Jerry, I hope I'm not stepping on your subject but you seem to know a lot about dash cams. I am debating using a dash cam to get videos of critters who visit our place at night because the Trail cameras I now use are so poor in quality and so short on video length.
Do you think if I buy a 12 volt battery and adapt it to power a dash cam out in the woods it would be useful in replacing a trail camera?
My present cameras are located within 200' of the house because so many critters show up there.
I've gotten a nice 15 second video of a ring tailed cat but its too short in video length therefore the desire to use a dash cam.
Thanks for any suggestions on this idea.

Wonderful shot! Mean looking!
When you describe the turtles eating the ducks is typical of a pond that probably has few fish in it because the turtles have 'over grazed most other wildlife'.

If you're not careful the pond will become a one species body of water and not a place to dangle your toes in.
If you want a more diverse pond it would be good to gather more info on how too thin the turtle population.
IMHO!

Jerry, I had a similar experience when I left a 5 gallon plastic container of diesel fuel in the woods. I used it to help start brush piles on fire. That darn bear tore the container apart. I was amazed it could puncture the real thick plastic around the handle.
The Fish and Wildlife people believed I had something tasty on my hands when I handled the container earlier.

The hell with the dog, watch out for the huge turkey!!

Great picture! Until I saw your photo I never knew Quail had such colors.
Ours here in southern Oregon have no such coloring.

I was also a tribologist and never had a problem switching from conventional oil to synthetic. It is always good to be cautious though.

I was a transmission engineer for helicopters and was hired to improve the longevity of one model due to low time failures. The original model of Sikorsky used conventional oil and when I switched it to Mobil 626, a synthetic oil, the failures plummeted. The main failure culprit of most engines and gearboxes is heat. Regular oil will decrease its viscosity dramatically as temperature increases. Unfortunately, most manufacturers specify regular oil and therefore have problems. The best thing anyone can do is keep the regular oil cool as that is the culprit causing many failures. Cars that have very good cooling systems are likely to last longer because the oil viscosity will remain high. Synthetic oil on the other hand maintains a good (high) viscosity at least three times higher than conventional oil.
As far as additives, the mobil engineers I worked with said "if any additive worked, we would have added it to our oil", therefore don't add any additives.
It took the FAA a couple of years to approve using synthetic oil on the Skycrane but with the results of 2 years of sampling every 25 hours and documenting the exceptional benefit of synthetic oil they approved its use. It now being used by many helicopter companies as a standard gearbox lubricant.

Made me flash on 'How big of a water tank do I need to buy'?

Because of similar experiences I disabled all lights when I open my truck door and just get out without having to worry about battery life. Of course, I have to pull out the key half way so the darn chimes stop too.
Works for me as I'm behind an electric gate on the property.

With the frentic activity of those sparrows it looks like you'll be kept busy filling the baths. Nicely done!!

I actually like the change of pace having the 'crocs' in his cartoon series. Both are from a fertile mind!!

I had the same Good experience with Starlink after switching from internet being beamed to my house using transmitters hung in trees, to using Starlink (which was so simple to install I couldn't believe how simple they made the system). They even color code the connectors ,black to black, white to white. They send a pictogram showing how to install the system.
I went from very poor, intermittent download speeds and high latency to 150+Mbps download and virtually no latency.
On another house, in town, we get Spectrum cable and it only gets 98Mbps.
Not happy with 99 dollars per month but the alternative is almost as high, no matter what the Spectrum ads say.

Jerry, please share the name of your UPS as I recently had to replace my router, printer and modem because of exactly the same electrical flickering that you experienced.
Now that I've just installed a Starlink system its obvious I need to protect some more high dollar items!

[quote=Naptown Gaijin]

One of these days you're going to get bit by 'spell check' and then who will look foolish then?

You are right! Every time I think of an old workmate who still lives in Point Roberts I feel sorry for him all over again.