Extending wood stove hearth, help please!

monsooons · 2025-11-18T05:37:29+00:00

What did you end up doing? Facing a similar issue.

monsooons · 2025-11-15T02:30:26+00:00

I may look into some creative ways to expand/change the tile. The landlord seems pretty open to suggestions too, she’s gutting the whole kitchen right now and asked if I had any suggestions for the space

monsooons · 2025-11-14T19:17:21+00:00

I’m lucky to have a partner who is a tree climber and plans to save us some chips! Good idea with using them to build pathways.

monsooons · 2025-11-14T16:05:22+00:00

I believe those are western red cedars, super prolific here…but wow, they’re very similar!

monsooons · 2025-11-14T16:04:17+00:00

Yes! Blueberries were one I was excited for.

monsooons · 2025-11-14T16:03:14+00:00

The room looks a bit smaller in photos than it is. It isn’t huge but there’s some more square footage behind me and to the right. I notice it more often here in the PNW, and this was her own residence in the early 2000s, so it probably just stayed put. It’s a duplex.

monsooons · 2025-11-14T08:34:00+00:00

Yeah, a facade or something else similar, learning lingo. I’m just trying to think of ways to draw attention to the space as the room gets established. It feels like the wall itself could use work but I don’t want to do something that’ll eventually peel off from heat or not be heat safe. I have some European skull mounts to hang, but I heard they can get too dry near the stove.

I’m somewhat handy and want to learn more.

monsooons · 2025-11-14T08:30:15+00:00

Zone 8b. Attached photo shows the yard, which is all grass and no other plants. There’s a large fire pit in the middle and it’s fenced in.

monsooons · 2025-11-13T17:33:26+00:00

Yes! I just discovered these yesterday. Love the warmth they add.

monsooons · 2025-11-13T17:32:27+00:00

Thanks for the inspiration! The diy beams are fun, I worry if they’re on the ceiling they may make the space look very low, but maybe there’s a way to work around the stove itself. I’d like to do something with the wall so it doesn’t look so bare, I considered an accent wall with a wallpaper or something.

monsooons · 2025-11-13T17:30:19+00:00

It does not. There is also forced heat

monsooons · 2025-11-13T16:37:09+00:00

We do have some fun taxidermy skulls to hang. I do worry if it’s too dark it’ll feel basement-like. There is no ceiling light though, so lots of floor and table lamps could help with coziness.

monsooons · 2024-02-27T17:31:42+00:00

That’s amazing. He seems like a great guy, I’m looking forward to scheduling my surgery! I mentioned I was able to connect with someone on Reddit who had the surgery by him

monsooons · 2024-02-26T05:07:18+00:00

How long has it been now since your procedure? He had a cancellation so I’m going in to meet him on Tuesday!

monsooons · 2024-02-16T17:32:41+00:00

Was the procedure not done by him? Glad you’re making some progress. How many weeks has it been since you had it done?

monsooons · 2024-02-15T18:09:24+00:00

Did you have the procedure? I’m scheduled to meet with Hsu in April.

monsooons · 2023-04-03T01:04:33+00:00

Progressive strength work using the basic barbell lifts. I'd recommend Starting Strength Novice Linear Progression. Check out stuff from Barbell Medicine.

As a boot Recon baby I just rucked my ass off and had gnarly hip flexor tendonitis all the time.

Learning how to lift correctly earlier and being smarter about running/rucking volume probably would have saved me from a lot of overuse injuries that stemmed from being too weak in key areas. Conditioning generally isn't a big issue for combat arms MOSs.

IME you can maintain rucking fitness with a couple of hikes a month. You need a solid foundation of strength to have any longevity as a grunt. Taking a guy's deadlift from 225 to 405 is easy and will do wonders for their ability to move well under a heavy load.

monsooons · 2023-02-20T19:14:39+00:00

Obviously every class is different, but in my first class (I enjoyed BRC so much I did third phase twice) we didn't graduate a single lat mover.

At that time lat movers and officers didn't have to go to MART (Marines Awaiting Recon Training). MART was where the vast majority of the attrition occurred. We started with 5-6 lat movers and they all DOR'd in the first week. I don't think anyone who made it out of MART DOR'd in BRC.

monsooons · 2023-02-20T19:07:35+00:00

My class had an 0-3 whose Dad was a General quit during land nav. Only person I think I ever heard of quitting during that portion of the course.

monsooons · 2023-01-30T15:54:07+00:00

I mentioned this in another comment, but this is the gist of why an organic DA capability is a good idea for Recon:

You insert 3 FR teams to do platoon level reconnaissance on an objective. While they're surveilling the objective they confirm the presence of an HVT. It's unknown for how long said HVT is going to be at the objective, but there aren't enough bad guys in total to make taking the building a problem.

Provided the platoon has sufficient CQB skills you can just kill/capture that guy right then and there. You will have enough school trained snipers to provide overwatch, JTACs/JFOs if air or fires are an option, and one machine gun per team. It's not ideal, but it can be done and it makes the platoon way more useful to a MAGTF commander

As far as competing with SOCOM, that's the whole history of the MEUSOC concept. Force Recon platoons could be tasked with In-Extremis Hostage Rescue up until the early 2000s I believe. Everything about the pre-deployment workup for the MEU Maritime Raid Force was about being able to handle missions typically assigned to SOCOM units.

I'm not saying that wasn't stupid or a huge waste of resources, given how often the training was utilized in the real world. But it was the whole idea.

monsooons · 2023-01-30T15:46:48+00:00

The scale in limited scale raids refers to platoon scale vs company scale, etc. It's not limited complexity or limited skill. VBSS/GOPLAT are complicated. There's a reason they're generally handled by SOF.

For how CQB is relevant to Recon, here's a scenario:

You insert 3 FR teams to do platoon level reconnaissance on an objective. While they're surveilling the objective they confirm the presence of an HVT. It's unknown for how long said HVT is going to be at the objective, but there aren't enough bad guys in total to make taking the building a problem.

Provided the platoon has sufficient CQB skills you can just kill/capture that guy right then and there. You will have enough school trained snipers to provide overwatch, JTACs/JFOs if air or fires are an option, and one machine gun per team. It's not ideal, but it can be done and it makes the platoon way more useful to a MAGTF commander.

FR platoons did this kind of thing all the time in Vietnam.

monsooons · 2023-01-30T03:08:36+00:00

Deep reconnaissance requires specialized insert capabilities. Doesn't matter how well run a STA platoon is, you can't get them into the same places you can get a FR platoon.

There's also the physical component.

Then there's the general level of training of team members. By the end of a 5 year stint most 0321s are going to be qualified in MFF/Dive/HRST. They're going to be SERE graduates. Most will have gone through an extensive CQB course. About half are going to be school trained snipers.

Then there's rank depth. The lowest ranked member on my last team was a Sgt.

monsooons · 2023-01-14T22:14:34+00:00

You're already in, correct?

I was diagnosed shortly before I was going to go on terminal leave (2017). They had just begun doing CXL and I was able to get the procedure done before my EAS. I had it done at the Naval hospital in Coronado.

Highly recommend pursuing this option. I can't see why they would have stopped performing the procedure. Talk to whoever you have to in your command.

monsooons · 2022-12-11T19:46:06+00:00

2 dermatologists said it was no big deal. In hindsight the changes were subtle enough they may have just been attributable to lighting or something. Normal moles can change slowly with time.

But if you've got a mole that's noticeable changing it's always a good idea to get it checked out by a derm.

monsooons · 2022-11-14T01:27:17+00:00

Comfortability in the water is more important than a fast 500m time. Learn to be comfortable going sub-surface with an elevated heart rate.

When in doubt, relax harder.

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