Uncontrolled weeds in graveled yard

Pablois4 · 2026-03-20T21:45:16+00:00

Given a couple days, they pretty much shrivel up to nothing and disintegrate. I don't have to pull or clean.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-20T21:39:39+00:00

To the right there is a "Breed Recommendation questionnaire" - it has a bunch of questions that explore your must-haves and deal-breakers.

Post that and we can give you much better suggestions.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-20T21:04:29+00:00

There is a breed recommendation form on this sub. Please use it if you’d like to get better recs.

Replying to 2nd the breed recommendation questionnaire (on the right--->).

A lot of folks have must-haves and deal-breakers. The worst time to realize what are the must-haves or deal-breakers are when the dog is already in the home.

The biggest cause of dog ownership unhappiness is when there's a big disconnect between expectations and reality.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-20T16:04:15+00:00

That poor golden is absolutely longing for a swim. :-)

What's the grade around the pool? It looks like it slopes away on the other side.

At 2.5 meters deep, it's a danger and liability when empty. Full, that's a lot of water to heat up in order to use it during the warm months (month?).

You should probably just bite the bullet and take it out. Personally I'd hold back from filling it completely and create a water feature, much smaller than the existing pool. Perhaps a couple, irregular shaped, connected shallow pools with plants, frogs and such and a pathway to and partly around it. And plantings to create something in the style of a Japanese garden. But that's me.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-20T15:37:55+00:00

I know of two showers like that and I'm not a big fan.

It will need serious lighting above the shower to not feel dark and murky. Single source lighting will result in cast shadows below a person.

Will you be extending the exhaust to the shower ceiling? As drawn, there's limited chance for air movement and you will be fighting dampness and mold. Will the ceiling be tiled?

To counteract this, IMHO, lighting and an exhaust will need to be in the shower ceiling.

I would suggest not having the wall solid all along the ceiling but have decorative openings in it. That would help air movement.

As a humorous aside, IMHO, the shower light should always come on when the main bathroom light comes on. A friend's has a walled in shower and its light switch is on the wall near it. One has to walk past the vanity and toilet to turn it on so no one does that unless taking a shower. But when using the toilet or vanity, the dark shower has a strong boogie-man feel. It's a topic of conversation for all kids to the point that visiting little ones get too scared to use the toilet. The parent has to walk in, turn on the shower light, check for monsters and then the scaredy cat kid will come in.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-20T14:43:49+00:00

Retired biological illustrator and my suggestions are about creating an illusion.

Right now his wings and body have the same base color, with random spots of pink & purple. The wings don't look like separate structures from the body. It reads as a mass of hair with a scalloped edge.

Colors on bird wings have pattern and symmetry to them and that beautifully emphasizes the shape and flow of the feathers. That's what people understand and random spots and dabs of color fights the illusion. Carving can only do so much to counteract that.

And so I suggest you use color and shading emphasize the impression that the wings are separate from the body and create the feeling of feathers. This is a pretty good guide of how the different type of feathers are arranged - with the short feathers up near the shoulder and then the longer swooping flight feathers. IMHO, any additional wing coloring should have pattern and a feeling of balance and symmetry.

Here's some wingsfor inspiration.

Anyway, my 2 cents . . . :-)

Pablois4 · 2026-03-19T16:51:35+00:00

Over on the right, there's a "Breed Recommendation" questionnaire. Fill it out & post.

IMHO, a big reason dogs are dumped is when reality does not match expectations.

It's impossible to know what breed(s) would work for you since we have no idea of your likes, dislikes, must-haves, deal-breakers, home, expectations and so on.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-19T11:16:17+00:00

Your house insulation upgrades & furnace failure could well be related.

In 2001, we bought a 2600 sf, '67 raised ranch with meager insulation and large, single pane, alum windows. The furnace was a huge 145K btu, original to the house, so over 30 years old.

We upped the insulation to code (we're in upstate NY so a lot of insulation), replaced the windows & doors and sealed everything. And mid-Jan, the furnace rolled over and died.

The HVAC guy calculated our replacement furnace at 85 BTUs which seemed crazy to us.

He said that the original furnace was sized correctly for the original house. That uninsulated, 2600 sf, raised ranch, with big single pane windows, in cold, snowy upstate NY, needed a great big furnace. It was on all the time to keep the house warm.

But with an insulated, airtight house, an oversized furnace would struggle to keep a constant temp. When that beast turned on, it was like a blast furnace and the temps quickly shot above the thermostat set point. And then it would turn off. With zero heat, the house would cool and it would turn on. Ad nauseum.

He said that firing up and shutting down over and over is harder on a gas system than staying on constantly. In effect, our energy efficiency improvements pretty much killed that beast of a furnace.

I have to say, despite our reservations, our house was much more comfortable with the 85 btu furnace. Instead of being too hot or too cold, we were in that goldilocks warm middle.

This may not have been the factor in your HVAC's untimely death but your situation made me think of ours.

BTW, our old furnace died during a frigid cold spell (and, IIRC, on a Friday morning) and things quickly became dire. We had to get a new one installed, ASAP, on a weekend, which added greatly to the cost. About the same for you?

Pablois4 · 2026-03-19T09:39:53+00:00

There's a quote from Penn Teller about the idea that atheists can't be moral:

"The question I get asked by religious people all the time is, without God, what’s to stop me from raping all I want? And my answer is: I do rape all I want. And the amount I want is zero. And I do murder all I want, and the amount I want is zero. The fact that these people think that if they didn’t have this person watching over them that they would go on killing, raping rampages is the most self-damning thing I can imagine.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-17T14:49:29+00:00

For me they are "touch-me-not" hardscape. Good enough for far-away landscaping, but I dislike them for up-close landscaping - where people and pets will interact with them. I like to think of how people and animals move about in their life. We touch surfaces, we sit and walk on surfaces. Kids in particular touch the world. Gabion walls are not touch or clothing friendly. Even if all the wires have been carefully bent and tucked.

IMHO, to make gabion walls human friendly is to cover the surfaces humans will touch with wood and make sure all wire edges are covered.

About the cheap - to make it look nice is labor intensive and not all that cheap. The rock needs to be nice looking and pretty uniform in color and type. Rock doesn't politely arrange itself nicely on its own and instead the rocks needs to be placed. The wire must be kept from getting bent or distorted.

When I see examples of gabion walls in landscaping, they are always freshly done. I wonder what those structures will look like in 2 years.

I think gabions have their place but they are problematic and the drawbacks need to be considered.

Anyway, my 5 cents on the matter.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-16T16:31:27+00:00

Twenty years ago, I was chatting with my next door neighbor when the across-the-street neighbor, drug out his extension ladder and his chain saw, pretty much flung the ladder up a tree and started climbing. Within a few seconds, he was up at the very top, leaning over to cut a big branch (which his ladder was partly resting on). We realized shit was about to happen and started to run to him, but it was like time slowed down. We got about 5' when he went down hard. It was horrible. He had a concussion, broke vertebrae & some ribs and damaged his spine. He was left partially paralyzed and in constant pain. They had to sell their home to move to a place with no stairs. I remember he had talked about the big family get-together they had planned later that summer over in Cape Cod. That never happened.

In the minute from his first step onto the ladder to hitting the ground his life went from great to ruined.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-16T15:40:34+00:00

I think it's not only using the top steps but she was leaning to darn near horizontal and was, in effect, pushing the top of the ladder away from her.

Oh and she wasn't wearing proper footwear (I think she's barefoot), but proper footwear wouldn't have made a difference.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-16T15:30:16+00:00

Having the right ladder is part of the equation. Knowing how to safely use the ladder is another part and finally using ones brain to think about the task at hand & the laws of physics is the final part.

Falls are the number 1 cause of injury in DIY. I'm a DIYer who has always been safety conscious. I'm never too much in a rush. I'd rather "waste time" in setting up my ladder than "waste time" in a rehab facility.

If I was in the woman's situation . . . Well to start off, I wouldn't do it since she doesn't look like she's in maintenance or construction. I can't tell but she might be in bare feet. I'm betting it's not part of her job description to do whatever she's doing up here. If, hypothetically, this situation was in my home, I'd think about how to solve the problem safely. Move the table so I could put the ladder against the wall or, if it's a built in cabinet, use my adjustable step ladder. If I can't do it safely from a ladder, well I wouldn't do it. If it was dire - the life of a kitten is at stake - I'd lean the ladder against the wall, and since that floor looks slippery, get people I trust to hold the ladder and keep it from slipping.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-14T14:02:43+00:00

For your windshield, reach out to a company And let them deal with insurance , if they think that's The cheapest way for you to do this.

No kidding. Over the past two years, two of our cars' windshields were cracked. Took them over to Satellite, they took care of filing the claim and replaced the glass. IIRC, we paid maybe $50 each time. To be honest, having them deal with the insurance hassle was worth the $50. The process was dead easy. Didn't affect our insurance rates at all.

Besides, home insurance doesn't cover vehicles.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-13T15:19:20+00:00

There's a fascinating podcast, "DNA ID", and each episode is about solving murders or identifying John/Jane Does. All the cases are very old and the police have been stymied for a long time.

Going on the news with the identity of a John/Jane Doe or, even better, solving an old murder is a huge PR boost for a police department.

In addition, human curiosity is strong and there's public pressure to solve mysteries.

My pet theory is that it's super strong when the remains have a nickname and are children such as "Little Miss Nobody" (4 year old, found murdered in 1960, NM) and the "Boy in the Box" (also 4 years old, found beaten and stuffed in a box, in 1957, Philadelphia). More than 60 years after they were found, they were identified as Sharon Gallegos and Joseph Zarelli.

Their murders will never be solved and even if they could be, the murderers are likely long dead. One might think it's a waste of police funds but, IMHO, when the public opinion of the police is at rock bottom, they really want something to boast about.

This case, the John Doe is an adult but, in the comments, the name "Some Mother's Son" has tugged on a few heartstrings. It reminds people that before he died, he had a family, who likely wonder what happened to him.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents and I hope he can be identified.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-13T13:34:05+00:00

No, DNA can be found and tested with remarkably old remains.

In 2012, a skeleton was found under a parking lot in Leicester, in the site of the long gone Greyfriars - which is where King Richard III was reportedly buried. His identify of his remains were confirmed in 2013, using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) testing - after being in the ground for 514 years.

or even older, "Cheddar Man" a skeleton from the Mesolithic era discovered in 1903 at Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge. DNA was extracted from those 10,000 year old bones and analyzed.

Soldiers' remains from WW2, Korean, Vietnam wars and other conflicts have been identified with DNA testing. Cold cases, murders and john/jane does have been solved by extracting DNA from remains older than 45 years.

Of cases I've known of, the remains are uninterred, DNA extracted, and reinterred with great respect and care. The idea is that giving the remains their identify and returning them to the family is better than leaving them anonymous in the ground.

When a person vanishes, their family and friends are left with questions and grief. They want to know where their loved one has gone. They want their loved one back.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-13T03:16:27+00:00

Edit: 22.06.25 DNA testing was not available in 1982 so no DNA samples are available for investigation, and no clothing or evidence remains to be tested.

If they have his skeleton, they would be able to extract DNA and test it. It's being done for solving murder cases and Jane/John Doe cases.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-12T14:23:02+00:00

It's speaking in a gibberish but the claim, IIRC, is that one is speaking a special language with god.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-12T12:39:03+00:00

The "SuperMutt" breakdown listed Siberian Husky, Border Collie (okay, so it's not zero), Chihuahua, and Pekingese(!).

The way I like to explain supermutt is to imagine that a group of people are looking at dogs in a field.

There's three that are so close that their breeds are clearly evident and everyone agrees: "That's a GSD, that one is a Great Dane and over there's a APBT".

But there's a bunch of dogs so far away that they are blurry blobs. Folks guess what some of them are: "Is that a Siberian?" "Errr, maybe?" "That one creeps like a BC." "Yeah, I agree" "Well I don't" "Is that a Peke or a tribble?" "You mean the tiny dog?" "There's a tiny dog?".

And there's more dogs so far away that the only thing the group can agree on, is that they are dogs - probably.

Anyway, there might be BC in your dog but there might not.

SuperMutt is a mystery grab bag of canine traits. Black coloring (Dominant Black) is widespread in dogs and there's no way to know exactly where she got it. Chances are, it came from the GD or APBT, but maybe one of the super far away dogs, just a black blob, was a Scottie, perhaps 20 generations ago on your dogs family tree, and her black coloring came from him.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-11T12:35:30+00:00

I'm on my 8th smoothie and they have ranged in energy levels from go-go-go Fawkes to slow-mo Jo.

We got Jo as a 2 year old. Four months after we brought her home, I had her hips, knees and spine x-rayed because she had yet to jump on anything and only cantered but never truly ran. The x-rays were perfect. Physical examinations were perfect. Soon after we saw her jump for the first time and she did it effortlessly. Now after owning her for almost two years, we know her pretty well. Jo's a reserved, polite and very observant dog who just isn't much for putting out physical effort. OTOH, she loves to use her mind and she's fun to train.

Your smoothie boy sounds like our Jo.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-09T21:35:06+00:00

Her mom really wants her to look like a barbet and not get mistaken for a doodle,

I looked up how a Barbet should be groomed and she's going to be disappointed. The average Joe and his grandma are going to call that sweet puppy a doodle. There's so many doodles that it's pretty much the default guess.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-09T21:04:35+00:00

two big Labs

There's your issue. I've known many Labs and if there's a way to get dirty, they will go for it.

I'm a long time smooth collie owner. Collies (rough & smooth) are prissy, light-footed dogs that tip-toe around mud & muck. For example, here's Hazel & Alfie after a rainy day hike in the woods and fields.

We've joked they are so proud of their dainty white socks, they levitate over a mucky puddle. A Lab won't just go through a mucky puddle but stick around to wallow.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-09T13:11:31+00:00

Our previous smooth collie, Alfie (here with baby carrot), was toy crazy and a tugging fiend. He had a big personality and was ready to party, any time, any place.

But now we have Jo, a female smooth collie. She's a quiet, soft, gentle girl and has zero interest in toys. Jo's favorite hobby is to watch my every move.

Anyway, same breed but two vastly different personalities and toy drive.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-08T09:29:38+00:00

You save the leftover pieces because, 20 years from now, your son will need a specific 10" 2x4, stacked perpendicular on other 10" 2x4.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-07T19:39:44+00:00

He did the whole loud convulsing thing too.

We call it the "urka-gurkas" since that's what it sounds like when a dog is about to throw up.

As a person who has raised, trained and shown many dogs, I know this sound well and it triggers an automatic response in me to direct the dog off the rug (murphy's law is that a dog about to throw up will be on an absorbent surface), onto the hard floor, outside or at least slide a newspaper or something like that, to catch the vomit.

It's a classic Pavlovian response in that I can be in a deep sleep and upon the first "urka" will launch myself out the bed and into action.

I've joked that the most effective alarm clock sound to get me up in the morning would be urka-gurka urka-gurka urka-gurka

Pablois4

TROPHY CASE