Van Spare Tire Mount Finished Up and The Rat Report

Posted on November 17, 2022 by Bob

Thursday November 16, 2022 Guerneville CA.

Van work on the spare tire mount

I had the new spare tire extension bracket ready to get welded on the mount. I needed a way to hold the parts accurately so the spare tire would fit on the bolts. I used clamps and magnets to get the thing in the right spot and not fall off.

The first extension is setup and ready to tack on for welding up.mount1

 

All welded up and ready to get cleaned up and then I applied a coat of black paint to finish it off.weldedup2

 

I put the spare tire on to check the fit. Fits good.spare3

 

I backed the van out into the sun to help the paint dry and put away the tools in the work area that I’d used to get the job done.van4

 

Avocados

So I thought the red squirrel was eating my avocados and it was.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,But.

If they like it and eat it all, I find the seed on the ground. But if they don’t like it, like if it’s not ripe enough, I find these slightly sampled ones which I found this morning.avocados6

 

Here’s the red squirrel coming down the tree which my trail cam got.squirrel7

 

But the trail cam also captured this. They were going up and down most of the night.rat8

 

That isn’t no bushy tail there, eh.ratree9

 

So, I think I’m not going to get many of those avocados this year.

Rat report

I watched the rats at the bait station last night. I’d put two more cubes of bait out that I”d smashed up coarsely in the container on the left. They seemed to like that best and ate most of it. I refilled that with two more smashed cubes of bait. None have touched the cubes on the right.ratbait5

 

Some thoughts on the subject

It seems what I’ve done is establish a safe feeding station that they seem to trust, so they are taking the bait. But it also seems like they have an imprint of the green cubes and aren’t eating them, maybe something they are born with as it seems to be pretty universal as none have messed with the cubes. Only a couple mice tried them a bit, but just barely.

I also think that how good the bait works or not might have something to do with just how much food they have to eat in the area. I think they are more likely to eat more bait if that’s about all they have to eat in an area and also how many other rats and critters they have to compete with for food might have something to do with it too. There’s lots to eat around here, fruit and wild acorns and vegetables just to name a few things.

So now that I’ve been able to increase the amount of green bait they are eating, maybe I’ll see some action, er, I mean less action. :O)

Nice day.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

Car and Van Projects and a Rat Report

Posted on November 16, 2022 by Bob

Wednesday November 16, 2022 Guerneville CA.

Working on projects

I got another layer of epoxy on the car’s broken mirror bracket last night so it was now ready to put it back together and back on the car.parts1

 

It’s back in one piece after I did some trimming to get some of the epoxy out of the way were it wasn’t supposed to be.mirror

 

And it went back on the car without breaking so I think it will work.fixed3

 

A nice blue sky today as I sat in my chair in the yard thinking about what to do next.dky4

 

New bike basket

While I was sitting there a package was delivered. It was my new basket for the dirt bike. I thought I’d try this style out as it’s made for bikes. It’s small enough not to get in the way, I hope.basket5

 

Van work

The next project was a bigger one. I had some work to do on the van. But first I remembered to spray some silicone into the ignition key hole to help loosen it up a little as it’s been a bit on the sticky side as far as putting the key in and out.silicone7

 

Extending the spare tire mount bracket

That was the next thing I needed to do.

I measured things and drew lines on the parts I needed to cut off to add one and a quarter inch pieces.lines8

 

Fortunately I had a power hack saw which made cutting the metal pieces off a breeze, well, almost. I’ve cut the metal pieces off which are sitting on the rear of the saw with the wheel nuts on them.saw9

 

I setting the parts up here with the extension pieces to get them welded on as the first step.welding10

 

Once I had those parts welded up, I put them aside to cool and will finish welding the parts on the van tomorrow. The parts have to be welded on exactly right so the spare tire will fit over them.

Rat report

I had a rat dig a hole just in back of the bait blocks and spread the dirt out around the area. It then brought some crab shell pieces into the area. It’s been sampling the bait at the right, but none have messed with the blocks.pen11

 

It’s hole is in the back but I don’t think it is living in there, only hanging out at night. It might have brought in the crab pieces to save them from the chickens as the chickens can’t get into here. The pieces it brought in have little pieces of crab meat in them.hole12

 

I crushed up two more cubes and put them in the right container without the flour and I left them in a bit larger pieces. A couple of rats have sampled the new green stuff on the right, so far. They seem to have something against the blocks as they are leaving them alone. I’m thinking of putting some blocks in with these dishes and giving that a try.bait13

 

Nice day.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment