Larger Tortoise Terrarium

Tammy the Tortoise spent the Spring and Summer gorging on our well-watered grass this year, and grew too big for our current terrarium:

Getting a new glass terrarium is prohibitively expensive. We decided to build a new one from scrap wood.

Brianna and I talked over some design ideas, and then Brianna took the lead on the build, doing all the measuring and cutting, with me supporting her. We did most of it in one afternoon while Lincoln napped.

There's a 25W silicone-pad heater under the left end of the plastic liner. A spare desk lamp is repurposed with a incandescent heat bulb, and the white fluorescent fixture is a special UV lamp to Tammy gets the desert-like radiation needed for a healthy shell.

The lights and heater are controlled by a Quirky Pivot Power Genius power strip, which has two smart outlets. These outlets are on a pre-programmed schedule (but also have voice and smartphone control), and I added an LED indicator light to show when the heating pad is on.

Eventually I would like to have some sort of presence sensor, so the terrarium shuts down when Tammy is out in the yard. I haven't nailed down how I want to do that yet, though.

LEGOS in the Aquarium

The fish tank has been empty for a couple months now. A few weeks ago, we started the arduous process of cleaning out the aquarium. I quickly lost track of how many fish skeletons I found in the aquarium gravel.

This morning, I finally called it "good enough", and put in a number of my Star Wars Lego sets that I've collected over the years:

I probably need to do another pass with windex, but I was ready to take a break from the fish tank for a while.

Eventually, I'd like to have some of the space ships suspended with fishing line, but that will be a project for another day.

I did do one cool thing, though:

See the little cylinder hanging from the ceiling in the top right corner of that photo? That's a motion sensor, and it controls the light in the fish tank.

Specifically, I dug out my Wemo motion sensor and smart plug, and paired them for this task. I had packed them away because they don't really play nicely with the rest of my home automation stuff, but this is a fairly stand-alone application, and it feels good to have them do something beyond gathering dust.

Smart Terrarium

I picked up a Quirky smart powerstrip for $21 earlier this week, to replace the buzzing mechanical timers we had on the lights and heater on the terrarium.

Quirky has gone bankrupt and this product is no longer supported, but it still works right now, and it looks like I'll be able to control it from OpenHAB if the official app goes away.

No more buzzing in the family room!

Driving a Tortoise

Poor Tortoise...

Tortoise-Proofing the Back Deck

Tammy the Tortoise will occasionally push through the lattice surrounding the back deck and hide under the hot tub. Which is fine in the summer. But it's not going to work if snow falls and blocks her in.

So I picked up some pressure treated 2x4s and some spikes from Home Depot, and anchored the lattice in place.

Turns out a 10-foot 2x4 just fits inside my car.

While I had my tools out, I replaced the step to the back door. The planks had actually started to curl upwards and become a real safety hazard. Not anymore:

Hmm. That deck really needs to be repainted in the near future.

Sigh. We Have a Cat Now.

Her name is Sabrina (now). She doesn't answer to it yet.

She's currently based in the upstairs office, and has not been introduced to the dog without a gate between them yet. We'll see how it goes.

Freaking Tortoise

Automatic Feeder for the Dog

Our dog Eva is (theoretically) on a diet following her last vet appointment. However, between me and Brianna, it's more common for Eva to get fed twice or not at all (the food dish is almost always empty, regardless of how often she's fed).

So, I used an Amazon gift card and ordered an automatic pet feeder.

The Amazon reviews assured me there was a port for an AC power adapter (the feeder is nominally battery powered) even though I would have to order the actual power adapter separately.

I was lied to.

So, I drilled a hole in the housing and wired in the power adapter myself. Works great!

Eva Hiding

Tammy the tortoise isn't the only pet that can hide:

New Coat Rack

A few weeks ago we absentmindedly set the diaper bag down on the floor when we got home from an outing. By the time we turned around, our dog had spread the contents of the entire bag all over the carpet and was eagerly trying to get into the bag containing the dirty diapers.

...

Today we have a coat rack by the garage to hang the diaper bag on.

I don't understand how IKEA designed this particular item. The hooks for hanging this coat rack were 29 inches apart, which doesn't match any US standard for framing houses that I'm aware of (although admittedly there is a hell of a lot about building houses of which I am unaware). I had to cut 4 inches of length off this rack to fit it on this wall anyway, so drilling a few holes to securely mount this thing on the wall didn't bother me, but still: 29 inches seems weird.

Snow Storm

While it is nothing like what New England is getting, Denver got hit with a significant amount of snow this weekend. Brianna and I didn't have anything scheduled, so we pretty much just forted up inside our house - I'm pretty sure we only left to grab the mail and feed the freaking chickens.

That stupid little shelter I knocked together for the chickens' water tank is still doing its job admirably.

Got a pretty crazy snow formation on top of the vent for the range hood.

Link did not enjoy his first snow angel (Please don't call child services on us - he's fine (I swear)).

Pacifiers

Welp, the dog has figured out what pacifiers are:

Doggy Door

Patrick came up this afternoon to help with some house stuff. His dog Otis hung out in the back yard. Well, most of Otis was in the back yard.

Paw Prints

Brianna and I went to Costco to order snow tires for her car this afternoon (we ordered and paid today, the tires should arrive on Monday). When we got back, the kitchen table was covered in paw prints. Now we know what Eva gets up to while we're gone.

Watching tv with a snuggler

Finishing "The Buisness of Being Born" and my co-pilot has fallen asleep.

And then I woke her up!

Dreaming with the Fishes

I don't really understand the fascination, but then again, this is the one set of pets I haven't had do do anything for.

Poor Little Dog

Have you ever seen a dog that wanted a bite of Brian's pizza more than this little one?

(I ate ALL my pizza, and enjoyed every bite)

Tammy the #@%&ing Tortoise

We set Tammy the tortoise out in the backyard yesterday to enjoy some sunshine before we head into the winter season. Despite Tammy being lost in the backyard twice before, I felt pretty confident: Tammy has been going to a favorite place in the backyard lately (by the woodshed), and I had an alarm on my phone to find her before sunset.

...

You know where this is going: she wasn't in her normal spot, and we couldn't find her.

After looking for an hour - raking through leaves, tramping through garden beds, digging through firewood - we called it a night. Tammy had survived nights out in the backyard before.

Today, unfortunately, was colder than forecast and entirely cloudy. Tammy wasn't likely to come out of her hiding spot if there was no sun to enjoy. At 2pm, temperatures started to fall again and the forecast called for overnight freezing, so I left work early to go home and find the #@%&ing tortoise.

I spent a good twenty minutes going over the yard again (with daylight this time) even going so far as to sweep up most of the leaves. No luck. With everywhere else explored, the only option left was that Tammy was somewhere under the deck that I couldn't see through the lattice.

Tammy was, of course, in the most difficult spot to get to: the corner of the foundation, highlighted with a flashlight in the photo above (I took the photo after Tammy was safely inside).

I nearly couldn't reach that corner - too little time spent at the gym during the last six months.

As I carried Tammy inside, flurries of itty-bitty snowflakes fell from the heavens, and I muttered to the tortoise "you're lucky Brianna loves you." Then I put her under her heat lamp to warm up.

Copycat neighbors

The two neighbor kids got baby turtles over the weekend.

They came over this afternoon to introduce the turtles to our tortoise.

They were (understandably) concerned that Tammy the Tortoise might mistake their turtles for particularly active pieces of lettuce and try to take a bite. Tammy didn't seem all that interested, though.

Master of Disguise

The tortoise is getting ridiculously good at hiding in the backyard.