Posts Tagged ‘AC wiring’
Making Progress
Phase one of my surveillance camera installation was accomplished yesterday. I made the drive to Hudson for parts and successfully guessed what I needed and what I already had at home to add a switch and duplex outlet to the existing light fixture over the shop door.
That went well enough to inspire me to consider the possibility of adding an outlet to the base of our spiral staircase in the house by drilling a hole in the floor and feeding wires up from the basement. Our recent rearrangement of furniture in the living area highlighted that our old solution of an extension cord from the wall by the fireplace was not the best plan.
I’m surprised they didn’t think of putting an outlet beneath the stairs when the house was built.
Alas, that idea will have time to mature before I pursue it because I still need to finish what I already started and get the camera mounted at the shop. If I can keep up the momentum, maybe the camera installation can be completed today and I can cross it off the to-do list.
There are plenty of things competing for my attention that enable my aptitude for letting projects dangle unfinished.
I’m not feeling confident in the accuracy of the forecasts for snow that have been getting broadcast throughout the previous week. I’m expecting we’ll see snow but I question how big of a plowing and shoveling effort will be required and which day will get consumed by the work.
If we get less than 6 inches it won’t be a big deal. If more than that falls, I need to make some passes with the ATV in the middle of the accumulation in addition to after the storm has passed. I’ve seen this expected event described as a “long duration” (multiple days) snowfall.
Plowing and shoveling become the wildcard demand for my time and attention. After each “plowable” snowfall, everything else on the to-do list moves down a notch.
That’s sort of moving projects’ progress in a negative direction.
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Nests Removed
After a long delay in my attention to the project of mounting our surveillance camera, I dug back into it yesterday. That digging uncovered the presence of six old hornet nests and one large bird’s nest, none of which I realized existed under the shop entrance roof.
One of the primary things slowing me down in committing to this installation has been the issue of how I would get power to the camera. I decided to pull down the light fixture to gain access to the AC wiring. Deep inside the cover of that light fixture was where one of those wasp nests I didn’t know about was hidden.
I’m happy to be dealing with these nests in the winter when no wasps are present.
Some shopping for supplies will need to happen so I can add an outdoor outlet to the circuit of the light fixture. I will take this opportunity to also add a switch for that outdoor light fixture up over the door to the shop. For the longest time, I couldn’t figure out why that light never came on. Then I discovered it was directly wired to a circuit breaker that was in the “off” position. There was no switch. Oops.
As I was putting the ladder away after returning from feeding the horses, I noticed the ice mound under the eave in front of the garage was soft enough that I could break it up and finally remove it. One thing led to another and I decided to also shovel the soft snow from the giant mound that remained on the pavement. It would be good to open up that space for plowing the new snow predicted to fall in the next few days.
Shoveling that enormous pile of snow proved to be a bigger task than I should have tried to muscle my way through. I felt a pang in my ribs as I tossed one too many heavy shovel-full and that put an end to moving any more snow. I’m hoping that by stopping right away, the damage will be mild and not infringe on my ability to shovel when this next storm hits.
Today might end up being a day of more desk work than physical activity. It’s not like I needed an excuse to work on our tax returns or anything.
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Finishing Something
Far be it for me to stay on one project all the way to fruition. Instead of finishing the fence we started on Friday, I let the weather move my focus to something else. Luckily, the change of direction let me toward the completion of wiring AC power to the chicken coop.
Like so many other occasions, after accomplishing the hardest part of the job – like getting the wire buried between the coop and barn– I have a tendency to lose momentum. That initial dose of job-satisfaction can be enough that my sense of urgency to complete tasks dissipates.
Just when the end of a tunnel is in sight, I discover a side route that hijacks my attention.
This day, I headed back down the primary path in the tunnel of electrifying the coop.
First, I removed the panel of the circuit breaker box and made connections to a GFI breaker.
Next, I set about getting the electrical box mounted in the coop. This only required two extra trips back to the shop for tools, hardware, and a modification to the box.
Things were progressing slower than I wanted, but without any insurmountable problems. The one big interruption I needed to work around was the unplanned arrival of a chicken.
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It was late enough in the day that I assumed I wouldn’t be a bother to the chickens while I worked, but our Buff Orpington proved me wrong. She puttered around in the nest box right beneath where I was working, so I just kept at it, hoping she wouldn’t be bothered by me.
After she started to stress out a bit, I took the hint and agreed to take a break, closing things up enough to give her all the privacy I thought she might need.
For whatever unknown reason, that wasn’t enough. After watching the last quarter of the Vikings game, I came back to take my project across the finish line, only to find the hen still in the nest box. Really.
Not to be deterred, I assembled a few objects into a barrier for her so I could forge ahead with my work. It is the first time I ever listened to a chicken lay an egg.
Before the day was over, the coop outlet was live, everything was buttoned up, and all tools were put away.
Yes, finished. That’s a special level of satisfaction.
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Relative Something 