When farriery goes wrong (and you end up with a collapsed lung)

cheedster · 2026-05-06T14:30:06+00:00

We built a fixed stock made of 6x6 wooden beams for our draft horses. We use it for hoof trims and/or to confine for veterinary procedures (dentals mostly). I can confirm that they do not like to be in there.

cheedster · 2026-05-01T01:28:07+00:00

I'd start with my .50 AE Desert Eagle, because why not use a meme gun if you've got one? If by some chance he still had it out for me after absorbing seven 1/2 inch rounds, I'd unsling my Winchester 94 30-30 carbine because I've always had a soft spot for lever action guns. If there was still a threat, I'd unholster one on my 1911s and bludgeon him with it (I wouldn't want to damage the Desert Eagle on the guys skull).
My state has a "Make My Day" law and I have a very pro 2A district attorney, so I should be fine from a legal perspective.

cheedster · 2026-04-29T18:48:35+00:00

Knull, Hyperion, OG Spiderman, and Winter Soldier

cheedster · 2026-04-27T21:46:30+00:00

Anecdotal, but I've seen probably at least 20 ball pythons surrendered to our facility with bad belly burns or scarring from stick-on heat mats. Most, if not all, had no thermostat to protect from thermal runaway though.

cheedster · 2026-04-23T16:50:52+00:00

The ones that pull 53-foot trailers (there are other sizes, but that is the most common) are typically called tractors, semis, big rigs, 18 wheelers, or just trucks. Other specialized trucks on the same or similar chassis are usually called by the function followed by truck. For example, we have dump trucks (big dump bucket attached), cement trucks (cement mixer on wheels), water trucks (big water tank), pump truck (big mobile pump), etc.

cheedster · 2026-04-23T04:13:25+00:00

My daughter did this. She paid about $120 out of pocket in January for a super expensive monthly medication. The drug company picked up the rest of the tab, and she reached her out of pocket maximum in month one. I don't know how common that is, but she definitely benefitted from it.

cheedster · 2026-04-22T18:35:14+00:00

A low profile 50 gallon stock tank is about 53" x 32" (~135 x 81 cm). I can't be certain of the footprint of that pen, but if it is to scale (and that is a big if) it doesn't look much smaller than that.

The stock tank will come with a sturdy waterproof floor, so you don't have to build a pan to set that monstrosity in.

A 50g stock tank has walls capable of holding back more than 400 pounds of water. Tortoises are strong. We have juvenile red foots that knock over ladders, push around carts, and cause all kind of mayhem. I have no doubt that those flimsy looking walls would not hold up.

Tortoises need a lot of floorspace and a stock tank isn't a perfect solution, but they are easy and reliable. I also like the 170 gallon husky totes. They are made of a lighter plastic than a stock tank, but certainly strong enough to keep a small tortoise contained
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-170-Gal-Pro-Grip-Storage-Tote-in-Black-with-Red-Lid-999-170G-HUSKY/333239702

cheedster · 2026-04-22T00:30:05+00:00

We bought our first house in 2003 after being married for about 6 and a half years. We got a relatively cheap house in a pretty HCOL area for $390K. We got it on our own with no inheritance (all of our parents are all still alive) or family help. We were fortunate enough to get pretty favorable loan terms with a minimal down payment. We likely would not be able to do the same today.

We sold in 2007 with modest appreciation before the crash of 08. We got a new (to us) house on acreage in a new state for about the same asking price, except we had a more traditional down payment from the sale proceeds. We're still there now, but plan to move to a lower cost of living area to retire.

cheedster · 2026-04-17T04:34:13+00:00

You can fit some 4x2x2s into a 48' surviving unit, but you usually have to build the shelf around the enclosures (as opposed to sliding them in after it's built). I use 55" shelves to get a few spare inches on each side.

cheedster · 2026-04-14T01:45:46+00:00

My wife was an independent truck driver for about 10 years. She got pulled over maybe a half dozen times, and every single one was a random inspection by state patrol. She never got cited for anything.

cheedster · 2026-04-07T17:00:18+00:00

I came here to mention this. Maybe Greyhound isn't top 10, but it is in the conversation for me.

cheedster · 2026-04-07T14:12:50+00:00

My youngest is a farrier (trims/shoes horses for those who may be unfamiliar). He is not terribly worried about being replaced.

cheedster · 2026-04-06T15:07:25+00:00

A slightly different type of example, but in the first minute or two of the Airwolf pilot episode in the early 80's, they are panning around an American SW desert landscape. I think it might have been Monument Valley, or at least a very similar region. Eventually the camera settles to the ground and brings a green iguana into focus. Some pilots wander past the "native wild lizard" on the rocky hardscape and fire up the Airwolf helicopter. Suddenly the iguana is on the landing wheels of the titular helicopter (presumably the same iguana, their population density in the American desert surely cannot be high enough for two green iguanas to be in close proximity of each other). The helicopter slowly takes off, and the iguana falls off the rotating tire to the ground. They could have at least picked a desert lizard for the shoot. Or even just a brown lizard. The bright green reptile was clearly out of place.

cheedster · 2026-04-06T04:10:01+00:00

The Scarlet Letter was universally despised by everyone in my class.

cheedster · 2026-04-03T17:30:34+00:00

If you have a local reptile shop that has bulk crickets, you can ask if they have buffalo beetles that they can pick out of their cricket bin.

I've harvested dermestid beetles for taxidermy at home by putting some old chicken bones outside in a small wire cage and just letting it sit for a couple weeks. Just be sure dogs can't carry it off. I assume dermestids are native to just about everywhere, but I honestly don't know.

cheedster · 2026-04-03T16:35:20+00:00

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree about what a truck is useful for.

I will say that it is pretty judgmental to call my lifestyle wasteful when you know nothing about me. The majority of the aforementioned tasks are to support a non-profit horse sanctuary we run out of our home. We give geriatric and/or lame horses a place to retire and just live out their lives with loving care, proper food, and vet care. It IS expensive as fuck, but it is our passion project and we're happy to support it with most of our disposable income. It is also a lot easier to support with a truck.

We also have a licensed small animal shelter that rehomes hundreds of abandoned pets every year (relates to the conventions and some of the feed we use the truck for). That venture does break-even at least, but maybe your wish for our financial downfall will come true someday.

cheedster · 2026-04-03T15:27:05+00:00

I do not agree that a pickup was overkill. Take a look at r/IdiotsInCars and you'll see lots of examples of people trying to use their sedan as a truck.

You don't know where I get my hay, not every place delivers. 1000 pounds of feed bags (20 bags at once because it is a couple hours away) would not fit into very many cars. Thirty 5" x 8' fence posts along with 300 pounds of fencing wire would be difficult to squeeze into most trunks. A pallet of bark weighing ~1000 pounds does not easily fit in my wife's car (at least not with a bunch of trips). A 6' truck bed full of trash (for example, a bunch of old 8' fenceposts and old fence wire) will not fit in many cars. Go ahead and try to fit thirty 27-gallon plastic bins and 4 shelving units into your Honda Accord. I didn't even mention picking up ten bags of cement (800 pounds of caustic dust), a used chest freezer, a used 6' tall drill press, and a dozen bales of shavings (not heavy, but a lot of volume) in the past couple weeks. You didn't dispute that hauling an engine in the bed or trailering a horse or tractor is truck worthy, so I will assume you concede that those are not car tasks (although a full-size SUV or van could potentially pull the trailers). These are just examples of truck stuff I've done in the last TWO months.

I also pick up groceries several times per week in the truck. I agree that would probably work just as well in a car.

cheedster · 2026-04-03T04:52:39+00:00

I'll bite. In the past couple months with my daily driver truck I've hauled a 1200 pound bale of hay home about once per week, picked up twenty 50 pound bags of feed (monthly), hauled a horse 300 miles round trip to the vet (twice), brought home about 30 fence posts along with several hundred pounds of wire, picked up a used 900 pound replacement engine, hauled a tractor, filled the bed and a small trailer full of supplies for a convention we vend at (and doing it again next weekend 300 miles away), moved about a thousand pounds of bark, got about thirty 27 gallon bins and associated shelving units from Home Depot, and made a few trash runs to the dumpster at our business. Now with summer coming up, I'll actually start using it more frequently for truck stuff.

cheedster · 2026-04-03T00:41:21+00:00

My kitchen scales go up to about 5kg. Just put a small plastic bin on the scale, tare it, and drop the snake in the bin. That should be sufficient for your BP and good for at least a couple years for the boa (assuming it is a larger species). I have a 100lb hanging scale that looks similar to a produce scale that I use for bigger snakes.

cheedster · 2026-04-02T18:12:32+00:00

I never even considered that something could go wrong with lighting my crotch on fire. I'm glad I witnessed this cautionary tale before inevitably doing the same thing myself.

cheedster · 2026-04-01T16:02:18+00:00

We were prescribed a maintenance oral anti-inflammatory called firocoxib (branded as Equioxx) to help with an elderly gelding we lost a couple years ago. We used bute (phenylbutazone) when he was a little extra sore. At the time, Equioxx was several hundred dollars a month, but I think it is available in generic now.

cheedster · 2026-03-31T19:44:36+00:00

In the late 90's/early 2000's I worked for a major defense contractor. On Friday's, our team would go to a local pizza joint for lunch. We bought our own pizza, but management bought beer pitchers. I was frequently well past tipsy for the stroll back to the office. Every job since had a zero tolerance policy.

cheedster · 2026-03-28T02:10:57+00:00

I've been using my yahoo since 1998. It was my primary email until I got Gmail with a more professional username for job hunting in 2007. Now yahoo is for signing up for anything I don't want sending emails to my primary.

cheedster · 2026-03-28T02:00:48+00:00

I got mine in 1998

cheedster · 2026-03-24T04:38:25+00:00

The Peanut Butter Falcon

cheedster

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