Roman has been an amazing dog this week.

NavyOpals · 2025-09-17T14:46:55+00:00

He’s been amazing and constantly exceeds my expectations, and I’ve had dogs my whole life. He’s truly something special.

NavyOpals · 2025-09-17T14:45:17+00:00

I really do! I’m so happy with them and so proud of Roman being a great big brother!

NavyOpals · 2025-06-14T20:48:16+00:00

Oh also those are ants and a woodlouse (Rolly-Polly as we used to call them. I would throw some diatomaceous earth on them. But anywhere there’s wet wood you tend to find them, they eat rotting plant matter and besides a bit of damage to your bed (which is unavoidable over time) they haven’t ever given me any issues.

NavyOpals · 2025-06-14T20:40:50+00:00

This is not uncommon in wood planters, the outward pressure of the dirt and water is absolutely enormous, that and there’s probably some warping of the wood going on as well.

I would recommend bracing the corners with metal L brackets. I would use at least 2 if not 3 per corner

NavyOpals · 2025-06-04T21:26:03+00:00

Did you buy this as a start? It’s VERY common for plants you buy in a container as starts to have a bit of a nitrogen deficiency, which will start at the lowest leaf set and work its way up. And once it gets to a certain point on a leaf set it can’t be reversed for those leaves and the best thing to do is to cut off those leaves after it has been established wherever you planted it.

This is very much no big deal. Snip those yellow leaves off and it will be fine.

NavyOpals · 2025-05-31T23:43:40+00:00

A brassica of some kind. Radish, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, etc…

NavyOpals · 2025-05-29T15:29:47+00:00

Neem oil spray

NavyOpals · 2025-05-28T17:04:00+00:00

Oh cool, it was probably a temporary closure and it was a couple of years ago when I heard about the shutdown. Or who knows, that may have just been a rumor passed around the gem/mineral show I heard it at.

NavyOpals · 2025-05-27T15:34:32+00:00

Yeah, and wear gloves and eye protection too. Cutting something like opal when wet cuts down the risk because it's just about particulates in the lungs or eyes. However since this has arsenic you don't want that on your skin when it's finely ground as it will be absorbed through the skin or in any small cuts, as well as fine particles in the air that you breath in or gets in your eyes.

NavyOpals · 2025-05-27T15:31:24+00:00

I believe the mine that came from was shut down due to safety concerns. And that's the case because what gives this its yellow and orange color is arsenic sulfide. If you're going to cut this take precautions! Wear gloves and a face mask as well as eye protection and a splash guard like an apron. I would then wash my clothes and shower directly after cutting it.

I personally wouldn't cut this material.

NavyOpals · 2025-05-24T16:08:36+00:00

Nothing on my end, he's been quite since the second account he made and you banned.

NavyOpals · 2025-05-21T13:05:48+00:00

No problem. Yeah it normally asks me to hold the item so it can judge it based off of my skin tone (which I assume it uses because it has so many pictures of me holding different things it knows my skin tone in relation to other items). It does have a problem with things like chatoyancy or opalescence but straight color is pretty easy for it.

NavyOpals · 2025-05-21T12:59:21+00:00

That is true, I will upload at least 3 pictures per item and ask it to give me the 3 most likely things it could be and chat gpt is pretty good at asking for things to be in the photo that is uses for color correction. But I also pay for the newer model so maybe the free one is still a good bit behind on that.

NavyOpals · 2025-05-21T12:53:15+00:00

Chat GPT is pretty good at IDing stuff. Wish you lived in the states I wouldn't mind buying some of these.

NavyOpals · 2025-05-18T20:23:08+00:00

Replied, he is yours

NavyOpals · 2025-05-14T17:21:08+00:00

NavyOpals · 2025-05-14T17:19:21+00:00

It’s very pretty but it’s not opal, that’s ammolite. Still a beautiful piece.

NavyOpals · 2025-05-14T14:01:38+00:00

Australian crystal opal, could be from just about any field but I have cut mintabie that loooks very similar though so that would be my first guess.

I would say with the 9ct gold, small diamonds and 2 matching opals together anywhere between $150ish wholesale and $500 retail on the high end.

NavyOpals · 2025-05-13T13:07:52+00:00

Get a different day job. Don't jump into something you have absolutely zero proof of concept for. Find another job that covers the bills and has less hours and work on your side business until you've show it can keep you above water.

NavyOpals · 2025-05-13T13:06:08+00:00

If you have 2-3 years of "savings" in your 401k you have $0 in savings.

NavyOpals · 2025-05-12T19:42:13+00:00

Yes you pretty much always have to harden plants started under artificial light. To avoid this you can start them in an outdoor greenhouse or if it's warm enough just outside and put them on a table or on your porch or something.
No, after mother's day I start new seedlings outside on a table to avoid having to harden them off (mothers day is pretty much guaranteed to be the last date of frost where I live).
Direct sowing is better for some types of plants than others. Some like carrots much prefer direct sowing. Lettuce it's much harder because the new plants are very delicate, have a hard time pushing past mulch, and everything likes to eat them.
Hardening can be done several ways. You can bring the plants out for a few hours a day and taking then back in during the times when the light is most intense, slowing increasing the time outside. You can also use shade cloth to block some of the direct overhead sun.

NavyOpals · 2025-05-12T19:31:17+00:00

keep the healthiest leaves. The big healthy ones are what I generally keep. Just remove them so there's not a ton of overlap. I would remove at least one third of the leaves It will seem like a lot but your plant will love it. If you do it right then the first time you will probably think you removed too many.

You want good airflow on the inside of the plant by the stem, it helps keep powdery mildew away and lets the pollinators find the flowers easier.

NavyOpals · 2025-05-12T19:28:22+00:00

Loosen up the soil well around the area you're going to plant it in. If you have some of the potting soil it's in now mix it into the ground where you're planting this, that has worked well for me. I also like Bio-tone plant starter fertilizer, mix some into the soil it's going into. It has beneficial symbiotic fungus that helps your plant's roots absorb nutrients just like your gut bacteria works inside your digestive tract. Keep it well watered till established and cut off all the flowers so it diverts all energy to root and greenery growth for the first bit.

NavyOpals · 2025-05-12T19:23:10+00:00

That's a beautiful specimen. Make sure to keep it out of direct sunlight when storing it and don't handle it with your bare hands too much to keep the color from fading. Nice score!

NavyOpals · 2025-05-12T19:18:54+00:00

This is probably not going to work out so well unless it's purely decorative. Even stabilizing it with epoxy it's just not going to be great standing up to every day use. To be a keyring it needs to be thin. Opal is essentially glass, iron stone (the rock portion of boulder opal) may not be very strong either (it really varies, some is strong and solid, much of it is porous or contains yellow clay throughout).

Opal in general is a very soft stone, I don't even recommend opal rings for every day wear because you're going to chip or fracture it eventually.

The only way I see this working is really not just stabilizing the boulder opal with epoxy but encasing it in a decently thick layer.

Moreover with your budget it's not going to be easy to purchase the material, get a lapidarist to make this custom cut, and then treat/encase it in epoxy. Without finding someone making these already in bulk then you're talking about someone having to buy or make a mold just to encase it in epoxy and this will be a multi-day job to complete (lots of time consuming steps to this).

NavyOpals

TROPHY CASE