perfect pumping...

Tested out the timer with the new pump today.  Another win.  The new pump is (again) half the price of the one I have been using, a quarter the size, and plenty of flow.  82,84,61, .04",B

perfect timing...

The weirdest things get me excited.  I really love this timer circuit I found for the new Pepino how to video series I am doing.  The one I have been using for the pump on my DIY swamp cooler was twice the price of this one, came in kit form, and only had rough timing adjustments via micro potentiometers.  This new one comes fully assembled, has 18 different programmable functions (I only need function #6), and I can precisely punch in the on/off timing cycle down to the millisecond.  The "chinglish" instructions are a little difficult to understand, but thanks to YouTube videos like this I figured out what is what.  79,83,58,0,B

a monday matinee...

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spiritually discerned...

1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. 13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

one hit wonder?

Decided to celebrate my incredibly lucky score on YouTube with a new postcard from my favorite online printer.  The video is still slowly plugging along after its' peak over two weeks ago.  Up to 6.3 million views now, but fading quickly.  It is very likely that this will never happen again... but I have 60 more videos planned for the rest of the year so we shall see what happens...98,102,69,0,C

a friday night film

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burro break

Shot part three of the YouTube Pepino project today.  Had to use my sheet metal break to do some bending for a chunk of duct work.  The last time I used this was 5 years ago back in the days when Mr. Floppy used to hang out (I think he must have died at least 3 years ago).  Funny thing is...I "break" it out today and just happened to have a new burro on hand almost in the exact same spot.  99,103,62,0,B

hot battery

Part of my morning routine is to check my battery banks.  Two days ago I discovered one of the 3 batteries left in my dying bank was really hot.  Not good.  Removed it from the bank and placed in out away from everything just in case it decided to go up in flames (or explode)...the main reason I check my batteries daily.  I think it is time to put the new batteries into service and retire this group for good.  Just so happens I shot a video of the switch which will be posted soon.  90,93,54,0,B  Note: my battery set ups are not very pretty and are one step above Frankenstein - but they work for me.  Don't do as I do.

sibling rivalry...

Well...for some reason Chupa and Manny suddenly decided to fight a lot.  Normally, they get along pretty well and will spar occasionally but yesterday it was relentless.  Apparently they had been going at it for while in the morning before I let them out of the pen.  Both of them were a little bloody.  Throughout the day they went at it a couple more times until Manny hid in the Airstream.  Last night when I was ready to put them back in the pen, I thought Chupa had killed Manny.  He was lying frozen on his back.  I put Chupa in the pen and decided to wait a little while to try to figure out what was going on...Manny didn't appear to have any visible injuries and his eyes were open.

About a half hour later (after doing some digging online) I went out to check him and he was not moving but his eyes were still open.  I turned him back over on his feet and he hopped right up as if nothing had happened.  Seems a fight had induced a state of "tonic immobility" ...a natural state of semi-paralysis that some animals enter when presented with a threat - a defensive mechanism intended to feign death.  It can be induced by humans in various ways and is known as chicken hypnosis - a barnyard parlor thick of sorts.

It was getting dark by this time so I took a chance and put Manny in the pen with Chupa.  They both went calmly into the coop.  This morning I came to let them out and Manny was immobilized on his back again, so I righted him but kept him in the pen for the day.  I let Chupa out but he spent the whole day right next to the pen.  Decided it might be a good idea to provide separate sleeping quarters so I slapped together a makeshift second coop to keep them apart overnight to avoid any early morning conflicts.  For the next week or so they will take turns during the day - one in the pen while the other gets to run around.  The question is...do I try to get video of Chupa "hypnotizing" Manny?  77,84,64,0,B

a monday matinee...

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this won't end well...

This has got to be the most pathetic scam email I have ever received.

Wrong on so many levels...

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.  Galatians 6:7

"Therefore we must call upon God, He has promised to help: therefore let me not think Him to be false or untrue to His promises, for we can not dishonor God more than by not believing or trusting in Him. Therefore let us beware above all things of dishonoring God; and so we must be patient, trusting and most certainly believing that He will deliver us when it seems good to Him, who knows the time better than we ourselves."  Hugh Latimer 1485-1555    

Ben's little blue bowl...

Made an executive decision yesterday and took Ben's large trough out of service.  Decided it was kind of silly to have so much water sitting out there for just him (and occasionally Javier), especially since I was loosing a lot to evaporation.  Years ago someone gave me a float valve and I thought it might finally be time to try it out.  Ben inspected and approved the new water source as soon as I set it up to fill for the first time.  So far so good.  80,83,71,0,W

a friday night film

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RIP Dr. Doug

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bee protest?

When I went to feed Ben this morning I found a swarm of bees in his trough.  That has never happened.  Pretty sure these guys were just passing by and dropped in for a drink and a swim (or perhaps to see what all the internet fuss was about) and not part of my local hive.  They were all gone by the time I had drained it down half way.  Decided it was the perfect excuse to clean out his big bowl.  Ben was quite curious about it once I tipped it up to dry out this evening.  He will be on his little bowl for a couple of days.  90,92,68,0,B

How YouTube works...

There is no doubt that I got really lucky with the bucket.  Kind of ironic that getting a video to go viral was on my bucket list when I started concentration on my YouTube channel at the beginning of the year.  My 15 minutes of YouTube fame for this shot is just about over now and the media frenzy is fading fast - but I was able to score a little over a thousand bucks in ad revenue for my effort as well as a deal with GoPro worth another thousand (FYI - I didn't get the drone deal I was looking for from them because they are in such high demand right now but they sweetened the deal with $500 cash + a GoPro Hero 5 Black + a Karma Grip).  The reason that YouTube is such a tough nut to crack when it comes to making money is that it takes A LOT OF VIEWS to earn much of anything.  The payout rate at my level of subscribers and popularity is only about twenty five cents per 1,000 monetized views - top channels can make as much as $4 per 1,000 monetized views.  It is also very tricky how YouTube decides what views get counted.  Up until this viral hit, I had only earned about 40 bucks total from all the 27 other videos I have posted so far this year.  To put it in perspective, my channel would need to consistently get about 2,500,000 monetized views per month just to cover my health insurance premium.

a monday matinee...

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grow in grace

2 Peter 3:17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.  18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

coming soon...

Guess where my GoPro went today.

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a friday night film

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auto care...

tires'n'oil

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tire delivery

Looks like I have something on my schedule for tomorrow morning at Terlingua Auto.  Along with the new tires I have an extra wheel for a second spare...and I love my new mongo jack.  88,91,62,0,B

the good bucket

So the bucket went over the 2,000,000 views mark this afternoon and looks like it might make 3,000,000 by tomorrow.  Just so you know...that translates into about $1,000 in ad revenue for TFL.  The video is being shared on a lot of sites now where the views are not counted and monetized by YouTube.  I fully expect that the attention will fade pretty quickly in the next couple of days and the mad rush will be over.  I have also picked up over 3,500 new subscribers to my channel.  So far I have turned down 23 media offers.  The only offer I got that I liked was from GoPro.  In return for giving them a copy of all my raw footage for them to edit and use as they please (while still giving me credit) - I retain full ownership of the footage to use as I wish in the future, it is a non-exclusive agreement that does not involve any revenue sharing with my current video on YouTube, and they will pay me $500 plus give me a new GoPro Hero 5 Black (although I am going to try to sweeten the deal for no cash but a GoPro Karma drone instead with the Hero 5 Black and an extra battery and propellers).  That is a deal I can live with.  91,94,64,0,B      

a monday matinee...

Due to my last video going viral, the previously scheduled programming for a monday matinee was preempted.  I am a little late today because I decided to shoot a welcome video for the over 1,000 new subscribers.

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seemed appropriate...

Isaiah 41:17 When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. 18 I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.  

funny numbers...

I figured something must be up when I checked my email inbox this morning...over 100 messages - and they kept pouring in all day.  I get email notifications when someone comments or subscribes to my YouTube channel.  Seems the bucket is pretty popular online since I posted it.  I had no idea it would go viral(ish)...I still consider true viral to be over 1,000,000 views.  Anyway, it did pretty good today with an average of over 8,000 views per hour and over 110,000 since I posted it last night as well as drawing in about 10,000 views for some of my other videos.  It peaked at over 17,000 views between 9 and 10 this morning.  Someone from Norway posted it on Reddit and that certainly helped give it a boost.  I also got swarmed with media offers to license the video.  As you may remember, I did that with the horn cam video and it really didn't really amount to much.  I turned down all the offers to split the revenue with these sharks.  One company offered to buy the video outright for $200.  My counter offer was $25,000.  They declined.  When it comes right down to it, the video will make me at least 200 bucks and these companies all make the same lame promises of being able to sell it elsewhere with "their major media outlet connections".  The problem is, these guys are in the business of pumping out viral BS hourly and we all know how short the public's attention span is.  They make their money suckering in and chipping away at the tiny profits of thousands of creators - that is the only way the numbers work for them.  I also picked up over 200 new subscribers which was nice (but also means the pool for the free snakeskin just got a lot larger).  Special thanks to the stars of the video.  It was there dedication and hard work (and thirst) that made the production a success.  If the video reaches 1,000,000 views, I will put out a call for votes for best performance by a water drinker (I personally think George has the edge).  90,95,51,0,B

a friday night film

What could it be?

Long overdue project coming up.  Tune in Monday for an unboxing video to find out more.  78,80,57,0,B

I hate flat tires...

Had 2 flats in the past week.  First the rear passenger side then the front passenger side today.  I'm pretty sure it was a mesquite branch I ran over on that side last weekend.  The first tire went flat right away and I got it patched on Monday - apparently the puncture in the second tire took awhile to manifest itself.  Gonna wait til next week to get it patched.  Funny thing is - I have been riding around with the spare in the bed of my pickup for two years and just two weeks ago I decided to put it back underneath the bed. I am lucky to get about 3 years out of a set of tires since coming here.  Just ordered 4 new tires - and another wheel so I can have two spares on hand.  Also splurged on a new jack since the bottle jack I have barely has enough lift height.  I don't bother with super expensive tires because I normally don't run over stuff I am not supposed to and our sandpaper Hwy 118 wears down the tread on even super tires.  From the looks of the ones I have - I will be out of tread come my next inspection in October anyway.   Now lets see how many people comment on what kind of tires I should have bought... 86,90,58,0,B

FNF

Burros taking a break during filming of a future friday night film.

  Still not a YouTube millionaire...yet

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a monday matinee...

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