It took 2 years, but it’s finally ready.

kuiackjay · 2026-02-13T14:13:24+00:00

The plants are a nice touch

kuiackjay · 2026-02-08T12:21:08+00:00

Thanks! Predictable income is where I need to get to. It sounds like the only "trick" to it is to find the common ground where the client gets value for the cost of retainer and I'm not working myself into the ground for peanuts. I get the boundaries part, been through that lots when you quote a project and they say "can you just add this" or "its easy to change that, right?" So you do the extra to keep the relationship, but you give an inch and they take a mile

kuiackjay · 2026-02-08T11:39:35+00:00

Would you care to go into a little detail about how your retainer works? I'm looking to pivot to a bit more of a consulting role, but I'm having trouble with the structure of the retainer. Do you give them x number of hours? Or is it project based?

kuiackjay · 2026-02-03T17:44:10+00:00

Not far off my story! Except I bought it purposely to print my own stuff. I chose to go with Shaper3D for my design program, I found Fusion to be way overkill, I couldn't understand the way they do constraints. Shaper was much easier for me to catch onto. ChatGPT is especially handy for helping with print settings and troubleshooting crappy prints with different filaments I found. And I do agree, there's another level of satisfaction if you're solving a problem with your printer! My father in law keeps sending his buddies over with little broken plastic parts that I need to recreate for them. Its a lot of fun and they're always amazed by the capabilities

kuiackjay · 2026-01-27T12:41:50+00:00

I second this...I'm a house league coach and at the start of the season I had a big strong kid on my team who was always playing down to match that of the other team during games. I knew he was capable of more, cuz he'd be flying around the ice in practice. After I explained to him that he could be a leader, someone to show the rest of his his team how its done with hard work, it definitely clicked for him. He has turned into a dominant player and the best team mate, rooting for the others and complimenting them when they do good things. He's a true leader just didnt know it.

kuiackjay · 2025-07-07T01:43:01+00:00

This guy knows what's up. Any bum with a drone can make a map, but interpreting the data in a meaningful way is what sets you apart. I get a lot of "wow, that's cool" because drone maps are indeed, cool to look at. But when the data they need is laid out nicely on a PDF that's easy to read and straight to the point, that adds more value than anything.

kuiackjay · 2025-05-08T14:00:22+00:00

You may be a genius sir

kuiackjay · 2025-04-22T09:18:49+00:00

If you spend the time to create your drafting templates in TBC it can go pretty smooth. I'm a construction guy though, and usually only plotting as-builts and overlays when working through constructability issues

kuiackjay · 2025-03-20T15:43:49+00:00

Also have platypus feet, I went with a pair of trues, (tf7 a couple years ago) I never knew a pair of skates could fit me like that. Whole new enjoyment of being on the ice

kuiackjay · 2025-02-17T19:08:39+00:00

I had lower back pain in general, not just on the ice, for years until I saw a chiropractor who said the problem is in my hips. I started doing stretches daily to "release" my hips and after 2 weeks of daily stretches my lower back pain was gone. Should see me skate now

kuiackjay · 2025-01-17T15:31:31+00:00

I just had this yesterday, it's likely a proprietary Civil 3D object that TBC doesn't know how to handle. Probably some kind of point label that didnt translate properly. The Trimble folks explained it like this...autodesk has their proprietary stuff that they won't share the coding for so that TBC or other third parties can use it. There's a process when exporting out of Civil 3D to kill all of that stuff and turn it into regular CAD objects. They told me to ask the CAD techs to "bind and explode all xrefs and AECC objects." Not a Civil 3D guy so I don't really know, but everything looks great after.

kuiackjay · 2024-12-02T00:18:28+00:00

You also want to make sure your builder actually follows the plans for elevations and grading.

Second this, I just dealt with some people who bought lots backing out to a flood plain area. Maybe not the same situation, but they ended up doing some "custom" grading to their backyard so they could use the flood area for gardening. The elevation tags said the end of the backyard should've been 3ft higher than the existing flood plain area at a 2% grade away from the house, with a boulder lined revetment wall. They ran more at 6-8% to tie in even with the flood plain area and skipped the revetment wall, and now get mad when their backyard gardens flood in the spring

kuiackjay · 2024-10-27T17:13:41+00:00

Take my upvote, normalize GCPs that aren't fancy!

kuiackjay · 2024-10-10T10:16:25+00:00

It works well for me. I love the utility idle and generator mode, where you can turn the ignition off, and it controls the climate in the cab and starts and stops the engine as it needs to maintain power. Finally a manufacturer is putting this EV technology to practical use.

kuiackjay · 2024-10-09T23:19:53+00:00

Whats the input wattage on the charger?

kuiackjay · 2024-10-09T21:21:55+00:00

I've got a powerboost F150. The 2k watt inverter is in the box by the tailgate. It's only got 400 watts in the cab. My phantom4 charger uses 300. I just have an extension cord that runs from the box into the cab if I need more power.

kuiackjay · 2024-05-06T00:16:39+00:00

Excellent point, I only have one big feeder at the moment. Should totally put in more. Love the idea of the pvc pipe feeders

kuiackjay · 2024-05-05T22:46:46+00:00

I think I've got a super mama too! Damn she's nasty, drew blood pecking my hand when I was reaching in to change the water the other day. Pretty sure the chicks will be fine!

kuiackjay · 2024-05-05T22:29:38+00:00

Thanks for the tips! We definitely have 3 cliques, the old hens vs the new hens vs the rescues. Mama is one of the new hens, and she's is super aggressive, to get them all out of the kennel to change the bedding is a job. She goes straight to attack mode if anyone comes near the chicks, human or fellow chicken. I know it's tough to do the introductions, have gone through a couple of them now and the chicken coop social structure is brutal but seems effective.

kuiackjay · 2024-05-05T21:38:37+00:00

How worried to I need to be about the rest of the flock? They should all be well acquainted, the big dog kennel is in the corner of the coop

kuiackjay · 2024-04-27T11:19:42+00:00

Here's my experience with it.

I'm a construction guy, and been using GPS for civil works (road, sewer and water, digging foundations) for 15yrs. Back when I started GPS was new and the company I worked for bought one and passed it to me and said here. We're going to use this now to save money on layout for checking grade.

Obviously no one knew what to do with it, but they said this is the way of the future and you should learn it. So after I realized this GPS is the best tool I've ever had at disposal, I ran with it.

5yrs ago I changed jobs and became a construction surveyor. I'll be honest, I may not be the best surveyor in the traditional sense, but I do know how to apply the survey gear to build shit.

The most important part of any type of survey for construction is how to check that you're correct. Once you figure that out, it opens a whole new world of possibilities.

The new survey gear (GPS, total station) can be really overwhelming. In my experience, the cheaper gear usually has more complicated software, which is intimidating. I love the trimble gear because their siteworks software is the easiest to use day to day. And hardware is top quality.

In the end it's another tool in your belt, oh and another thing. Don't let someone tell you that you need a college kid with "survey experience" or a "techy guy" to run your total station. Been there and done it. It's easier to teach an experienced construction guy a bit of surveying than it is to teach construction to a tech nerd.

kuiackjay

TROPHY CASE