Latestarter's ramblings/musings/gripes and grumbles.

[AClark]

I'm real careful with fire. We have a lot of wooded areas, so I can't light 'er up where it grows. It is work, but I just pull the hemlock, nightshade and pigweed and throw on the burn pile

I have to be careful too, the hay farm behind me would go up like none other. That's what I like about the propane torch with the weed handle, it generally concentrates the fire to one area, as long as it's wet, it doesn't get out of control. Nothing like pouring on the gas and lighting it up!

 

[Latestarter]

Looked at the weather forecast this morning ~2am before I tried to sleep. 80% chance today (now down to 60%), and looks like 1 evening at 20% and the rest from now till next Monday is 30-60%. Wanted to get an early start to milking/feeding so maybe I could miss the rain. Didn't work out that way. Headed out during a light sprinkle after a heavier episode. Decided milking inside the shelter would probably be a good idea (boy was THAT a smart decision!). Just got started on her first side and saw lightening (close) followed by increasing rain and wind till it was a down pour. So I milked through a pretty decent T-storm. The storm finally passed and slackened up enough that I could get them their grain/feed and bottle feed CC. It was kinda funny but sad & sweet at the same time... Mel couldn't see me and the goats from the covered deck, so he stood outside in the downpour, at the fence end of the shelter, watching as I milked to make sure we were all OK. He stayed there almost the whole time even though I told him to go back to the house. He's a good boy. He sure was happy when I was done and dried him off (sorta and took 2 towels) and let him inside.

So since their shelter is a hoop hut made with metal cattle panels, I wonder what would happen if it got hit by lightning? Would it act like a Faraday cage and route the charge around us/them to ground? Even though the CP's ends aren't actually touching the ground? They're poultry stapled to 2x6 boards... Don't think I want to be in there to test it out. I mean they are kinda connected via foliage and water... I guess I'll find out by goat status if it ever gets hit. Cause if it's raining, they'll be inside it.

So I glanced out the window yesterday late morning, like I often do, to make sure everything with the goats was OK, and I saw what I at first thought was April, outside the pen, standing there looking in at the others. It took a sec and then she turned and bounced down the pasture towards the woods... It was a doe deer. I do enjoy seeing the deer here. As many coyotes as I hear when they sound off, I wonder that there are any deer at all.

So it seems I'm destined to get pretty wet, quite a bit, over the coming few days... Well, I did move here because they get rain. I haven't been let down since moving here.

 

[Southern by choice]

I do think Mel is spoiled! LOL
I always get a kick out of reading about him and the rain.
When it rains here all my boys are running and playing and rarely get out of it. It is their fun time... they can do this because the goats are all in and they are just free to play play play.
I just wish they would go in the barn when it is lightening and thundering. Do not need a repeat of what happened to Badger or worse.

 

[CntryBoy777]

Well with the taller trees around, it should strike them before the hoop hut....I would think anyway. Also, with the Tposts they certainly would ground a strike. Glad that Mel kept a watch over ya and made sure of your Safe return....

 

[AClark]

Stapled to wood and all I'd think it would ground...might want to wear rubber boots just in case though, lol.

I'm completely jealous about the rain. The weather liars said Yesterday we were going to get rain all day. We got a little bit over night, just enough to make it humid with the hot. Expecting more this week, and I'm seriously praying for it, even though it completely wrecks my hair and makes it frizzy, we need rain badly. I'm sick of hand watering everything every night because as soon as I turn the hose on, it sucks all the water pressure from the house, so you can't wash dishes or anything as long as I"m watering.

 

[Baymule]

@greybeard I have redroot pigweed. It grows 2-3' tall, branches out and has lots of thorny prickles on it. I sure don't grab it with bare hands!

@Latestarter I would love free pig feed, but don't you think you should buy a feeder pig or two?

 

[greybeard]

Average lightening strike is 5 billion Joules of energy or 5×10¹⁴ (or 500 trillion) watts.

A few Tee posts dissipating energy even a fraction of that magnitude is extremely unlikely.
That bolt of visible negatively charged plasma just jumped open air for several miles seeking the positively charged Earth.
Rubber boots won't help.

 

[AClark]

I was joking about rubber boots Grey, you're pretty screwed if you're even close to the bolt. My house in Colorado had a huge tree out front, maybe 15 feet from the house. It got struck during a storm, I was in the kitchen and could feel the electricity off of it, not to mention it felt like artillery dropped a 105 in the front yard. Smoked that big cottonwood tree big time.

 

[Bruce]

He sure was happy when I was done and dried him off (sorta and took 2 towels) and let him inside.

TWO towels? That's only enough to dry his head!

 

[Latestarter]

They are full sized, large bath towels...