The end (of 2017) is nigh

"Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas."

Calvin Coolidge

Kym has been enjoying working with the Feds again, but she received a call that the pesky goats had escaped and were out on the road! A phone call to Anthony who makes a quick dash up the mountain and literally drags mummy Fergie 300 metres up and down dirt roads and back to the paddock to be tethered until the night.

One hilarious vignette forever etched on the brain is the scene with Eugenie stuck with the handle of the bucket over her head and slinging goat pellets everywhere for Beatrice to gather up - such fun! 

After work, we arc up the new solar portable electric fence and go to bed to sleep the sleep of the just. But the goats have other ideas, and escape again!  Luckily the original route onto the road wasn't repeated as we had stopped up the little wallaby holes that allowed the earlier transgression. So more wires were added and now that the solar unit is almost fully charged we are seeing some better behaved and firmly corralled goats...

Now we wait for the next breakout!

Speaking of naughtiness, the church has suffered two break-ins this last couple of weeks, so with a few hours to kill a little program was written around this circuit...

So much nerdy goodness!

...and after a bit of soldering and making, we get this ominous black box...

Beep beep - go away!

The box senses mammals (PIR module), then checks the light level (LDR) and if it is dark, the two 1W LEDs are lit and a message booms out about being filmed (a clear lie).

A nice little project for a Saturday arvo - and hopefully after installation the crinimals cowardly crawl away..