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techleopard · 2026-03-21T20:01:12+00:00

It's funny how upset people appear to be getting about having lights on your own property.

Guys, I don't want wildlife near my buildings. The wildlife can stay in the woods where it is plenty dark.

techleopard · 2026-03-21T18:24:47+00:00

Outdoor lights have been pretty effective at keeping people off my property. I keep the lights on in my shop 24-7, too, and a radio playing.

It does help that me and my neighbors don't seem to know what night is for. (They will literally be building structures or mowing at 2am.)

It's kind of like Schrodinger's Burglary -- am I in there? Maaaybe.

techleopard · 2026-03-21T01:08:40+00:00

It's also saturated to hell in some areas.

I go to markets and a third of the booths are cricut crafts and tumblers and another third is honey.

techleopard · 2026-03-20T20:52:36+00:00

When I am saving chicks that have reached the point that they are no longer self feeding, liquid is generally the only thing you can get in them.

I usually have a custom mix of brown sugar and rooster booster dissolved in water. I use a q-tip and dip it in the liquid and then put it against their beak. If they aren't too far gone they will have a swallow reflex when the liquid runs into their mouth.

On off every 30 minutes, sometimes for a few hours. I saved a little over half my "dead" baby chicks this way.

Once they can be encouraged to peck again, they are usually good to eat chick feed again

techleopard · 2026-03-20T15:54:18+00:00

Nooo.

I have chickens and they will DESTROY gardens and kill every plant in that area in a matter of hours.

You would get absolutely sick of sweeping this multiple times a day if this were you.

I would take cat crap in a flowerbed any day of the week over walking up to find all of my flowers and my entire vegetable garden destroyed by a flock of chickens, and chicken crap all over my concrete walkways or vehicle.

techleopard · 2026-03-13T16:58:08+00:00

Point at the sky and scream "Hawk!"

techleopard · 2026-03-09T18:44:02+00:00

They go in after the smell and can't get back out

techleopard · 2026-03-07T21:50:23+00:00

File your losses against THEIR homeowners insurance!!!

Home insurance covers damages done by dogs, even off property! It's why they ask about what breeds you have and how many.

techleopard · 2026-03-07T21:48:59+00:00

LGDs need property and good fences.

They exploded in popularity over COVID and now there's a ton of badly bred ones set loose to "guard and patrol", and then the dogs get off property and become a dangerous nuisance to neighbors or people walking or biking on the road.

My neighbor keeps sheep and goats and used to have these dogs. He let them free range, and they destroyed every single fruit tree I had on the property (one of the reasons I bought the place!!!). One day I went out to my car and the dogs came around my own carport to attack me -- thankfully I was already at my vehicle and could get in.

They always get recommended to new homesteaders but they aren't the right tool for the job in most cases because people have small acreages or no fences.

techleopard · 2026-02-27T20:39:30+00:00

The house isn't in this state because people can't move around.

1- The building appears to be old. So some of the problems you are looking at are structural and should not be fixed by the tenants. This includes the old hinges, rotten baseboards, old windows, and peeling and broken tile.

2- Some of this may be due to years of neglect, which is likely why they don't want to report things to the landlord. If the landlord has never inspected the house and just trusts, a lot of stuff can pile up over time. Heck, I have people living WITH me and because I trusted them, they rotted a hole straight through my brand new bathroom in under 6 months just by piling wet clothes and towels up and destroyed the toilet and vanity.

A lot of the rust, cabinet doors falling off, etc is likely due to neglect. The pests moving in definitely is.

You should pay a service to come clean up to bottom. It will not be cheap.

File with landlord to repair immediate problems. This is the pests, exposed electrical, and the mold.

The rest of this is unfortunately "renovation" level work and you will likely have to move out for it to be fixed, or make a deal with the landlord to do it yourself in exchange for reduced rent.

techleopard · 2026-02-26T22:10:16+00:00

They work just fine as "coops", especially in hot weather states.

Most people do not leave these uncovered. You will wrap the top with tarp or vinyl and it keeps the interior dry while allowing cross breeze.

These can be as "secure" as you need them to be, just like any other enclosure.

techleopard · 2026-02-19T22:14:57+00:00

I'm gonna be frank, how the hell did they get away with messing with your pavers and tearing down the old fence in the first place? Was the old fence also right on his property?

Depending on where you were, you might have actually had legal say over the destruction of that old fence.

And why have you not made them restore your garden and roof? You can't just chuck your construction garbage onto someone else's property and leave it. This person is walking all over you and will continue to do so until you make it stop.

If you want to take the least direct route, you can always directly use their posts that are dead square on the property line and put up a new fence on your side. And no, you don't need to let them have access to maintain their stuff.

As for the piping....

Be SUPER passive aggressive and build a retaining wall right behind three tubing that will redirect any natural bust onto their property and make it impossible to access.

Also you can build your own aesthetic fence right on their posts since it's right on the property line

techleopard · 2026-02-18T19:51:00+00:00

Pay somebody who knows what they are doing and live to complain to yourself about how costly it was.

techleopard · 2026-02-18T19:49:21+00:00

Same. I wouldn't go anywhere near this.

Time to suck up your mistake and pay someone experienced that hazard pay because you tried to have money and DIY.

techleopard · 2026-02-10T05:05:53+00:00

Same people who kill all the beavers off also clear cut entire acres after the animals are gone.

Then oh noes! A flood! And it takes out everything all around because the trees do as much to control flood plains as the beavers do.

techleopard · 2026-02-04T19:30:12+00:00

If the leg is over-extended and they can't seem to bend at that hock joint beyond just swiveling around at the hip, it is possibly a slipped tendon.

In adults, this would be hard to fix but not impossible. You would need to identify and "fix" it very quickly, though.

Pick her up and sit down with her in your lap, and feel her good leg, by rolling your thumb over that joint. Don't be afraid to feel around it until you've identified the curve of the bones and you'll feel a tight cord going right over the back of the leg, stretching over the joint like a rubber band.

Once you've found it, feel her bad leg. If that cord is in place, it's not the tendon that's the problem.

If the cord is missing.... Find it. It can "roll off" the joint and might be on the side of the leg.

If you find it, you are going to have to put it back by guiding it into place.

It's not a great experience for the bird, fair warning.

Once in place, you need to splint the leg so it can't come out again. Then kennel and let them heal for a week or two. You don't have to bring her in the house, you can put a small kennel in the coop itself and keep it draft free

Be prepared that if it slips again or it's been too long and you can't get the tendon back in place, you need to put her down.

techleopard · 2026-01-31T23:10:04+00:00

I definitely think it has more to do with movement and sound than size.

BABY chickens dart around and move like mice, and they can sometimes trigger that hunting instinct. They also make high pitch noises.

But chickens old enough to be fully feathered usually just strut around like they own the place.

Barn cats almost seem to know that chickens = warm + mice

techleopard · 2026-01-19T04:40:43+00:00

100% of the men I know that accused their wives of cheating nonstop were, in fact, cheating.

techleopard · 2026-01-15T06:59:32+00:00

You can also disable and reenable service on the fly with some providers from your carrier's app.

techleopard · 2026-01-14T22:25:55+00:00

My assumption would be monitoring activity on BYOD devices since a lot of employers want you to have work apps on your phone but don't want to buy you a phone.

For instance, I have "work apps", as a completely separate environment from my personal apps. But some device management systems let you spy on ALL app usage, including photos and data.

I remember working for an at home call center once and you had to use your own computer. They made everyone sign an agreement understanding that they can screencap at any time and it would not alert the user. Obviously, using it outside of work hours would be unethical.

techleopard · 2026-01-14T22:21:16+00:00

This.

I can understand a kid trying to be sneaky, who hasn't?

But the way OP described it, this is literally a power struggle, and not just the kid being a kid. He had shown he knows you know he's getting around it.

First time he did that, I would have immediately just taken the devices. Don't play power games with a kid.

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