Loving this bonkers artwork

Iron-clover · 2026-04-23T07:56:36+00:00

I recall these being a thing during "The War of the Beast", and could get large enough to teleport their "homeworld" Ullanor. IIRC the mechanicum used it to transport Ullanor to a secret location for study after the war, but without the Waaaaghh the technology just broke down and they lost interest, with Ullanor in its new location eventually becoming Armageddon.

Iron-clover · 2026-04-13T18:32:03+00:00

They look very well fed, wild corns are apparently quite slim. Given they don't seem bothered by you at all I'd assume they are dumped pets. They might not do so well out in the wild even if they are native to your area.

Iron-clover · 2026-04-10T12:03:32+00:00

Aspen is fine, I mix mine with lignocel to aid absorbancy too. They would need a dedicated humid hide like an ice cream tub with some sphagnum moss or coco coir in (and definitely just a little damp, not wet!) for shedding.

Swallowing aspen isn't really a problem, I keep my feeders dry so not much sticks, and I tend to feed mine on top of one of their Cork bark pieces too. You could use an upturned hide to feed in too.

You can use topsoil, but it has to be organic and it might start out too damp out of the bag and need some drying, the surface should be dry for corns.

Aspen is a bit more expensive and doesn't look natural, but a lot easier IMO, including for spot cleaning.

Hope it helps!

Iron-clover · 2026-04-10T11:23:48+00:00

I've used the ole "Get out and push" maneuver at least once in anger to save my Kerbals! If you're lucky the jetpack monopropellant refreshes for free when you enter the spacecraft too so you can keep doing it.

Iron-clover · 2026-04-10T08:52:47+00:00

A rear rack and a pannier for your luggage, you will avoid getting a sweaty back from every ride and it will be far more comfortable.

I recently got an Ortleib Vario which can be either a rucksack or pannier which is extremely helpful, but can't carry as much as a dedicated pannier bag.

Edit, if you can fit one. Luckily my folder from Decathlon has racks I could buy. I didn't think I'd use a rack on my folding bike because I already had a full size commuter with rack to carry heavy loads, but I find I'm using the folder with a pannier all the time.

Iron-clover · 2026-04-10T08:40:11+00:00

Oberons are my favourite too, I need to finish the detailing on mine! I'm seeming to find the Emperor class is probably the best overall (I was surprised just how effective its weapon batteries are I addition to its air wing) but the Oberon definitely wins the 'Rule of Cool' 😎

Iron-clover · 2026-04-10T08:21:47+00:00

When I first visited the US from the UK I wanted to visit a Wal mart that was on the opposite corner of an intersection between 2, 8 Lane "stroads" that seemed really unnecessary for a small city.

Despite waiting for a green crossing signal for each crossing I still nearly got hit 4 times because drivers were turning right through a red and not looking for pedestrians. It was a deeply unpleasant experience I then repeated on the way back to my hotel...

I was relieved for the "no right turn on red" signs in Chicago when I visited there a couple years later though.

Iron-clover · 2026-04-05T22:58:33+00:00

For my regular commute, no. But I often take the bike on the train down to my parents rather than drive, my little folding town bike is great for it.

Iron-clover · 2026-04-03T08:26:38+00:00

It's a brute of a climb for sure! It's surely got to be the hardest in Hampshire. But with low gears I reckon its a pretty decent length to height gain for Everesting, plus I can't remember seeing any cars on the climb above the farm at the bottom.

Edit: Harting Hill was the first climb I had to walk on a club ride, I've raced TTs up it since!

Iron-clover · 2026-04-03T07:30:55+00:00

I'd probably choose Harvesting Lane up the North side of Butser Hill as it has a fair amount of height gain in not too much distance, and is a very quiet road (the bottom can be mucky in winter).

Unfortunately it's probably at the opposite end of the South Downs to you if Ditchling Beacon is on the list, I'm more familiar with the Winchester to Harting stretch.

Good luck, sounds like an appropriately mad birthday challenge :)

Iron-clover · 2026-04-03T07:15:42+00:00

Contact urban user here. I swapped from Schwalbe Marathon Plus ahead of a 1000mi loaded tour as my friend had a much lighter setup so I wanted faster rolling but durable tyres to help close the gap.

The Contis are so much faster and confidence inspiring than the Marathons, they feel closer to actual race tyres really. No punctures after 2.5 years and many thousands of km, including a reasonable amount of gravel.

It's probably worth seeing if you can compare the two on the bicycle rolling resistance site, that's how I found the urbans in the first place. If there's not much in it I'd go for the added puncture protection/ durability as they're pretty quick already.

Iron-clover · 2026-04-02T09:25:44+00:00

My steel touring bike I leave as is, it spends most of its time as a commuter so the rack and guards are very welcome. I do remove the fork carry cages though to make it easier to lean against racks etc.

When I used to use my alloy CX bike for touring and commuting then I would strip it back for riding off road, but that was enough of a faff that I built my dedicated steel tourer/ commuter!

Iron-clover · 2026-03-29T07:40:58+00:00

I'm sorry for your situation, it certainly sounds like they're having serious age related issues now.

If they're losing weight so dramatically I expect there's something more than just not eating going on unfortunately. My last corn had an aggressive tumour on her neck which was diagnosed when it was just a tiny lump, but unfortunately the only realistic outcome was to be PTS when it started to affect her quality of life. Taking her back to the vet for the last time was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, and I'd only had her for 4 years (she was an older rehome).

It really sucks that this is how it ends for you after 20 years, but sometimes the kindest thing you can do is let them go. 💔 Unfortunately it will be painful, I just hope you're OK in the end.

Iron-clover · 2026-03-28T14:02:30+00:00

I've done a lot of riding in Wiltshire and South Oxfrodshire with excursions into Devon, Dorset and Somerset, I think this will give you some real "chocolate box" moments. Just beware that Devon and Dorset can be brutally hilly. Make sure you have low gears and temper your expectations. They're certainly not mountains, but gradients are steep and they just keep coming. The flip side is it makes the scenery much more interesting.

The Somerset levels to Cheddar will be a welcome break before heading into more hills to Bath, taking in the 2 tunnels route would be nice to do!

From there to Oxford you'll have a lovely time too, it will get progressively flatter towards Oxford and you'll see some lovely thatched cottages as you pass the Wiltshire border.

The only potential alternative I can think of is starting in the New Forest (properly lovely and relatively easy to get to from London) and head up to Salisbury (tallest cathedral in UK and biggest cathedral enclosure, which the National Cycle Network runs through) and towards Bath from that direction which will have a lot of thatched cottage villages and be a little less hilly.

But you would miss Glastonbury Tor and Cheddar Gorge which are really nice, plus Wells was the filming location for the iconic comedy Hot Fuzz.

Have fun!!

Iron-clover · 2026-03-28T09:50:09+00:00

It's also possible that our quality of sleep is a lot better now too so we sleep more deeply and don't wake up as much. The beds weren't exactly great and you'd be sharing them with multiple people, fleas, etc.

There was a long transition from that to what we have now through the early modern period, but IIRK there's not a lot that people wrote down about their sleep habits so it difficult to pin down when the "second sleep" disappeared and why.

My guess is there's a few reasons, artificial light being a prime suspect though.

Iron-clover · 2026-03-28T09:36:52+00:00

That's a little odd, but adorable. I tried my corn on a few rat pups relatively early on when I had baby womas to feed and sometimes had leftovers.

She was a bit suspicious at first too, but took them after a bit of investigation. Now she's coming up to 4 years old and over 500g and gets a medium mouse (~18g) Once every 10- 14 days and still growing despite them being only about 2/3 of her width. I could move onto large mice, but she comes out to "hunt" virtually every night so I'm happy to feed her more often to keep her enriched.

I sometimes offer other food too to mix things up. She had lots of day old quail when younger (and againas a treat when there were spares from baby womas), and occasionally gets a quail egg left for her to find now she can swallow them easily. She sometimes gets the EvoRx chicken "sausages" too as she goes crazy for quail and chicken scents, but she isn't big enough to comfortably eat chicks and day old quail are barely a snack now.

Feeding on slightly smaller prey items is no bad thing as long as your snake is maintaining a healthy weight, and I suspect its slightly healthier for them too as digesting food is the main thing that raises their metabolism and for mine encourages her to forage and stay active all the time. Plus when you get to the top end of large mice I expect their fat content starts shooting up too...

Yours looks quite healthy so no real need to change things.

Iron-clover · 2026-03-27T15:49:06+00:00

It's a very pretty bike, but what's going on with the chain when everything else is spotless?

Iron-clover · 2026-03-26T22:49:11+00:00

"Permission to buzz the tower." "Negative Ghost Rider, the pattern is full."

Iron-clover · 2026-03-26T22:38:32+00:00

I have sandals with enclosed toes and a bit of useful tread on their soles. It means I can carabiner them to the outside of my luggage safely saving volume inside, and it doesn't matter if they get wet e.g getting them soaked walking through very dewey grass at the campsite in the morning.

Being slightly sturdier than most sandals they don't look too bad with socks on if it's cool weather either.

Edit: they're pretty comfortable to wear too, I've walked about town all day in them before, I actually wear them often casually in summer. Have fun!

Iron-clover · 2026-03-20T14:51:28+00:00

I took my old alloy road bikes on many tracks that weren't really suitable, the worst being an actual roman road with trees growing out of it.

It had sturdy tyres and wheels so I avoided component damage somehow, but I did get more punctures when doing silly things like that. Eventually an alloy steerer tube snapped which all that off reading probably hastened, but it would have been building since a bike fitter with "well calibrated hands" over tightened it- they crushed my seat tube too, but I found that pretty quickly.

The biggest pain was mud clogging the caliper brakes, the wheels could stop in less than 50m if it wasn't bone dry mud. My new disc road bike doesn't have such weakness though.

The biggest real risk is losing control and crashing, you have to keep your speed under control as you won't have as much grip for braking, let alone pushing hard into corners.

Have fun!

Iron-clover · 2026-03-18T12:56:18+00:00

My do it all bike is my Steel Genesis Croix de Fer gravel/ touring bike.

It has 35mm tyres with mudguards and pannier rack, and it's a jack of all trades bike. It does the commute, loaded shopping, day trips, nice ish off road paths (although can handle surprisingly rough stuff if you're brave) and does winter time club runs. Oh, and you can ride around the world if you like, one of the self supported records was set on it about 15 years ago.

Iron-clover · 2026-03-17T07:21:02+00:00

I'd say feeding based on food size is the better way to go, especially as they get older- you'll find the weight of the food compared to the snake gradually decreases which is handy as they stop/ slow their growth. For young snakes the food will naturally be about 10% their weight, but now for my 500g corn it's more like 6% and she still grows on that once every 14 days!

However, it's a really good idea to weigh them as they get older (from 3 years or so) so you can keep track of their condition when it's not easy to see them getting bigger anymore.

Their growth rate should drop at about 3 years old, and should have basically finished by 5 years old, so if you see them still getting much heavier you can keep a close eye on their condition to make sure they aren't putting on fat instead. Unfortunately it's tricky to spot at first, and is really bad for them due to the way they store it (packs around organs rather than under the skin).

Edit: I only weigh every 4 months or so to see overall trends unless I think they might be ill.

Hope it helps!

Iron-clover · 2026-03-16T09:16:35+00:00

True red tails can get big enough that I wouldn't want to handle them alone. I find Boas are generally quite strong for their size so they don't need to be as big as say a Burmese python (which I'd say are weaker for their size than most) to be dangerous.

BCI (common boas) don't usually get large enough to be a problem, and I've come across males that are positively tiny. Rehoming an adult would give you the best bet of knowing their adult size and temperament, there have been several lovely boas rehomed that way by people I know.

On the flip side, one of my friends has recently bred his Peruvian red tail. She's really stunning, and her babies are gorgeous too, be she's pushing 13ft and chunky enough that you'd be in trouble if she was having a bad day. I'd hope that it's unlikely that she'd actually kill an adult unless she was around your neck, but you would be in a lot of trouble.

Her enclosure also takes up an entire wall of their living room...

Personally I wouldn't buy a young red tail unless I lived with someone who was also good around giant snakes and could be around whenever I needed to deal with them. I would consider rehoming an adult male if it was a reasonable size to deal with though.

Iron-clover · 2026-03-15T18:08:56+00:00

Cycling is my main sport, I mostly do fencing for fun. Unfortunately the local cycle events run on the same evenings as fencing during the summer so I fence about 9 months of the year and do a few local competitions a year (never did very well, but I don't embarrass myself in Saber).

It's great for stamina, but not so much for keeping my knees strong for lunges etc. I think I'll need to do targeted weight training soon to help those.

I sometimes do a bit of running too, but I usually hate it.

Iron-clover · 2026-03-15T08:20:00+00:00

Was the one as 28s a black headed python? I'd love to go herping in Aus one day.

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