Blog

The webcam is currently offline, and this is likely to be so for a few days.

Normally my PC is on 24/7 and this runs the software required to stream the video onto the Internet. Yesterday evening (15th Feb 2011) my PC literally went up in smoke! Hopefully this is just a faulty power supply unit. I have ordered a new one and hopefully I can fix this in the next few days.

I can, of course, still update the website by using my laptop (Which uses the free operating system Ubuntu) - now if that breaks......??

 

 

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon yesterday, I came home having left the chickens to roam around my garden as normal.

It was about 14.30 and the hens had gone into the pen themselves. I looked around the garden and spotted what I initially thought was a big cat on top of the neighbours shed.

Ah, what a shock! - it was in fact a very large fox!

The fox was looking straight at me and I realised immediately what a very lucky escape the hens have just had. I still couldn't believe it when eventually the fox slowly and very casually strolled away thorough the neighbours garden.

Guess I can't let them out during the day on their own anymore!!

Its been freezing cold here in Weston this week.

Much of the UK has had snow for days and we have experienced overnight temperatures of up to -3c.

This has meant that I have had to run down the garden in the freezing cold and replace the hens water daily - frozen solid!

I feel a bit sorry for them really - Its amazing they can survive this kind of temperature.

Roll on summer eh!

Right then, where was I? Oh yes, back to making my apple chutney! 

I'm attempting to add sound to the Webcam. Its not easy.

The webcam is located at the bottom of our garden in the Chicken Pen and this is at least 100ft / 30m away from my house, and my computer. It was difficult enough doing this for the webcam itself. 

Its not practical to use a long audio cable, and how on earth would I get it inside without drilling a massive hole anyway? That would just be ridiculous wouldn't it?

So after asking for some suggestions on an audio forum I'm going to try the following. I've no idea if this will work or not!

I am going to attempt to make an FM Transmitter from a kit, which looks like the one below. The theory is that when I have built this, it will be placed close to the chickens so the built in microphone picks up the sound.

This is then transmitted to a standard FM radio inside the house, and the output connected to my PC.
Simple eh?

Well we will see when the kit arrives, and I have to make it !