Today I spoiled my outside dogs a little bit more. I say outside dogs because I have Jack the Dachshund who is my inside dog and then there is Louie and DL who stay outside. They have a really nice duplex style doghouse that I built for them years ago. I even put electric heating pads in the floors of each room. Yes, Louie and DL each have their own room. The electric heating pads help to keep them warm in the winter, but I wanted better for them.
Sometimes around here it gets really cold, sometimes in the teens, and I want to be sure they are warm. I know they are animals and can deal with it, but while I am in my warm bed, I like to know they are well taken care of too, so I consulted with some friends and looked online and found a nice solution that is rather easy to make.
It seems that in August/September of 1990 in a magazine called Gun Dog, there was an article about how to create a simple dog house heater for hunting dogs. It involved using a metal gallon paint can, a porcelain light bulb fixture, a 60 watt bulb and some wire, to make a convective heating device.
Here is what to do:
Go to a paint store and buy an unused 1 gallon paint can with the lid. Punch 1/4″ dia holes on the lid and sides of the can. Keep the holes small enough to prevent much light from getting through yet still allow convective heat to escape. Punch a hole in the bottom about 2″ in diameter. Enough room for your wire to be manageable.
Mount the can keeping 4″ of clearance on all sides to allow heat to circulate. You will need to run the wiring to the correct location first of course. Connect a porcelain light bulb socket inside the can, wire it up and put a bulb in the base, put the lid on.
Accessories that can be included (after all it is built by guys) are a dimmer switch to control heat and an indoor-outdoor thermometer to keep tabs on the temperature.
I quickly snapped a video using my cell phone this evening to show you what it looks like inside the dog house, so you can get an idea. The can is very hot, I cant even touch it. It has the dog house nice and toasty. I am looking forward to see how it does in the colder days ahead.
Not too long ago I purchased some mini spy dvr sunglasses off of E-Bay to use when I was hiking or bike riding or something. They were so cheap and really couldn’t pass them up.
I think I spent $22 dollars total on them and waited about 3 weeks for them to arrive from Hong Kong, then I went to Wal-Mart and purchased a $20 micro sd card, I think the size was around 8 gigabytes.
From the parking lot after I inserted the memory card to record the video too, I set up to the gym. Here is the video of this trip
I think the video quality is exceptionally good.
Here is a walk around the back yard.
I think these glasses are great and could be used for all sorts of things like sports, hunting, fishing, cycling, etc.
It has been a long while since I posted anything on here, been kind busy.
When you mess with several websites you tend to forget to write on some of them.
I’ve also been busy closing down the swimming pool for the winter, taking photography classes, getting ready for deer season, working out in the gym, etc.
Anyways… I thought I would throw some of my readers a bone, since its been so long since I wrote and share with you a video I captured this week of me and my dogs going for a ride to a trail we like to hike.
Its kind of funny at the 2 minute mark, the vehicle looks like its taking to the skies, but actually we are going up a ramp near a levee. It looks neat though.
The video was shot using the iPhone 4 and edited with iMovie on the iPhone 4.
