We've just been having little things pop up to annoy us lately. Tuesday night at like 1:15 am (or I guess I should say early this morning) one of our smoke detectors chirped. Just one chirp and who knows which one it was. Last time we had an issue with them it was due to an error on the electricians part as they did not finish connecting them all. Apparently they are all hard wired and interconnected somehow. Then about 10 or 15 minutes later it happened again. GRRR. It's 1:30 in the morning! If it has a problem why can't it present itself at 1:30 in the afternoon or anytime during the other 16 waking hours in the day?! We don't really understand how they all work together, so not even sure which one chirped. From what I read if it was a backup battery going low it would chirp like every minute. So, then of course we lay there waiting to see if it happens again, but it never did. Frustrating. Not even sure what to look for.
When I let our dogs out to pee yesterday morning apparently neighbor had all his 5 dogs out, so of course they all came running over. I'm trying to let/get my dogs back inside and half of their dogs are also trying to get inside. It was complete chaos. I get my 2 in and the rest seemed to go home (hard to tell with our garage blocking the view to their house). Then a good 20 or 30 minutes or so later I hear very loud barking. Sounds like it's right next to our house. I start to walk downstairs and see through a french patio door that it's their son's big dog, still loose, standing on the corner of our back patio barking. Good grief. After an interrupted night of sleep already, then DH had to get woken up by that.
And then there's my side job remote log in. Hasn't been working right since last week. Something to do with my second monitor and they were supposed to look into it and figure it out but no call back. Then I go to log in yesterday (and at least do some work using one monitor) and I can't even log in, says my password expired, but no way to reset it that I can tell. So, I emailed their IT service first thing yesterday and no reply. I had to email our office mgr this morning and he emailed them to call me asap. The ironic part is this morning I get an email from one of the company owners that he would like to know how much they paid this IT company last year....I said I'd be happy to look that up for him, but I am waiting for them to call me and fix my log in problem, LOL.
My friend in town said she has some more produce boxes and rice, this time, to give away this morning between 10 and noon. I'll have to see if I get my log in problem resolved before then, otherwise I am stuck here waiting for them to call me. Speaking of her....she got 6 eggs (out of 7 chickens) yesterday.........still nada here at my chicken castle.
Oh! But I did just harvest my first ever green beans, LOL. I was kinda excited :)
We have two areas of 20 foot ceilings in our house, one in entry way, one in family room. Code requires smoke detectors to be put in the highest part of the house, no matter where that point is, thus, detectors are up there. The electrician told us he had a similar set up in his house, and that if it were him, he'd do as he did in his house, and disconnect them the minute we passed final inspection, but *he* couldn't do that for us. One morning, at about 4 a.m., the detector didn't just chirp, it BLARED, and, as it has a voice alert, warned "Low. Battery. Low. Battery." And, as they are all connected, per code, all the detectors went off. The voice alert caused our big dog to pee in fright. All at 4 a.m. We changed the battery, but about 3 weeks ago, it happened again, of course, to the ones up 20 feet. DH got youngest up on the extension ladder, and guess what? We yanked BOTH OUT. (We have plenty up--one in each bedroom, two in kitchen, two in garage.)
ReplyDeleteIt's ridiculous, isn't it? One of the ones upstairs is in the loft area and up like 22ft. The others are reachable, but like you say, you can't tell which one is going off, when they are all connected. I'm not sure I understand the need for them to be all connected. Ours, just made one chirp, twice, but now hasn't done it again. If it happens again, I have a feeling we are going to do like you did.
DeleteHow old are your chickens? Are they too hot? If they walk around with beaks a bit open and wings hanging down or held out, they are too hot. Have you gone through the nest boxes looking for a snake or rat living/hiding there? Around the walls? Use a stick. Even hens with a poor diet will eventually lay something!
ReplyDeletethey are a little over 4 1/2 months old, I think. No beaks open or wings held out and nothing but my fake egg and pine shavings in their nesting boxes :)
DeleteGive them another 6 weeks. They will lay.
DeleteI was reading usually between 4 and 6 months so I guess I'm going to be closer to 6 months
DeleteIt never rains but it pours does it. And sometimes it can just be something minor and it becomes the straw that breaks the camel's back. Hope you have a better night's sleep tonight!
ReplyDeleteno more chirps or beeps :)
DeleteTwo of the houses I have lived in, in the past five years have had the chirping problem. In both houses it was if it got too hot/humid or too cold. Once I adjusted my temperature and A/C it was fine. With the new batteries they should be fine for a couple of years- though they do tell you to change them all twice a year. I only change them when the chipping is constant. Works for me. Hope your chickens lay soon. My mom used to make me go out and pick lots if weeds for them to snack on. Time consuming but it helped.
ReplyDeleteit could have been the hot weather and a/c. It was like 95 that day, though we have central a/c so it's a steady temp inside all day
DeleteI agree with Linda, your chicks might just be a tad young yet. We started out with a dozen (minus one that our dog thought was a squeaky toy) and if memory serves me right, they started laying at about 5-6 months. I still remember the thrill of getting that first egg ~ you'd have thought I'd found a golden egg! Lol
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I wouldn't even be that concerned about it, other than my friend (who bought all the chicks) is like why are mine and my mom's laying and yours aren't? LOL.
DeleteOkay yeah I would have been beyond angry about those dogs. Those people need to do something about keeping them on their own property. May be time to call the local animal control... Our fire detectors are also hard wired and usually when one of the batteries go it's ALWAYS during the night. So you wake up freaking out because you think there's a fire, then you realize there isn't but now you can't figure out which one is chirping!...
ReplyDeleteOur county is sooo small (pop wise) there is no animal control at all. It's all very rural out here. We are having a fence put up - if the fence guy ever gets out here. At least the alarm was just one quick chirp and not going off scaring the crap out of us.
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