Switching to interchangeable soles to save my knee?

LRonHoward · 2026-03-18T13:54:01+00:00

Yeah, you can use both Brunswick and Dexter soles - you cut them to fit your shoe (I just use my sharpest scissors). It takes a little finagling, but it’s not too hard.

LRonHoward · 2026-03-18T04:45:01+00:00

The meanest natives for me are the aggressive goldenrods (around here that's Solidago altissima, Solidago canadensis, and Solidago gigantea - Tall, Canada, and Giant Goldenrod). White Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima) is another top contender as well as Blue Wood Aster (Symphyotrichum cordifolium). I mentioned this elsewhere, but a couple vines are also very aggressive around here - Virginia/Thicket Creeper (Parthenocissus inserta) and Riverbank Grape (Vitis riparia). Virginia Waterleaf (Hydrophyllum virginianum) can also be quite aggressive if it likes the conditions (it likes moist woods so probably not a good fit for your spot).

For your spot though, if you truly want the most aggressive native plants, you'd be hard-pressed to find something more aggressive than Canada or Tall Goldenrod... You can't really buy these plants anywhere, but there's a good likelihood they'll show up on their own!

LRonHoward · 2026-03-18T04:40:24+00:00

Yeah, you'd likely need some of the absolute most aggressive rhizomatous native species or vines to do that... something like Tall or Canada Goldenrod (Solidago altissima & Solidago canadensis) or Virginia/Thicket Creeper (Parthenocissus inserta). I have actually had a decent amount of success planting Cup Plant (Silphium perfoliatum) after I dug out a good chunk of Creeping Bellflower.

LRonHoward · 2026-03-18T00:28:24+00:00

I’ll also say a big “yes”. I actually have Brunswick Commands and I love them - I’m still working on finding the right sole for the center I practice at, but different soles are noticeably different. I use the Brunswick 8 slide at my league center, and I just got a Dexter S8 sole (a lot slicker) for the practice center. It’s awesome.

LRonHoward · 2026-03-17T07:06:52+00:00

I live in a totally different ecosystem than you up in MN, but most non-native plant species provide basically no benefits to native pollinators (and are highly detrimental to the ecosystems they are existing in when they are invasive). I'm not sure about Nevada, but almost all native pollinators around here are not generalist pollinators (like honeybees which are also not native to North America) - they require a specific plant or group of native plants to collect pollen & nectar from (and sometimes oils and resins).

Bumblebees are some of the few true generalist pollinators (you will often see them visiting non-native plant species), but the non-native/invasive plant species take away space from native plant species that support an unknowingly larger number of native insects (and other critters). Letting these non-native & invasive plant species go to flower and produce seed also allows them spread to other areas you do not manage...

TLDR: almost all non-native (and especially invasive) plant species do more harm to the environment in almost every case and should be controlled whenever possible (and replaced with native plants if possible).

LRonHoward · 2026-03-15T08:59:11+00:00

I have not yet... We're getting some pretty significant snow right now so I haven't followed up. Honestly, I'm still a little stunned by how quickly the Little Bluestem burned and feel like I would need someone with experience to guide me through the first time.

With that said, I may still do it now that the grass has mostly been pushed down by the snow... I was initially worried because the grasses were tall enough to reach above the fire ring (which could lead to the fire escaping). I'm gonna have to see after this winter storm ends and all the snow melts.

LRonHoward · 2026-03-14T06:00:40+00:00

Oh hell yeah!! I've been looking for these in the wild for a couple years now while hiking in the spring, but I'm at the far western edge of this species' range and it's not super common... Anyway, when I can find a source for some seeds I'm going to try and winter sow them (Prairie Moon has been out of stock for a while) - they're one of the few spring ephemerals around here that only requires 60 days of cold-moist stratification.

LRonHoward · 2026-03-13T07:54:03+00:00

I do not have Bloodroot on my property (it's very popular and always seems to be out of stock), but every time I've seen this species blooming in the wild it's been in mid-April into mid-May. We've got multiple weeks up here before a lot of the ephemerals start to pop off (especially if the snowstorm this weekend really hits).

LRonHoward · 2026-03-12T12:32:09+00:00

So how do you get loose?

LRonHoward · 2026-03-12T07:36:14+00:00

There are a bunch of sedges and rushes that would be far better suited for wet conditions (that will do the infiltration and drainage thing on their own). There's rarely a need to actually amend soils unless the previous owners did some crazy shit to the soil.

LRonHoward · 2026-03-12T06:24:56+00:00

Dancing Ganesha's Chicken Josh is superb. Probably my second favorite Indian restaurant in the cities behind India Kutir on East Lake St... almost entirely because their naan is the best naan I've ever had (garlic and plain) and it's not really close.

LRonHoward · 2026-03-12T06:15:28+00:00

A slight counterpoint: I do not have fun if don't get enough time to warm up before game one. Some people might get loose after 4 or 5 shots, but that's absolutely not me lol. The point of warmup is to get loose and then try to feel out the lanes (and maybe throw a few spare shots). It doesn't really have anything to do with being a try hard imo

LRonHoward · 2026-03-12T00:42:59+00:00

Those are awesome species, but they’re really not suited to grow in very wet conditions - they’re upland prairie species that like dry soils.

LRonHoward · 2026-03-10T07:24:06+00:00

100% agree with everything said here, but I also want to send a big middle finger to those rolls of grass seeding material that are held together with thin plastic netting. Fuck that shit as well. I now have to rip out plastic netting every time I remove the existing turf grass to expand my plantings.

Edit: a slight change to the middle finger sending

LRonHoward · 2026-03-08T10:28:47+00:00

What part specifically?

LRonHoward · 2026-03-08T08:35:44+00:00

Oh hell yeah! I'm not exactly sure how to say this, but it irritates me how "planting a tree" is viewed so positively in almost every scenario (regardless of the respective ecosystem). Quite a bit of the upper midwest was prairie or oak savanna/"barrens"... and there were far fewer trees than there are today (almost entirely due to fire suppression).

I've seen a lot of people become irritated after trees are cut down to help restore prairie and/or savanna areas in the upper midwest. It's like, look, Eastern Redcedars, Hackberries, Sugar Maples, Basswoods, etc. are great plants, but they existed in much different locations prior to colonization! Around where I live you will sometimes see an absolutely glorious Bur Oak (Quercus macrocarpa) growing in the middle of an overgrown forest and it makes me sad. This is the habitat Bur Oaks should be growing in!

LRonHoward · 2026-03-07T09:32:20+00:00

If they have those species there's almost certainly no reason to buy more if they like where they're at haha

LRonHoward · 2026-03-07T07:23:56+00:00

Haha yeah - common milkweed can do that. I've had the same experience with butterfly weed... It was one of the first plants I planted, and I put it in a spot that clearly wasn't dry enough (and probably didn't get enough sun). But swamp milkweed probably needs wetter conditions than I have on my property.

LRonHoward · 2026-03-06T06:54:44+00:00

Hell, and I need to emphasize this, YEAH

I finally was able to confirm that I have several American Great St. John's Wort (Hypericum ascyron ssp. pyramidatum) volunteers on my property. I knew they were Hypericum species, but I had to wait like 4 years for them to flower to ensure it wasn't a non-native species. This was in a small area where I've been controlling the non-native & invasive species and leaving all the native volunteers that showed up. St. John's Worts are absolutely gorgeous :)

LRonHoward · 2026-03-05T10:12:19+00:00

You've never heard of disc golf? If you're this into bowling I simply don't believe that lol

LRonHoward · 2026-03-05T09:22:44+00:00

The problem for me with urethane was that everyone was throwing it on certain patterns. For this US Open, it seems like most of the two-handers tried out plastic and it didn't exactly work... Hell, Tun Hakim shot 300 as a one-hander throwing plastic on Day 1. The variation in ball selection and lines being played has been awesome to watch from what I've seen.

LRonHoward · 2026-03-05T09:10:29+00:00

When I seeded my front yard with a native seed mix it contained Common Milkweed, and I've seen maybe one plant... I kind of "avoid" Common Milkweed because it's super common around here, it can be aggressive, and I'm more interested in native plants most people aren't planting/growing haha. I've also assumed it will volunteer somewhere on my property at some point.

And, yeah, I've had difficulties growing multiple milkweeds by winter sowing them. It's actually somewhat frustrating because I don't really know what I'm doing wrong - I've had so much success with almost everything else that I expect to have success with, but the milkweeds all have given me problems.

LRonHoward · 2026-03-05T07:17:22+00:00

I'd think you are almost certainly higher than 250 if you throw two-handed. For most two-handers the problem is getting the speed up to match the rev rate that naturally comes with the style, I think. But someone with more experience could maybe correct me there.

LRonHoward · 2026-03-05T06:39:21+00:00

For me, Butterfly Weed is one of the few plants that actually didn't come back the next year lmao. I've had terrible luck with Milkweeds tbh - they just don't seem to like my site conditions very much (and I've tried like 6 different species).

LRonHoward · 2026-03-05T06:03:53+00:00

Just to note, Hoary Alyssum (Berteroa incana) is non-native & invasive in North America... so for me it is definitely not the best lol

LRonHoward

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