LATEST MOAN FROM YOU AND ME 2017

Sabotage!!!

I checked the rat bait station this evening. It's similar to this one but more sturdy. Inside there are two metal spikes that hold the bait. The bait is in a circular solid block (with a hole in the middle so it will slide down over the spike) and both blocks had been eaten.

The sabotage is that the rats had taken the metal spike as well

 

There's also the fact that they are Wireless controlled from the leading Truck and it wouldn't take much to interfere with whatever frequency they're using. At the moment they have a "safety" human driver in the cab but I'm not sure if they will continue that practice. If they do, what's the point of them being wireless controlled? I'm all for advances in technology and I use a lot in the Observatory but perhaps they should spend the money in another direction.

 

@ARMANDII Even a technical idiot like me could work out a way to interfere with the signal, let alone a terrorist!

 

I wish they could understand that so that they would be able to stay away.

Over the years we (the few houses here that are surrounded by fields) have had considerable problems with rats and the local authority have advised/banned bird tables. They even refused to send their ratcatcher (sorry! - rodent operative ) into any house that had a bird table.

We just have hanging bird feeders but the birds are very untidy eaters and throw their food around. The squirrels are quite happy with the bad feeding manners of the birds but the rats have been ousting them from under the feeders. Hence the bait boxes.

The birds get through 20kg of feed and 2.5kg of peanuts every five weeks. The taxman didn't allow me to claim the cost under 'dependents' .

 

I've been carrying out some modifications to my Telescope in the Observatory. Most Astronomy equipment is made either in China or Japan these days and I've run into some ironic problems. The Chinese, Japanese and Americans still make bolts, nuts, and screws in Imperial thread sizes, mostly known as "Whitworth" which is a British standard. So, wanting some bolts to add kit to the telescope I went B&Q, Wickes, and some local Hardware stores only to find they only sell Metric sizes. I got some puzzled looks at B&Q and Wickes and was asked "What's/Who are Whitworths?"
I've had to resort to e-bay to get the bolts I want in Whitworth sizes so all is well. But it's a bit ironic to think that a lot of major foreign countries are still using Imperial sizes for technical equipment, while the UK itself has moved over to Metric to keep the EU, and it's fans, happy. It makes me wonder though if, when we finally leave the EU, we will have to properly resurrect the Imperial sizes so that we can conform with the technical sizes [i.e. Imperial] that other countries, other than the EU, are using so that we will be trading with the technical sizes they need , [Australia uses both] and will want when importing our goods.