the naked eye.

The chrysalis looks like the dead leaves on the vine, so they can be well hidden.

The butterflies are fantastic to watch as they "play" in numbers and land to feed on the other nectar plants nearby.

Robin, my last remaining South American four eyed opossum, died today. She had been cursed with health problems since before I even got her. Over time our vet removed a number of mammary and other tumors, a bunch of loose skin and fat deposits from another disorder, and finally she decided that the most recent tumors were too entwined into her organs to be removed successfully. So I've known that Robin was dying for a month or two and I was prepared for this day.

She hadnt been eating for a few days, I caught her sneezing/coughing a day ago, and I saw today that she was too weak to get back into her pouch which has been laying flat on the ground for her. The tumors had grown very large, were actually ripping out of her skin on her belly, and they were rather infected. It was time.

I took her in, said goodbye and we gave her an abdomen injection and she passed a little after 5pm curled up safe in her pouch while being stroked.

She was a very unique animal to keep. She was smart and somewhat entertaining. Other than her constant health issues, she was pretty easy to care for and she actually got along with our dogs.

I am happy that she is no longer suffering, but I'm going to miss her and I think my dog Rowdy is going to miss her even more. I think that he thought of her as his pet and would follow her around the yard keeping an eye on her.

So I shed a tear for my fallen opossum and I picture her in her heaven hissing at Phil once again.










More videos

Yesterday was a nice adventure. The reason for my coming to Portland was to pick up my camper van. We made it down some 70 miles or so in the early afternoon to a really beautiful and quaint river rafting town nestled in the hills. The owner of this camper van had been given it by their father in law who recently has failing health and just could not do the camper thing any longer. These people camp occasionally with a small homemade teardrop trailer and they decided that they didnt need this old van.

I spoke to the father-in-law twice about the camper to get some questions and history detailed before deciding to purchase the thing. He was an Engineer by trade which presents itself here in the form of all sorts of modifications and projects done to this vehicle by him. The good part of that is that he worked on this over time and was meticulous about it. Any changes he made were wired very well with added relays and fuses and safety precautions and such. He took very good care of the vehicle and this was the only one I have been able to find that had a very solid engine and a working air conditioner and a few other things I have been looking for. The bad about this is that he made a lot of changes. There really are switches all over the place that I havent figured out what they are for yet. And natually, none of it is labeled. many of his changes to the vehicle were to allow his wife to be comfortable with her failing health, but things got too bad for her before he was able to really finished the changes, so he stopped. So for me begins a project of investigation to see what has been done and to then decide what to do with it all.

I spent about 2.5 hours with the son and we exchanged paperwork and off I drove in my really old camper van wondering if I made a good decision or not. This, of course, remains to be seen as I try to get it back to Texas over the next few days, but so far, I think I will be able to make this into something useful for myself.

May I introduce my brand new 1987 Itasca Phasar (Winnebago Lesharo) miniature roadtrip camper.




Along with strange changes to the interior, the interior itself is, well, old. Nonetheless, it isnt too bad and I can make many improvements as this is a very good base vehicle to work with. It spent most of its life in Northern California and has very little to no rust on it. Some cleaning, painting and maybe replacing some fabrics will make this thing look much better inside.

The engine is a weak 2.2L four banger made by Renault. I knew that it would be weak, and it is. But it seems to be able to do 65mph with this three speed automatic transmission and only bogs down up inclines which really isnt so bad considering that you have everything you need behind you including a toilet, shower, kitchen, bed... And all of this getting something along the lines of 17 to 20 mpg is just super and worth getting there slower.

Last night after leaving the seller, we drove around the wine country and ended up in McMinneville at a nice place that had a restaurant on the fifth floor rooftop with a view of the mountains and the town. There was a street festival going on so we enjoyed that for a bit and then came up with a neat idea to stop at a drive in theater on the way home.

We parked the SUV nearby outside of the gate and rode the van inside. It has been ages since I have visited a drive in theater. The camper was amazingly comfortable for this. I leaned the seats back and kept swiveling them so that I could move around and put my feet out the window and all sorts of nice things. The toilet is handy and so is the fridge. In the dark for 6 hours of movies nobody noticed that the camper was so old; instead, it was a very nice respit from the road and was simply comfortable and fun to be in.

I leave you with this image.

I am buying a camper van from a family in Oregon today. I have been looking for this specific type for some time. I finally found "the one" and flew out to Portland yesterday in order to pick it up today. I do mean yesterday; all day long... From what I remember, I woke up at 5am, hauled butt to the airport, and I finally got to my destination and in bed at around 3:30 am.

My brother is a pilot and he gave me a guest pass on his airline to make this one-way journey. I still had to pay $50 for this non-rev ticket but that surely beats the $300+ for a normal ticket, especially a last minute one. Problem is that I had to fly standby with little to no priority.

To assist in driving back from Oregon to Texas, I enlisted my nephew who is able to fly completely free to him since he is the son of a tenured pilot. Also, he gets priority and ends up at the top of most any standby list.

So here we are rushing to catch the 7am flight out and we are running late, so I split with my nephew at the ticket counter and I run to the gate since I already printed my pass. I make it, but I do not make the cut. Turns out that 20 people were waiting for 4 seats. And to boot, after ten years with this company, my brother had never set up anyone in their online system for flying, so he messed it up somehow, my nephew's ticket was canceled, and he couldnt even get past the ticket counter.

So we went home.

Tried again for the last flight of the day out. My nephew was first on the list and I was 11th. He was called first and he told the people that he couldnt fly without me so they didnt just stand him aside to wait and see if I got on or not, they just tore up his ticket and said thanks but no thanks.

Well, giving up his spot must have been the magic I needed because I was the last name called due to a no-show and I got on the plane at the very last second on the very last seat.

Four and a half hours later I am deplaning alone in Seattle and the plane is a bit late and I have only two remaining flights to get me to Portland for the evening. I haul my butt across the airport train and to the correct counter to get myself listed and I do not make the 10pm flight. Crossing my fingers for another hour, I wander around the desolate airport searching for some coffee and everything is closed. I eventually get lucky and find a vending machine with a single line of Starbucks Frappuccino at the very top and I rejoice in my luck. Sliding my credit card for this worth-every-penny-at-the-time $4 beverage, I make my selection and then WHAM BAM BAM WHAM, the machine pushes the helpless little bottle over the edge from over 6 feet high. I watch in awe as the bottle impacts the bottom at great velocity and wonder why the bottle didnt expolode on contact. I try to figure out why the glass bottle had to be put on the top shelf of the machine but find no answers there.

The 11:00pm flight begins to load and I nervously await my judgement. The gate person finally calls over the PA, "all full" and turns everyone away for the night. I was first in line to get my "tomorrow" ticket and he told me to stand aside for a second as he is waiting for one more person to show. I happily did so and prepared myself for travel. Person never showed and I got the "go" and skipped happily down the stairs to the tarmac gate, tossed my luggage at someone who wanted it and I climbed the steep stairs to my temporary twin turbo prop tuna can haven which did in fact deliver me safely to Portland where I was able to soon find myself at a friends home sleeping on the beloved floor.

For those of you in the Texas 103F oven, I slept with the windows open last night and I got very very chilly. Brrrrrrr!

I think my nephew is going to try to get up here today or tomorrow on his own and then we will begin our lengthy fun-filled roadtrip back home to the oven.

In our future I see some cascade mountain trails, sand dunes and atvs, caving, possums, and other various adventures along the way...

See ya soon Billy Bob!

The storm we had last month took Robin's cage roof and I have been slacking at rebuilding it. She hasnt even been out in her cage lately because it is way too hot and she is sickly to boot. But it's just been plain hot and I've had no good reason to go out in the nasty and get ganged up on by mosquitoes.

For some odd reason I felt like working on it tonight so I rebuilt the roof a bit stronger and added shingles which I should have done originally.




Also, I previously had her webcam electronics sitting under the cage debris pan in a plastic box. It wasnt the best of situations. So today I also built a weather resistant electronics box out of a cheap tool box.

I installed an exhaust fan at the bottom to keep the gadgets cool and hung it on the side of the cage.




It holds a wifi bridge, two camera servers and will also hold the power supply for her cooling nestbox as well as the control for her warming pad in the winter.

It has been extremely hot here in Texas so I have been keeping my opossum indoors. I'd rather allow her to be in her large outdoor cage which she is used to, so I have devised an air conditioned nestbox for her.

Basically I took an old thermoelectric portable cooler, cut a hole, installed a cat door and then added a thermostat to keep it from freezing her. Very simple concept in the end.

The thermoelectric cooler can keep her up to 30F cooler than outside temperatures and it only draws 150 watts in the end when running. I think that a switching power supply will be more efficient too so I will report back with stats after all is said and done with this project.

Right now she is not trained to use the cat door, so that will be a make or break for this, but I think that she is smart enough to get it quickly.

So it must be that time of year when baby birds fall out of nest and sit on the ground for a few days while their moms and dads watch. Luckily, one of the nestlings fell inside of my fence because it has been protected. The others fell outside of the fence and I found them flattened by cars in the alley.

So this one little blue jay birdie cant fly and mom and dad are watching it carefully. If you go near, they start to screech. I have been hit on the head three times by an angry parent. It is a rather unique experience and I highly recommend it.

   

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kazko
Gender: Male
Occupation:computer geek
Member since: Jan 24, 1997
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My Bio
NUTHOUSE (3) Pican 4/30/2002, died 6/02/2010 Buddy 5/01/2006 Hazel 2/01/2007, rehomed 11/28/2011 Maya 4/25/2007 Pili 4/25/2007 MISFITS (3) Big Guy 9/23/2003, died 1/29/2014 Lil Guy 9/23/2003, died 5/13/2015 Hunter 4/19/2006, died 3/23/2014 JP 8/12/2006 Shikoni 2004 Kioko 2003 Washi 2003, died 5/27/2014 SUGARSHACK (3) Chico 1/15/2006, died 9/14/2011 Cookie 10/15/2005 Kimmie 10/15/2005 Lucky 5/25/2007 Spritz 8/24/2007, died 7/06/2011 Ginger 8/24/2007, died 12/16/2012 Rock 9/09/2007, died 3/23/2013 Crystal 9/09/2007, died 11/01/2012

   

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