I pulled some of the first batch of kombucha out to taste test this evening. I left 2 cups & split both that and the SCOBY between two half-gallon jars and now I’ve got a gallon of kombucha in progress.
Month: May 2022
Ducks are starting to hatch!
One duck egg started pipping yesterday (really early!), but didn’t make it out of the egg. A second egg pipped this morning and we had a little duckling in the incubator by the afternoon.
Using urandom to Generate Password
Frequently, I’ll use password generator websites to create some pseudo-random string of characters for system accounts, database replication,etc. But sometimes the Internet isn’t readily available … and you can create a decent password right from the Linux command line using urandom.
If you want pretty much any “normal” character, use tr to pull out all of the other characters:
'\11\12\40-\176'
Or remove anything outside of upper case, lower case, and number characters using
a-zA-Z0-9
Pass the output to head to grab however many characters you actually want. Voila — a quick password.
PostgreSQL Replication Lag — Distance between current and last confirmed flushed
Quick SQL command to report the delta between the current and confirmed flushed LSN’s:
SELECT slot_name, confirmed_flush_lsn, pg_current_wal_lsn(), (pg_current_wal_lsn() - confirmed_flush_lsn) AS lsn_distance
FROM pg_replication_slots
ORDER BY slot_name;
New hatchling count
Started with 19 chicken eggs in the incubator — two didn’t develop and were removed. Three eggs haven’t hatched (three of those have pipped, but haven’t really gotten anywhere since). One little guy is really weak and still in the incubator so the other little ones don’t sit and lay on him. That means we’ve got a thirteen little chickens in the brooder. And, early next week, the ducks should start hatching.
UDP Port Check
While using telnet to connect to a host:port is a quick way to verify connectivity … it only works for tcp ports. There’s no udp telnet. But there are a few ways to verify a port is open and available to you …
nmap with -sU will show the port as open or closed
nc will send a packet
Spruce Tips
Anya and I harvested a bunch of spruce tips today — we can make spruce tip syrup and spruce tip ice cream — and gathered a big handful of willow branches to make a root stimulating liquid (also, the kombucha is still doing well!)
New Hatchlings
We’ve got a bunch of new little ones hatching — Anya has four little ones in the brooder, and we have two more in the incubator.
IPv6
I’m using IPv6 on a server — the server wasn’t using NetworkManagement, so I’ve configured it directly in the network script file.
After restarting the network (systemctl restart network), I was able to ping other IPv6 addressed equipment.
Duck and Turkey Milestones
We no longer have 22 tiny birds in the house! Stream (the new duckling) spent Monday night outside in the duck coop. We’ve been letting the little one out into the duck yard to hang out and get used to each other, but bringing it into the house at night. I got up at 6-something on Tuesday morning to make sure the little guy was OK and the ducks are now hanging out together in the yard. It was cold — mid 50’s — when I let them out of the coop this morning, and they all were napping next to the pond in the sunshine. The little one was sleeping right next to one of the big ducks.
Then, in the evening, we put the turkeys into the pasture with the big turkeys and chickens. They’ve been hanging out in the baby tractor next to the pasture, so everyone has had a chance to get used to each other. The little turkeys can fly really well — on Monday, Anya got sidetracked bringing the turkeys into the house. She left two thirds of the turkeys in the baby tractor with the zipper open! I noticed the chickens and turkeys were not in the coop, and I walked over to let them in. All of a sudden, this dark shadow comes flying at me … literally, it was a baby turkey who flew some twenty feet and cleared my shoulder. Since they were able to fly themselves out of the pasture, we trimmed feathers on their left wings. Now they look a little asymmetrical, but they mostly stay inside the pasture. Unfortunately, the mesh isn’t small enough and they can pop themselves out of the fencing.
The turkey farm where we picked up four turkeys last year — the owner said the male turkeys take turns sitting on the nest and taking care of the baby guys. I totally believe that after seeing how the big turkeys are with the little ones. They puff up and circle around the gaggle of baby turkeys. When the babies split out into multiple groups, the two big turkeys kind of round them up into two groups and each watch over his group. Anya says they even tuck the little ones around them to sleep.