The automatic Victor traps are pretty cool. Fortunately they haven't had much to do the past couple weeks because it's colder and the mouse population seems to be far and few between.


We saw another animal the other day and never saw one like it before. Well, not as big.

It was a huge beautiful fox and it was standing on the trail looking straight at us. The head sort of twitched when it repositioned. The tail was I'd say bigger around than an oatmeal box and had a wide solid black stripe along the top. The tail was about as long as the fox.

We moved forward and the fox moved maybe 50 feet into he brush and continued to watch us, curious. Finally as we moved, it left.

Funny thing is we never have seen it on any of the game cameras. Didn't have a camera with us to take it's picture. Looked very healthy with a nice pelt.


The bears haven't been very active this fall, and I haven't heard one for a month or two. They have left tracks but seem to have quieted down. Lot's of deer though.


Last week I replaced the upper solar box panel glass that the bear broke, and SO repainted the box. The paint was weathering some.

The animals haven't been chewing on the equipment either, knock on wood...

Bumping as promised for EMT...

Quadraped shown on 1st page is my dog.  Please don't hurt my dog with your icky guns

No more bears for the winter now

Bumped for the poster arming himself for bears...  

Bears are starting to come out, as evidenced by tracks a few hundred feet below our location when we were exploring some rugged terrain and tracking some trespassers [well away from our main location] the other day. [They prolly won't be back]  

Last year there weren't the young bears as there were the year before, but bigger ones, lions and smaller 'cats'.

It will be interesting to see if there are new batches of baby bears this year, and as usual, we'll be [very] careful, and try to get some pix.

Hopefully they won't tear things up. I've got fiber optic cable strung in the bushes for about 300 feet and the mission right now is to get it buried ASAP. It's to eliminate an RF wireless bridge link between the shipping container and barn and the resulting slow internet speeds. The fiber link is for all practical purposes, 'transparent', and maintains full speeds to the mtn of abt 16 Mb/sec.

If anyone is interested in linking locations with fiber, it eliminates a potential path of lightning strikes [and EMP?]

The Ethernet to fiber adapters are stunningly inexpensive, I paid $29 each, [another set for $19 each I haven't tried yet] one is needed on each end of the fiber, and then you plug your network cable into them. They don't take much power, are abt the size of a cigarette pack and [some] can run on 12vdc directly.

The local cable/LV wiring dealer wants ~$200 each  

I'm going to put the fiber in 1 1/4" conduit and run it parallel with some 4" corrugated drain line to kill two birds with one dig.

If anyone is interested, ask.

I would be interested.  I currently have internet service to my garage/apt (where we previously lived).  I trenched in a 1 inch conduit between the buildings and ran cat 5 with a jack on each end.  I was planning to pull it and rerun a cat5 and a phone line, as my land line is still in the shop.  would using fiber enhance anything in a meaningful way? where do you source the fiber?

thanks

OK, here's where it might benefit you.

Being in MN with lightning storms if there's a lightning induced EMF affecting one of your buildings, the fiber won't couple it to your other building, and blow out equipment on both ends.

With NO direct copper signal coupling between buildings' network equipment, IMHO, both ends are likely to be unaffected. It's when things are coupled that it gets interesting. I have more thoughts on this matter.

As far as speeds, Ethernet is limited to distances of a couple hundred meters IIRC, so speed and distance shouldn't be an issue either way.

My purpose was lightning ISOLATION, I could have run cat-5 but don't want the extensive equip in each metal building [barn and shipping container where we live] to get zapped.


Using these things is plug and play. I've listed some specs of the material I decided to use below.

Fiber multimedia [fiber and Ethernet] converters for a few km distance, with SC connectors, multimode orange cable,  are from $20 each up. Some can be powered from 12vdc because their internal power supply [that hooks to an external wall wart] is a switching type regulator [I've taken a couple kinds apart and examined them]

They look like this... Mine are very similar. There's units for $19  if you search.

Converter


Orange fiber cable,  thin multi-mode, relatively inexpensive and well suited to the purpose we're discussing.

Terminated in SC style connectors -well suited to purpose, cheap, may be 'stacked' or separated to pass thru smaller openings.

Ebay is least expensive source and amazing deals can be found for terminated cables of many lengths, incl 100's of meters.

You can terminate your own fiber, but the kits to do so are abt $100.

I bought the connectors and polishing stuff and a cleavage tool for abt $50 but haven't tried yet.

The instructions make it look complicated but I expect it doesn't have to be as hard as it sounds for short distances.

Here's an example of orange fiber with SC and ST connectors.

We want to use SC connectors and there's a ton of cables of varying lengths at great $$ on ebay.

SC and ST conx examples


If you decide to do it, it takes a bit to get up to speed re all the different 'choices' and I'll help if I can.

I'm with you I have no trespassing signs up and if it can, could, or would harm my family or livestock it goes down.
A few years ago a neighbor lost a mare that was protecting her fole to a bear.

I renamed the thread to include fiber optic... Because having this technical capability for some folks, may have uses avoiding the effects of lightning and EMP.

Here's the ditch we started digging yesterday to bury the fiber in 1 1/4" PVC conduit and since we can, 4" corrugated perforated with sock, and extra filter media, drain pipe.

The pathway the trench follows gets soggy after snow melt and this might help dry it faster.

I thought abt going thru the woods, but there are rock formations sticking out of the ground--- hope they don't extend to the path.





Another, ditch is dug to top of pix well into the pathway, and that's as far as I got yesterday. Path is curved and lined on each side with rocks, and if I touch or move them, I'm in deep shit.  

Path is roughly 6 or 7 feet wide.




This last one, the conduit and pipe have been slightly buried for about 50 feet. Got the trench dug for abt 80'.

Hit some sort of shale and the last few feet digging has been difficult.

The orange above ground fiber can be seen running on the stones in the background. It's 'hot'. Have to be careful not to step on it...  And get zapped...

I'll use the mini-excavator to backfill the trench. I hope I have the ditch deep enough so the drain pipe isn't compressed the skid-steer goes down the path I'm following, --at places it will be right under the wheel track. Skid steer weighs about 6000+ pounds IIRC.



After the holiday observation today, I hope to get back to the mtn and continue another 50 feet or so before dark.


The grey conduit is sticking up about four feet against the bldg. next to the white PVC pipe.

A small roof jack screwed to the bldg with rust proof sheet metal screws like are used in conventional metal building construction, will protect the conduit and fiber passing thru, from rain.


A vacuum cleaner on the shipping container conduit end will 'suck' a soft plug thru the several hundred feet of conduit --with a pull string attached. Then I'll use that string to pull the fiber and another string thru the same direction.


When you pull thru PVC electrical conduit, you want to pull in the direction of the curved part of the end bells, to avoid snagging on the mating pipe's square cut end. So the end bells are oriented appropriately, for pulling down-hill.

Sunday. Got back to the mtn later in the afternoon.

Worked to dark and made slow progress digging the trench.

Hit an area of sandstone [thankfully, could have been much worse] and had to break out the Harbor Freight big jack/demolition hammer like the member from TX was using on his cabin driveway.

That thing is sort of a copy of the high dollar ones and works great, has paid for itself easily over the past few years. Heavy as hell and a horse.

My SO used a hoe to scrape the 'tailings' from busting up rock and that helped to know where to direct the point.

Probably got 25 feet maybe, had to bust about 10 feet of rock. Not looking forward to tomorrow, but, it's good exercise for free...

Uh, I didn't think our bears can read a No Trespassing sign...

Maybe member Free Bear can give a more definitive opinion...  He's the expert.





Just kidding w/ you, thanks for the advice.  

Thanks Expy,

couple questions.

I already trenched 1" conduit--will this fiber fit?

being duplex, are both fibers needed for one line? or does this afford two

I also was hoping to run simple phone line, too.  can this piggyback on the fiber/Ethernet or would I still need to run a phone line, and if so can it run in the same conduit as the fiber.

thank you, the price is significantly less than I might have guessed

loon

Single fiber connectors will fit the 1" conduit I think. You might want to order a short length of an SC connected fiber to verify, or I can verify for you.

If you get a fiber PAIR, the SC connectors that are snapped together to plug into the media converter can be unsnapped and separated.

Looking at one here in the shipping container the cross-sectional diagonal dimension one ONE connector is <.6" and the orange fiber diameter is <.15"

If you run the copper wire, you will defeat the lightning isolation benefits of the dielectric fiber.

I'm trying to find some sort of network adapter that allows a phone line conx, to remote a Vonage adapter between the container and barn, without a lot of complexity that VOIP has.


Here's a link to fiber connectors.


Conx



ETA -you want two fibers for fast duplex operation.

Plenty of variable lengths on ebay. Cheap.

Look for the orange multi-mode cable with SC conx. A pair of fibers for duplex. I.e., there will be two conx on each end, altho it may look like one [double] if they are snapped together.

The dirt I'm trying to dig right now is harder than Woodpecker's toenails...  

Almost like it's getting ready to turn into rock in a couple thousand years.

The little mini-ex is having a tough time with it, especially the way the leading edge of the bucket is made.






Using a EU2000i to run the jack hammer.  Thank goodness for the new kind of gasoline adulterated with alcohol we have now that doesn't leave any gum in the carb.





This genny has been sitting [with the fuel cap valve 'open' since last year    ] and started with abt 10 pulls to prime the carb.

Runs the jack hammer fine.  It's just hard as hell using it in the trench. Especially when the bit penetrates the rock and goes into clay and gets stuck...  

Good  

Worked to dark and got the trench fully dug, go the 4" pipe prepped with filter sock [the 100' foot roll that didn't have one] and placed.

Put a layer of filter cloth over it. Then glued the 1 1/4" conduit into 30 foot lengths, taped the far end and glued them in the ditch in the 30 foot sections. Taped because even one rock in the total length could keep the foam/cloth ball from being sucked about 240' feet with the vacuum cleaner.

The little excavator just wasn't getting the ditch dug. Too much jack hammer and slow.

The area of the path compared to the area of dirt when we left the path digging the trench for a straight shot to the container, was surprisingly different.

The dirt under the path for a couple feet was compacted very hard and right next to the path was relatively soft.

So, not havin time fo dat, I got out the bigger excavator. Day and night and it took an hour and 1/2 maybe to finish the ditch, using both for appropriate areas.

Still needed the jack hammer a couple times...

By night the ditch was backfilled and rough graded and back-dragged with the blade on 'float' a couple times.

Need to plant some bushes in the area where the trench left the path.


These mini-ex's have really been refined over the years. There's a 'knuckle' where the boom and the 'turntable'/cab join.

This pivot allows the cab assembly and the boom to be 'offset' so the pivot point can be set over the line of digging, while the tracks can be placed in an entirely different direction, to accommodate digging, for example, on tight spaced curved paths as in this instance.

Some have articulating blades that can raise/lower, angle and more recently, tilt. Tilt allows for some easy grading.

All sorts of accessories can be gotten for them.



Assistant....

Thanks for all the information you provide on here.  One of the best things about ARFcom is the amount of knowledge of the members.

Thanks!



We got the trench dug, corrugated pipe and conduit in and backfilled, in the past two days.

Yesterday we sent a mouse down the 1 1/4" conduit by sucking it with a shop-vac.

That mouse must be the fastest mouse in the world because it traveled the 250' distance in about 9 seconds....  

The mouse had some masonry nylon line tied to its tail and once through we used the string to pull the fiber optic duplex cable and another pull cord, some 550 cord, thru.

The water heater for bathing is on the back of the container with the solar box I've written abt here over the years, that keeps water from freezing during the winter, provides the supply.

The 20# propane lasts a long time.


The optical fiber conduit is going to go vertical up to the solar panels and then 90 degrees to the left under them and terminated on the left back side and penetrate the wall.

Here's our speed demon mouse before setting, at least, the local -in conduit- distance/time record......





It's best to pull thru conduit, toward the curved part of the end bells.

I have a confession to make  

Didn't really send the mouse ^^^ down the conduit  

That would have been cruel  


And prolly wouldn't have worked because when you put the mouse in your mouth and suck on it -like a shop-vac, its too porous and air passes right thru and it wouldn't suck that well down the conduit.

So the mouse got a reprieve


Sorry....  

Sort of...  



What I DID do was take a round piece of sponge and covered it with a corner from a plastic shopping bag and tied the string to that.

That way the 'mouses' impermeable slick body allowed a much higher vacuum to form in the conduit and pass thru smoothly and fast.


My SO when she saw me making it, said 'how can that work'?

I said let me demonstrate and picked up the curved piece of conduit from the table and inserted the mouse in one end and sucked deep and hard on the other.


OMG, the mouse went thru so fast I was shocked -with a loud pow!

I grabbed my throat and staggered back and my SO's eyes got as big as saucers!




She thought I had ingested the mouse, -----I hadn't yet tied the string on it and...

It scared me too, but it hit my teeth and stopped ----thank goodness.

So that's the truth.... And a 3rd trip to the ER in 2 months avoided...



Well, I could have lied some more and said it went down my throat and I was able to pull it back out with the string...

But I wodn't do dat.....  

Nope...

Back to the bears  [Fiber optic link is working GREAT!!!]


The other day we found these paw prints on the stove outside in front of the container we live in.

Thankfully the bear didn't push it over the bank like one time a few years ago.


Big bear...






Close-up of bear's face...





Selfie...





Last one, you can see the solar water box and propane tank in the back-ground, the same camera placement as most of the earlier pix.

The bear must have pushed the trail-cam over because it was laying on the ground. He tore up most of the pathway solar lights [bit the tops off] between the barn and the container and pushed over the game cam near the barn that's tied to two concrete blocks stacked on end. Didn't get a shot of him, must have pushed them over from behind.

There's something about the cams that seems to create interest....






It looks like the bear made toenail imprints in the pink foam insulation we put over the glass on the solar water box again. Very gentle impressions. I marked them all this year with a magic marker to keep track of new ones.


Now if they'd not break the solar box glass again, maybe I should put plywood over the 2 pieces...

Hope he was just passing thru and not coming back...

Just pulled up the cam to see what's going on in the mtn, zoomed in, and saw this.

Anyone see the clue to the culprit?

Some calling card...  

Dumb bear...  

Least he didn't break the glass. Already replaced it once

Pointed the container PTZ cam at the trail cam that took the pix of the bear 2 posts up, to see if they pushed it over as of today. It's on the pinkish concrete ring.

Still there...    Anxious to see what's on it...





[Spider web on or in, the dome...]

Lots of city peeps on here...

The types that go "up north" (about an hour or two north of a major metro) and then take their Glock or 1911 into the woods, plinking at anything living they see regardless of the distance or legality.

STAY IN THE CITY.

Bears can be very destructive, but killing it isn't much of an option.

OP, are you from the city? Tracking at night through what must be unfamiliar area? In shorts with a almost dead flashlight? Honestly, tracking at all why?

My SO pulled pix from the Reconix game cam a few minutes ago and the smaller all-black bear is the culprit in tearing the insulation from the solar box.

Pretty cute watching him do it, he stood up and put both paws on the lower glass and didn't break it.

Then sat down and played with the pink foam, carried it off cam...

Then came back and took another piece he broke the first from.  Got abt 20+ pix.

Insulation was scattered all over today and SO cleaned it up.

Will post pix after she emails them.

There was a brown colored bear here a couple days ago, but it showed no interest in the insulation. It walked next to the propane tank and that's a good way to get the size of it.

Need to put elevation markings on the side of the tank.

We just got back up here.  

#BearLivesMatter

You need some palisades and some cheval de frise surrounding your perimeter. No killing needed.

We try not to have any food around that might attract them...

I see that's been working swimmingly well for you two for the past few years

Tonight they seemed really worked up, doing a lot of bellowing in the usual directions, not too far away.

We ate late well after dark because we had to transfer waste, and had chopped steak[s] on the grill.

I have a policy not to go out at night without the backup Fenix in my right pocket, 'chicken winging' elbows to scare them away, and something to throw at one to distract it, if it shows up ---while running to safety.

Usually a donut to distract.  

If I was there, the donut diversion might end up with me fighting the bear

Yeah, for a chocolate iced ring I'd whip that bear's ass!

A lot of bear activity this month and we got a lot of pix from the 2 game cams with several cute ones I need to post.

The cutest is little Blackie tearing the 1 inch pink rigid foam insulation off the front of the solar water box and sitting on his hiney playing with it and pushing his nose and teeth into it trying to bite it.  

Yesterday another one with a cinnamon coat and a little bigger got the fly trap up in the tree. It's the yellow object in the bad PTZ cam photo.

This is an old pix showing the tree -no bear...




My SO The bear repositioned the trail cam to get a different angle and we have a sequence how he climbed the tree above to get the fly trap.

The whole sequence is there, he climbed the tree effortlessly and the diameter of the tree trunk gives a good relation to the size of the bear. He has the trap in his mouth when he comes down. Tree isn't very big and there's no sign he climbed it.

I think he'd love to get on top of the container but hasn't figured out how to -yet...  



Last Wednesday, I walked to the barn in the morning and there was a big pile of bear poop exactly in the center of the path. It had what looked like two teeth visible, but they upon closed inspection might be bone fragments, I have one here on my desk and it doesn't seem as heavy as a stone but might be.

Then Thursday we went down about 6:30 PM and sure enough, the shaggy bear was here in 45 minutes, snooping around. It reminded me of my Sister's collie, that in the evening would go around and sniff everything to make sure all was well.


Saturday one of the bears left another present behind the storage container and my SO used it to fertilize her garden.

We spent the night at home Sunday night and returned here yesterday and one of them left a poop at the top of the path to the barn.


On cam, they seem to wander around with a smile on their snout, sniffing this and that, and since we put the aluminum backed Astrofoil insulation on the front of the solar box, have left it alone.

We put out a sensor behind and between the container we live to let us know when they come around, but each time they came around the past few days, we were away and weren't monitoring for one reason or another. We got one of those fancy phones and have a grandfathered unlimited data plan and I need to monitor the sensor on it.


A friend has a cabin abt 1/2 a mile away said 2 days ago a bear came on his porch at night and then climbed up on top of his truck leaving paw prints but not hurting anything.

SO says that yesterday's poop is full of those rock or bone fragments. I'll let it dry out and collect some. Maybe it's rocks the bears eat to help with digestive processes.

I'll test one with acid to see if it's calcium [bone]


We don't have much in the way of bear family pix this year, just a Mom and her cub earlier this year. Couple months ago we had 3 different bears in one day.

Last week we hand dug [well, used a Hilti TE805 to break the way] a trench between the container we live in to another one to remote antennas that pick up a lot of IP cam, inverter and solar Outback noise.

Buried 2 lengths of LMR-400 coax

Then figgered why not, since the ditch is there, put in a 3/8 copper tube my SO wanted to allow replenishing the little kero storage tank mounted on the side of the container that fires the Toytomi heater, from a larger storage tank over there we might put in this winter, probably a salvaged hot water tank.

We put the tubing in 1 inch PVC electrical conduit to protect it.

Also ran --in a 2" PVC conduit, 2 Cat 5 Ethernet cables, a length of aluminum armored [BX] #12 cable [had it handy] and 2 #8 THHN wires [future solar panels?

The LMR400 coax is in a different conduit for noise reasons and also in this one is 3 lengths of grey vinyl 2 cond #16 wire that can be used to control coax relays or power preamps, whatever.

Didn't install any fiber, hope that isn't a mistake, can't think of a reason to...


It's wonderful not having all sorts of RFI on the radios!

Looked at the bear and tree photos again and saw something amazing.

At 12:45:40PM the cam is pointed at the ditch -south and shows the bear reaching up at the corner of the container.

15 seconds later, the camera is REPOSITIONED abt 80 degrees clockwise facing ~west and pointed at the tree---

Then a few seconds later the bear climbs the tree and steals the fly trap.

Either the bear understands cams and how to take a selfie... How did he know how to do that?

Or an amazing coincidence the bear sniffed the cam with his nose and pushed the cam to the best angle for the climbing pix.

There is what may be a furry nose in the last frame before the cam is moved.

At least now we know how the bears are getting the fly traps -and can take countermeasures.  

What I don't know... Except buy moar fly traps...

One of the bears got more than it bargained for a couple days ago, and they haven't been back as far as we can tell...

My SO showed me a wasp spray can we kept up high and it had a hole in the side like it was shot with a .22.

Looking for an exit hole, there was a corresponding indentation on the other side, although light.

Mr. Bear must have gotten a mouthful, and now we'll have to keep sprays where they can't get to them.


Good thing it wasn't a paint can...


We had a rat the other morning in the storage container we had left the doors open on over night.

An American Arms tiny pistol in .22 mag with birdshot is a handy survival tool...  

I've had this guy in my yard for a few days. He's been eating the pears and apples that fell on the ground.

Very cute, looks young...

Yeah, he's a young one. We sat in lawn chairs and took his picture most of the day and he just kept eating.

I'm sure it's not, but that kind of looks like a tag in his ear.

Several times especially when we just get back, I'll hear a loud bear "moo" or sort of the typical bear bawl we hear all the time,, and then a pow, pow, pow.

It happened abt 2 days ago and the first thing that went thru my mind was who the hell is up here shooting, shouldn't be anyone around.

This time it was the popping sound about 3 times and then a loud bawl-groan.


So last night I researched bear teeth/jaw popping and found some videos of the sound.

Here's one that goes on a lot longer than what we usually hear...

I have heard this sound many times in my woods.
It all makes sense now. Thanks.

Here's some bear pix...




First the culprit who stole my fly trap, the one who turned the trail cam 90 degrees clockwise and gave himself away...

Pix before he turned the cam.




Then he turns the cam w/ his nose [presumably from another pix] to point at the tree and starts climbing it.

Check the date stamp on the upper left... How did he know to do this???

Amazing!




Way up in the tree...




Coming down with the fly trap in his mouth...







BIG 'Secret Agent' smile--- Job well done.

Another sequence of the baby bear tearing up the solar water box ---again...



Checking it out...




Tearing a piece off...




Got it...




This is FUN!




Tastes like ---PLASTIC...  

Dang Expy, they're taking over man!